The Retractible Hardtop Ferrari

Ferrari can do many things other car companies cannot, including building a machine that links past with present and that tries, however successfully, to be the fastest car to the market and back. The Ferrari California, premiering in 2008, takes its name from a 50-year-old classic while introducing some modern-day developments. A front-engine V8. It’s also got something called backseats, which seems like a cute concept for a Ferrari — a “2+” is the technical term. And as a result of this transmission it presents at least one last: The last Ferrari to offer a manual gearbox. It’s a natural classic, all good looks and serious performance, and it’s got a foot in the present and the past.

This is a Ferrari after all, and it makes no apologies for conceding a few extra seats. Oh, and you’re of course invited to come along.

Its link to the past is right there in the name — the California is so named for the 250 GTs that awed a 20th-century world in the late ’50s. You’ll remember the most famous dignitary of the 250 series as the car in the 1986 John Hughes classic “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” That was a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT Spyder California, one of few than a hundred cars (as noted by Cameron). There were fewer than a hundred 250GTs made, and as a result they were valuable cars.

So the new series, which could just as easily have been called the “Utah” or the “Connecticut,” adopts the name of that 50-year-old classic and lays in all the new gadgetry of this, the modern era. But anyway yes the new California gets its name from those cars of yore, and while it’s sure a fine product from those Italian fellows, it seems to have gotten a lot of gossip about being a “nice” car.

But in the canon of Ferrari’s aggressively powerful cars, the California has already gotten a bit of a rep for being nice. And this is partly in the design — a car that can do many things well, and most of them better than almost every other car on the road. So while it’s a bit peculiar for a Ferrari, it’s still a breathtaking machine when compared to, gosh, anything with a backseat. Just make sure you call shotgun at least once. And while the front end brings to mind, say, a dignified Aston-Martin, the rear gets a lot of grief for being a bit too big.

But Ferrari was serious when it decided to build a car that could perform but could also fit a small child (say, the child of your mistress) in the back seat. A little something for everyone, it seems. Everyone who has $230,000 and a wish to take your best normal-sized friend and your best small friends for an exhilarating trip.

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categories: ferrari california,ferrari,super cars,sports cars,cars