Home | News | Road Tests Additional Ferrari 458 details revealed Our first report on the new Ferrari 458 Italia is ...... here. Home > News > Ferrari 30th August, 2009 In the run-up to the unveiling of the Ferrari 458 Italia next month, Ferrari has released more information on its latest super car. The 458 Italia will offer a new design of controls and steering wheel that uses experience gained in Formula One with main commands grouped on the steering wheel, the secondary commands are set in two satellite pods either side of the dash and there are now comprehensive instrument displays on the panel ahead of the driver. These solutions represent an important safety aspect, enabling the driver to concentrate fully on driving. Similarly this layout ensures maximum control of the car in high performance driving, an uncompromising approach that derives directly from Ferrari’s F1 experience. Working closely with the Ferrari Styling Centre, the engineers have thus reinterpreted the positioning of the major commands to provide a driver-oriented cockpit. All steering-column mounted stalks have been eliminated, with the indicators, full beam, flash and windscreen wiper functions now being activated by buttons on the steering wheel boss. The button to select the shock absorber setting is now positioned next to the ‘Engine start’ button where it falls readily to hand. Behind the steering wheel are a number of secondary functions, such as the stereo, while the gearbox paddles are now longer making shifts even easier from any steering angle. The right-hand satellite pod on the dash incorporates controls for the infotainment, the Bluetooth connection, sat-nav, digital speedo and rear parking camera. Clustered on the left-hand satellite pod instead are the optional cruise control, buttons for choosing the video setting of the left-hand dash TFT screen and the on-board computer interface. The latter controls the trip computer, the Vehicle Dynamic Assistance and the display of the car’s set-up. Aston Martin V8 Vantage road test ..... more The Vehicle Dynamic Assistance monitors the operating parameters of the most important areas of the car - engine/gearbox, tyres and brakes. The VDA is enabled in the following manettino settings – Race, CT off and CST off – and provides visual confirmation of the status of each component based on an algorithm from parameters reading lateral and longitudinal acceleration, revs and speed. This enables the driver to assess the ideal operating conditions for the car. There are three status settings: WARM-UP (operating temperature too low), GO (ideal operating conditions) and OVER (one or more components are no longer at their optimum level and need cooling). The Ferrari 458 Italia will arrive in Australia and New Zealand in mid-2010, when local prices and specification will be announced. Hear Chris Goodsell Talk Motoring On Radio & Internet ..... more More Ferrari News ..... here About | Car Clubs | Home | News | Road Ramblings | Road Tests | Subscribe | Top Drive ©   2009   All rights reserved.   Next Car Pty. Ltd.