2010 Ferrari 458 Italia Renderings Shown Before Frankfurt Debut

First off, great name.  The 458 Italaia?  Beautiful.I think they finally got the memo at Ferrari/Pininfarina to go back to styling cars and not just engineering them.  Caterhams and Elises have supercar performance, but that's all they offer.  The Caterham, for instance, is a ladder with wheels.  Cars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis, though, offer the complete package, not just mechanically, but aesthetically.  Or at least they're supposed to.  If you go watch on youtube Jeremy Clarkson's review from the 90s of the F355, he talks about this, and if he doesn't and I just don't remember this well, then you can see what I mean.  That car had fantastic performance while being very usable and incredibly handsome yet still somewhat understated.  This is the F355's descendant, albeit there were the 360 and 430 in between.  This looks like the proper heir to the 360 throne, whereas the 430, though certainly not unattractive, looked too purpose-built.  Think about Italians and everything they do.  Do you really want them to try to plan everything out?  Do we want Italians "exerting" themselves that way?  Ethiopia, for instance?  No.  Lamborghinis are infamous for their oddities and tendencies to burst into flames (I'm pointing at you Gallardo, Miura).  The original Miuras, being mid-engined, had the gas tank over the front wheels, and as you used up gas, the weight on the front decreased and you lost traction.  Not good planning.  But that didn't matter because they planned enough to make it a) mid-engined and b) unfathomably gorgeous.  That was as much as was needed.  Any more and it would have made too much sense to be fun.While this car sheds virtually any semblance of past Ferraris' understatedness, it has a terrific arrogance to it that suggests it is ready to take on the Gallardo, which has surpassed the low-hanging Ferrari fruit in terms of desirability by virtue of styling.  Compared to the 438, the 458 has a far more cohesive design, generally free of the excessive complexities and small, unintegrated features that have plagued the 430 and 599.  The sheetmetal is simple but sophisticated.  It looks purposeful but not mechanical.  From the front, the 458 looks like a relative of the Maserati MC12 with its low, wide, gaping grille.  Again, uncluttered front end, with aggressive headlights.  The way in which the hood (technically the boot...) sits in a valley between the exaggerated wheel wells reminds me favorably of the C3 Corvettes.  Unfortunately, Ferrari could not avoid the temptation of air ducts in the wheel housings, and immediately inside the headlights.  I am sure they serve very good aerodynamic purposes, but they detract for the overall appearance.  And of course, that huge black insert in the grille, which supposedly deforms at higher speeds to create downforce, is just plain ugly.  It's just ugly.  Blech.The side profile is fantastic and the stuff of dreams.  All the angles are raked just they way you would draw your own supercar.  The rocker panels below the door scream mini-Enzo (as does the whole side profile), especially right in front of the rear wheel well, and the scalloped panel behind the front wing subtly apes the 612.  While from the front 1/4 angle the midsection of the car looks too low and perhaps even a bit anorexic, from the side it looks athletic and appropriately lean.  The rear is too much of a catastrophe.  Large gaps in the sheetmetal, filled with grillework, look messy and patched together.  The Gallardo accomplishes this approach more cleanly.  This looks hurried and reverts back to the overly-purposeful look found on the rear of the 430.  One of the nice features of Ferraris from the recent and distant past has been a sizeable patch of relatively flat, uninterrupted Corsa Rossa where that big chrome prancing horse laid ensconced.  The 360 and 355 were certainly adorned this way.  Yes, this car has some of that, but that feature is flanked on the sides by oddly shaped grilles and sits above too many contrasting concave/convex surfaces, some recessed and others not.  Simply, it is not elegant.The triple tailpipes look sweet, but they look like an addition on a jumbled rear end.  Such a unique feature such as triple tailpipes should be one of a couple highlights on the rear of the car.  It is unfortunate to watch the demise of the quad tail lights, but I can live with the singles, and putting them in the corners is alright, too; however, by placing them so high, the car gains unnecessary visual height much as the California looks very tall out back.All in all, while the car looks somewhat like Motortrend rendering, it feels more like a Ferrari than the California and looks more like a 360 than a 430.  That's all good.  This is a eally catchy, edgy, beautiful design, but really from one foot in from each end.

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