Ferrari California (2009) CAR review

It’s not exactly the new Dino some were expecting, but the launch of any new Ferrari is worth getting excited about. Yes, even if, like the new California, it’s poles apart from the brilliant Scuderia.

CAR broke new e-turf back at the California launch in October 2008, when we filed a real-time test drive, blogging live from the Sicilian event with our first impressions of Ferrari's new coupe-cabriolet.

So if it’s not a Dino, what is the new Ferrari California?

The California is a front-engined GT, Ferrari’s first front-engined-V8, its first coupe-cabrio and its first to be fitted with a dual-clutch gearbox. That’s a lot of firsts. Here’s another one: it’s the first Ferrari that has been designed specifically to attract women to the brand.

Excuse the misogynist tone, but you had me all fired up until that!

We’re with you. There are plenty of women who appreciate drivers’ cars just as there are many men who don’t. But when Ferrari says it’s hoping that 50% of California buyers will be women and that they’ll be choosing the car instead of top-spec SLs and Bentleys, you can’t help but worry that this Ferrari isn’t going to feel anything like a Ferrari.

Anything to suggest it does?

Plenty, thankfully. Let’s start with the engine: Ferrari could have fitted a conventional cross-plane crank V8, like the one it makes for Maserati, instead of the race-style flat-plane crank it uses in the regular F430. But Ferrari says that the latter was essential both to develop the required power and ensure that the finished car felt like a proper Ferrari. Sighs of relief all round.

So instead of making a soft woofly noise, the California's V8 screams, In fact it sounds exactly the way you’d hope a Ferrari would. And instead of cranking out 420bhp and topping out at 7000rpm, it kicks out 453bhp and revs to 8000rpm. Nice.

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