First Place: The Princes of Performance
In our September 2000 issue, Ferrari's 360 Modena F1 coupe took on Aston Martin's DB7 Vantage and Porsche's incredible 911 Turbo, and won. But is that any reason to expect a similar victory from Ferrari's 360 Spider in a contest with these two elegant competitors, given that convertibles are required to fulfill a different set of expectations?
Obviously, the answer is yes. Ferrari has somehow taken all the sensory delights from the Modena and transplanted them, undiluted, into the Spider, and then capped the whole deal with a convertible top that proves irreproachable in appearance and operation.
It isn't just that the one-touch automatic operation deploys and unfurls the top in a spectacular dance of levers, covers, and flaps. It's also that the car looks great with the top up, and it drives with the solidity and isolation of a coupe.
Then, when you consign the top to its lair beneath the gleaming hard tonneau covers -- completely concealing its presence under a long rear deck -- the loss of a roof profile and its critical C-pillar volume is balanced by such visual details as roll hoops, fins, and a glass engine cover.
Equally important, the aerodynamic characteristics of a top-down Spider are extraordinary.
Whether it's due to the long, raked windshield or the little mesh wind blockers you see in the mirror -- or a combination of both -- the Spider provides a remarkably draft- and buffet-free environment.
Climb from the BMW Z8 on a chilly day on a fast autostrada, and the Spider feels like a warm and secluded refuge from the elements. Said C/D's normally skeptical editor-in-chief: "The 360's top-down cockpit comfort is unbelievable. At 125 mph, a sheet of paper sitting on the passenger seat doesn't even flutter."
Plus, you can carry on a conversation without yelling yourself hoarse at speeds that would have you on a Cops episode in the U.S. Better yet, you can dive into one of the many tunnels that enclose Italy's coastal autostradas, flick the left-side paddle for a two-gear downshift, and let 'er rip to the redline. This produces a wail like that of an F1 car from the '70s and even has the guys in other cars laughing like schoolboys.
Peter Robinson wrote: "The Ferrari should get 11 out of 10 in the fun category." He's right. Everything in the Spider has been crafted to provide maximum fun. The engine rasps, snarls, and howls its way to the 8500-rpm redline, ticking past 100 mph in 11.7 seconds on the way to its redline-limited top speed of 175 mph. The steering wheel thrills with messages from the front wheels and transmits its responses to your hands in genetic code. And the F1 transmission -- although requiring some practice to achieve optimal smoothness -- allows you to play boy racer without the need for any tricky pedal boogie.
Being mid-engined, the Spider turns in with an immediacy that is notably different from the two front-engined cars. Unlike the Z8, which kind of swings the nose around the driver, the Ferrari rotates car and driver in one piece. With excellent road feel, strong brakes, and its mass centralized between the axles, the 360 will corner very hard indeed, offering linear response at the helm until the meaty Pirellis begin to push wide.
To keep a driver's enthusiasm from overreaching his capabilities, the Spider has ASR -- a stability program -- that steps in to cut the power and selectively apply brakes to control yaw. A sport switch alters the threshold of the stability system while also altering the variable-damping shock menu.
Thus, Ferrari's electronics protect the inexpert driver and cater to the expert at the same time. When you add this contemporary technical sophistication to a car that offers a surprising amount of passenger space, decent ergonomics, fairly generous room in the front trunk and behind the seats for luggage, plus peerless visual and tactile delights, you end up with a car that is paradoxically versatile and charismatic. As Hutton noted: "The surprising thing is that it is the most extreme car, yet it's also, in many ways, the easiest to use." Putting it another way, that means we have a winner on our hands.
http://www.caranddriver.com/comparisons/ferrari-360-spider-f1-page-4
Just to rest from those boring but cute Hondas
