Took the Speciale for a morning drive up and down the Sea to Sky highway, a good road that I had done in all my cars so it's a great reference point for myself. And I just drove the same road in the 12C last week so I have some fresh memory to compare.
Didn't go crazy speed-wise, still learning the car and that road is notorious for speed traps. The aerial kind. But I still did a spirited drive. Spirited.
For turn-ins, I still prefer the 12C, maybe it's because of the grippier Cup2 over the P Zeros on the 12C plus a quicker rack, I find the car too eager and too aggressive to turn, so I actually had to dial back steering on most corners.
Mid corner the Speciale seems more stable, once the car take a set, it tracks the trajectory better, it pretty much do it on rails and I am just along for the ride, no need for steering wheel correction. Even with bumps mid corner.
Exits I think are a wash. I like the extra torque from the 12C but it seems to be always in the wrong gear while the Speciale is in the proper gear most of the time so that kind of negates the torque advantage of the 12C. At least in auto mode. For manual gear selections the 12C wins hands down.
Gear selection logic Ferrari got it by a mile, it is more aggressive in selecting gears, it never shy away from lower gears, fuel economy be damned. I think it's more aggressive than Porsche's PDK, and that's was the benchmark I used.
Neither car seems to shrink in size at speed, I am always aware of the extra wide on them over the 997 Turbo S. But it could be due to the fact that I have been driving a 997 series car for so long that I am used to it.
Noise wise the Speciale really has a lower tone from the inside, it is quite a bit more masculine than a regular 458.
I finally figured out why it seems roomier. It is obvious after the fact. Took me a couple days but I realized the CF door panels didn't didn't have the arm rests and door pockets of the regular car and that account for like 3 inches either side. Stupid me.
I didn't want to sound like I praised the car because I bought one. Is it worth the money I paid for it, maybe not. But the Speciale really is a properly good car. But would I take it over the 12C? Tough question, I know I swapped the 12C for a Speciale, but had I have the choice, I would have kept both, they are different animals. The 12C is really a great car on it's own merits but between it and my Turbo S I picked the Turbo S to be the keeper simply because it is way more practical.
Did I got bitten by the Ferrari bug? Perhaps. Despite the reputation, they really do make some great cars now. Properly sorted ones. The 7 year free service helped a lot in their cause too.
Couple interesting tidbits that I have noticed. The Ferrari engine runs HOT, like way hotter than even the 12C with the turbos. Not from the gauges but from physically feeling the hot air coming from the engine compartment. Weird feeling as I can see the hot air mirages from the rear view mirrors on the 12C but I don't see any distortion in the Speciale. Even when I turned off the car the hot air is of a higher temperature.
Second, the Speciale runs a higher psi on the front tires than the rear. Not much, just 1psi higher from factory spec. First car I have driven with higher psi in the front . But the temperature difference is quite spectacular. The driver side front runs like 5-6 Celsius higher than the passenger side while the driver side rear runs 1 Celsius higher. In my 12C the driver sides are only 1 celsius higher than the passenger side. Not sure if it's a bad sensor but I will keep an eye for it in the future. Could be weight distribution but I don't think it could account for that much.
Oh, the Cup2 are seriously good tires. Way way better than the PS2 in the rain, a lot quieter and seriously good in the dry. They looked a lot more aggressive too, with squarer shoulders and straighter side walls even compared to the Super Sport.
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