458 spider
The new spider version of the 458 has been shown to dealer principals this week.
A nero/tan & a red/tan 458 spider were revelead by LDM and Massa to the gathered audience. There is no window on the engine deck lid this time around unlike the 360 and 430 spiders that preceeded it. Instead it uses a Gallardo style roof cover/slatted engine bay cover. It has CGT/Aperta style speedster humps and the roof is in 2 sections like the California. When the hood is up it is said to look like the coupe.
It is 20kg heavier than coupe and will be unveiled in Sept to depositors and journalists as expected with the 1st public outing at Franfurt.
I was told the price premium in the UK will be circa £25k above the coupe.
A comment made on another forum regarding customer deliveries -
"Unveiling this fall, production start right after new year holidays. First EU deliveries end of Q1, UK deliveries start of Q3, not sure about US, but probably in between. Just like the coupe - launch fall 2009, first EU deliveries from Q1 2010 and so on. Expect also some tech improvements to make the 458 stay ahead of competition. Was said that the final product is going to be amazingly stunning. "
Ferrari are about a lot more than mid engined V8 models and always have been.
Cali residuals are also far better than the 430 Scuderia, 16M and all other 430 variants. I can vouch for that fact personally by the painful hit I took on my Scud and the almost nil loss on my Cali. That should tell you something about the market's view of this car. I use a couple of UK based Ferrari forums and a growing number of members on there are warming up to the Cali after test drives and actively purchasing used examples. A couple of guys I know who've owned a whole host of different tipos over the years - 328, 355, 355 spider, 360, 430 spider, 575 and 599 to name a few - have also bought Calis and believe it to be the best Ferrari model they've owned to date. I met one of the management team from the London Ferrari dealer and he was complaining that his allocation of Californias was nowhere near large enough to satisfy his potential demand.
It's plenty fast enough in the right hands 
