Disarmingly the electric portion of the powertain is the first taste of the Speciale you get. Started up in Hybrid mode, it pulls off the mark under electric power alone. This car’s namesake – the legendarily brash 458 Speciale – was somewhat otherwise inclined, but in truth it’s nice to have a fire-breathing Ferrari that can slink away without fanfare, if you would prefer. Anybody who wants start-up drama need only select Performance mode on the e-manettino then hit the haptic engine-start button. In the pit at Fiorano, with a hot titanium exhaust, the resulting crackle-bang can be deafening.
The tech-fetishist side of Ferrari (presumably the same faction responsible for calling stability electronics ‘Side Slip Control 9.0’ and giving the Speciale’s deploying rear spoiler an ‘Armed’ setting) clearly wanted to do something jazzy with the electric element.
The approach is twofold. First, shifts are more violent. Ask for an upshift in one of the car’s racier modes and the burst of torque the motor injects into the vacuum created as the transmission engages the next cog gives a vicious, visceral kick. It’s a bit contrived, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t bloody exciting, and boy do you know you’re in a Speciale. The shifts don’t quite have the diamond-cut quality you get from the PDK in Porsche’s 911 GT3, but their explosivity reminds me of the pneumatic sequential action of an actual GT3 car, which is arguably cooler.
Then there’s ‘Extra Boost’. At Fiorano or on any other track, the car will learn the circuit and in its ‘Qualify’ drive mode will then push the drive battery beyond its normal limits for short bursts. It lets the motor deliver up to 178bhp on the exits of corners. Is it noticeable? Not in four or five short laps.
You spend the first couple in Race mode, discovering just how hard (and not always that deftly) the traction control needs to work unless the car is perfectly straight. It gets jarring, so you quickly opt for the famous CT Off mode.
From then on, hilariously, there always seems to be some degree of yaw. The Speciale pivots very quickly indeed, but so sublimely sped is the steering and so balanced is the car that the relationship between throttle, backside and rear tyres often feels symbiotic.
In faster corners the new aero package (see right) gets to work, but this isn’t a downforce car like some in the class, in which you easily notice the effects. It’s more about straightforward mechanical grip in the face of an outrageous powertrain. Quite old-school, then.
