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Ferrari 458 Speciale already sold out for first year

Ferrari tends to sell its models out extremely quickly - its wait lists are the stuff of legend. That's especially true when the cars in question are of the fastest or most exclusive variety. If new reports are to be believed, Maranello has already sold the entire 499-unit production run of its new LaFerrari hypercar, and now Australia's Motoring is claiming that Ferrari has also filled its order book for the entire first year's production run of its new 458 Speciale.
For those unfamiliar, the 458 Speciale follows in a proud line of hardcore mid-engined V8 Ferraris in the footsteps of the 360 Challenge Stradale and 430 Scuderia. It's lighter, more powerful and more aerodynamically advanced than the 458 Italia upon which it's based, and just trails half a second behind the more powerful F12 Berlinetta (and the aforementioned LaFerrari) as the third-quickest road car ever to lap the Italian automaker's Fiorano test track. That means it's quicker even than the 599 GTO and Enzo.
Although we've yet to receive official word, we're expecting a sticker price approaching $300,000 - about a quarter more than the 458 Italia. But that doesn't appear to have stopped Ferrari from raking in the orders. Check it out in our substantially updated image gallery above.

The Ferrari Enzo's designer isn't worried about the future of supercars

Ken Okuyama is a talented designer with a prestigious portfolio. He spent 12 years at the famed Italian design house Pininfarina after a stint with GM's Advanced Design Studio, where he worked on the C5 Corvette. He also styled the Boxster and 996-generation 911 at Porsche. His first Ferrari design was the Rossa concept car, though his most famous creation is the Enzo. Now Okuyama runs a design studio that not only is responsible for the new Kode57 supercar that debuted in Monterey this past weekend, but also eye glasses, civic planning, and even Japanese bullet trains. We caught up with Okuyama at the Concorso Italiano car show, plopped down on a couple of plush leather chairs right in front of his brand new Kode57, and chatted about what the future holds for car design. Alex Kierstein: Lately there's been a lot of talk about autonomy and future mobility. What sort of challenges and opportunities do you think this autonomous future is going to provide for you as a car designer? Ken Okuyama: It is a really fantastic time for designers because of two reasons. One is that the public and private transport have been two separate, completely different industries up until now. Now, when you think about the future of autonomy, that really brings the automobiles into something more of a public transportation. You really have to think about the total experience of the customers from buying the ticket to the paying mechanism. That's just hardware, actually. It is a huge challenge for engineers and designers, and I really love that. That's one reason. Another reason is that just like horses were a means of transport 100 or so years ago, up until Henry Ford mass-produced the Model T. Now, maybe sports cars are becoming like horses. Now, horses are a great object for hobby, sports, and part of the Olympics and everything. Cars are going to be like that also. Dr. Porsche [was asked what type of] automobile is going to last for the longest time. He said, "the sports car." I really believe in that, because with sports cars, you never lose a sense of ownership. Autonomous vehicles are things you don't have to own. You have to design a total experience and the whole operation. A car, you want to own it. It's part of you. Your mechanical watches, do you borrow them from somebody? You want to own it. Your suits, your favorite shirts, you want to borrow them from somebody for your experience? No, you want to own it. Ownership is a core part of human beings.

Ferrari takes over Rodeo Drive to introduce F60 America

Unless you own a very special Ferrari, the only way you were going to park on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills today was to walk there and sit down on a bench. Otherwise, occupying the length of the plutomaniac's thoroughfare was everything from a 1948 166 MM Barchetta, the very first Ferrari imported to the United States, to the brand new 458 Speciale A, introduced at the Paris Motor Show earlier this month. A collection of 60 significant Ferraris were on display to celebrate the marque's 60th anniversary as a US citizen, and it was the most impressive gathering of Italian metal we've seen since the company threw its 50th anniversary event at Pebble Beach a decade ago. How about a Le Mans class-winning 250 GTO, the 1954 375 MM Scaglietti Coupe that won best of show at Pebble Beach back in August, or one of the stunning 330 P4 race cars that was part of the 1-2-3 finish at Daytona in 1967? All parked on Rodeo Drive.
The special-est of them all received an introduction from new company chairman Sergio Marchionne, that being the F60 America. Only for the US, with all ten of them already sold for a reported $2.5M each, the F60 America reaches back to early America-branded offerings like the 340 and 375, and US-focused convertibles like the 1967 275 NART Spider, 1969 365 GTS4 Daytona Spider and 2005 575 Superamerica.
Unlike those Spiders, however, the F60 America is a voluptuous departure from the F12 Berlinetta it's based on, with the subtracted top opening up the flex of its hips, pairing nicely with the swell over the front fenders. As we told our photographer Drew Phillips, we're looking at the future of Pebble Beach, and you can enjoy it in the photos above or the rest of the Ferraris on display in the gallery below.