The latest internet chatter suggests a Ferrari 458 Scuderia, the spiritual successor to 2007’s Ferrari F430 Scuderia, will debut at the Frankfurt Auto Show this September. Frankfurt played host to the debut of the F430 Scuderia and the debut of the 458 Italia in 2009, and again the 458 Spider in 2011. What does Ferrari have up its sleeves for audience goers this year we wonder? This one picture above is the most positive rendering we’ve seen yet.
This idea of a 458 ‘Scuderia’ (Italian for ‘team’) is purely speculation in the name department. A lighter, faster, more hardcore Ferrari 458 could be called the 458 Challenge Stradale or perhaps even the 458 Monte Carlo, some experts are speculating.
To give you an idea, the previous F430 Scuderia weighed 100 kg less than the regular F430, meaning a hardcore 458 could end up weighing less than 1 315 kg at the end of the weight loss programme. Borrowing knowledge from the 458 Challenge race car, perhaps we can expect changed gear ratios and a more intense version of the Ferrari 458 Italia’s seven-speed dual clutch transmission?
Throw into the mix; stiffer suspension to bring that nose down under hard acceleration, uprated brakes, custom sticky rubber, the weight saving and a power increase from the 4.5-litre V8 and you have yourself a mouth-watering prospect on your plate.
A fair figure for peak power output is an increase to around 447 kW, up from the current 420 kW of the standard 458 Italia. The engines redline could move even further up another 300 revs to 9 300 r/min, and the exhaust system made less restrictive. New aerodynamic features could be something like active winglets on the rear diffuser.
Ferrari is running the 458 Challenge racing series for a couple of years now, and experiences grained on the race track will certainly trickle down to the 458 Scuderia, which is basically a road-going version of the Challenge car.
Much like the 360 Challenge Stradale and the F430 Scuderia, the track-focused version of the 458 will undoubtedly forego the fanaticism of regular Ferrari fans, and perform like the razor-edged, track-honed beast we can only dream about experiencing ourselves one day.
