Thread: Ferrari California

Later a morning spent driving the revised-for-2013 Ferrari California in and around Maranello, we are sitting in a cramped storage/conference room in a nondescript constructing close to the company’s fabled factory gate. Try driver Raffaele De Simone needs to familiar what we imagine of the two cars sitting outside. Our take: There is a noticeable difference among the car skilled with the latest Handling Speciale package and the non-HS 2013 California—but that difference is small. “Good,” he tell. “We did not need them to be also dissimilar.”


To realize why Ferrari select to limit the differences among the cars, however, we must first learn about the client for whom this model is intended.




In the California’s first 3 years, 70% of purchaser were latest to Ferrari. Offering all usability with its all-weather retractable hardtop and large-for-a-Ferrari trunk—a fifth of owners utilize their car on a regular basis, which is 50% more than the brand’s average—the car is tuned softer than the remains of the Ferrari range. Buyers receive Ferrari function, a Ferrari badge, and everything else that goes with the ownership feel, but the car is not an inconvenience for them. It is civil. In Ferrari’s words, the California extends ingress and egress same to that of “a normal car.” Imagine that.


And although it is somewhat difficult to imagine, a majority of purchaser claim they bring their kin along. Since an adult could truly just fit their head in the small rear excellent to order your California with the in build rear parcel shelf instead.


A minority, but evidently a vocal one, needed more power. Cue promotes for the fantastic-sounding 8000-rpm V-8: a one-way reed valve in the crankcase that lets blow-through gas and oil escape, thereby diluting pumping losses; fresh exhaust manifolds that lack backpressure; pistons with revised crown machining to match the other alters; and latest ECU tuning.