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Ferrari's extreme 458 Speciale is exquisite in fair or foul weatherThe prospect of driving the new 458 Speciale on Ferrari's own Fiorano test track and over the spectacular mountain roads near Maranello practically had me salivating on the way to Italy.迷利倉But there was more than just drool on the tarmac. On the day of our drive, the skies opened, not only drenching the Fiorano track and surrounding roads but also unleashing some serious snowfall on our planned route through the mountains. Hardly ideal conditions to explore the limits of a 600bhp track-bred supercar.The Speciale is the latest in the line of tweaked, hardcore versions of Ferrari's mid-engined V8 models, and is the direct spiritual successor to the 360 Challenge Stradale and 430 Scuderia.Apart from an optional white-and- blue stripe running over the car's centreline from nose to tail, the Speciale looks superficially similar to the standard 458. But peer closely and there are changes everywhere.The front valance is wider and houses bigger, hungrier intakes, together with a trio of active aerodynamic flaps which open at high speed to cut drag. There is a large cooling vent in the centre of the bonnet and a line of smaller louvre vents on each front fender above the wheel.At the side, there are F1-inspired vertical "turning vanes" ahead of the front and rear wheels for better airflow control. The rear spoiler stands taller and is positioned slightly further back for more downforce. And instead of the 458's centrally located trio of tailpipes, the Speciale has a pair of individual outlets sitting on either side of a pronounced central diffuser.The Speciale looks like what it is - an angrier, more extreme take on the 458.It is a full 90kg lighter than the 458. Weight-loss measures include the use of carbon-fibre for certain underbody and interior components, seats and fascia clad in Alcantara instead of leather, and the absence of a glovebox and cabin-floor carpeting. It really is an uncompromising cabin, and just to drive home the point, it comes with four-point racing harnesses instead of normal seat belts.The extreme diet also extends to lighter brakes, thinner glass for the windscreen and side windows (and a plastic rear screen), and new 20-inch forged alloy rims with almost skeletal spokes. Even the engine weighs 8kg less.That V8 has the same 4.5-litre capacity as the 458's, but it somehow conjures an incredible 597bhp at 9,000rpm, a full 35bhp beyond the 458's already impressive output. This gives it a specific output of 133bhp a litre, a world record for a naturally aspirated production car engine. The measures needed to achieve this are enough to fill a book, but the most important are an increase in compression ratio to a sky-high 14:1, higher-lift cams, the use of new low-friction engine materials and heavy revisions to the intake and 迷你倉xhaust systems.Chassis-wise, the electronically controlled damping has been reworked for less roll and better traction. The car boasts a new system called Side Slip Angle Control (SSC), which comes into play when the car is being driven full-pelt around a bend, beyond its grip limits.SSC collates and uses real-time data such as speed, steering angle, amount and type of side slip, but instead of lamely cutting power to straighten things out like conventional stability control systems, it employs a far more thrilling approach.It assesses the optimal amount of oversteer for the car to corner most quickly, and then controls the amount of lock-up in the car's electronic differential (and where necessary, it also trims the throttle or activates the brakes on individual wheels) to allow the car to hold that ideal drift angle through the bend.The aforementioned deluge prevented us from exploiting the SSC system or from fully exploring the Speciale's limits (even Ferrari's endurance-car racer and ex-F1 man Kamui Kobayashi slithered wide while taking me on a demo lap), but even so the Speciale felt, well, special.Like on the 458, there is a distinct change in engine note as the revs cross 3,000 and hurtle towards the 9,000rpm redline. But the Speciale's voice is deeper, gruffer and more aggressive. There is also noticeably more road noise than in the 458, thanks to the reduced insulation and bare-metal cabin floor, but this just adds to the car's sense of purpose.Acceleration is ferocious, with 100kmh achieved in 3 seconds flat (0.3 seconds quicker than the 458) and 200kmh in 9.1 seconds. It simply obliterates other traffic whenever you need to overtake - throttle response is instantaneous and there is immediate, massive torque whatever the revs so you do not need to be too particular about your choice of gear.Still, you will be unable to resist flicking the steering-mounted shift paddles just to experience the sheer thrill of the gear changes, which Ferrari says are respectively 20 per cent (upshifts) and 44 per cent (downshifts) faster than the already superb 458's. With the dynamic control setting in Race mode, you can really feel each instant, brutal downshift pulsing through the whole car.The handling is memorable too. Even on a streaming wet surface, the car is lithe, balanced and amazingly agile. The steering is very high-geared, so it takes merely a flick of your wrists for the car to dance to your command. It darts into turns without inertia or roll, remains utterly stable and planted through high-speed bends, and shrugs off mid-corner bumps with ease. At the grip limit (or with too much throttle), the tail will start to edge out, but without ever feeling like it will snap around suddenly.It may have rained on Ferrari's parade, but wet roads or not, the Speciale remains a dream to drive.stlife@sph.com.sg自存倉