The replacement for the Ferrari California, which arrived in 2009. With 10,000 units sold, the previous version was Ferrari’s most successful ever single model. The car was something of a departure for Ferrari – it was the marque’s first front-engined V8 in the modern era. It was much more a GT car than a true sports car, so although it never truly satisfied like its stable mates, it did meet with approval among drivers who wanted to use their Ferrari everyday.
The previous California was a significant model for Ferrari because 70 per cent of buyers were new to the brand. Ferrari can’t afford to misjudge its replacement, then, so we shouldn’t expect any great revolution from California to California T.
Technical highlights?
Apart from in the engine department, that is. For the first time since the F40 of 1987, Ferrari has fitted turbochargers to a series production car. The 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 is entirely new, having been in development for four years. It produces 553bhp and 557lb ft of torque – but only in seventh gear. Ferrari has developed a Variable Boost Management system to gradually increase torque output in each gear to, it says, give the engine the same non-linear, building sense of acceleration as a normally aspirated engine.
In fact, an awful lot of work has gone into making this new engine behave as much like a normally aspirated unit as possible, both in its power and torque delivery and the way it sounds. Like the rest of the industry, Ferrari will have to adopt downsizing and turbocharging in order to improve fuel efficiency in the coming years. The California T is our first impression of Ferrari’s oncoming turbocharged era.
As per the previous model, the basic layout is a transaxle arrangement within an aluminium bodyshell, suspended by double wishbones at the front and a multi-link setup at the rear. The gearbox is a twin-clutch paddleshift item, sending torque rearwards through a locking differential. Only the folding hardtop roof is carried over from the previous model.
What’s it like to drive?
The first impression is that the California T rides superbly. Road surface imperfections are rounded off with a real pliancy both in Comfort and even in Sport mode. It’s a reminder that the California T needs to be approached as a GT car rather than a full-on sports car. Expect Ferrari 458 levels of agility and you’ll think it lazy, but keep in mind its intended purpose you’ll find very much to commend about its dynamic performance.
The steering initially feels unnaturally quick. It’s actually not quite as hyperactive as a 458’s helm, for instance, but for the first few miles you do find yourself dialing in a little too much lock for a given corner. Very soon the driver recalibrates to the steering’s rate of response and it becomes natural and intuitive, though. The steering always feels a little remote, however, with only a vague sense of connectivity once the chassis is really loaded up.
With 53 per cent of its weight over the rear axle the California T doesn’t feel anything like as front heavy as the layout and dimensions might suggest. That gives it both a sense of agility on turn in and a neutral balance mid-corner.
There is almost no perceptible natural understeer at road speeds. Rather than pushing on at turn in, the car instead collapses a little onto its rear axle. The rear anti-roll bar is soft, which gives the California T huge traction at corner exit, but it also means the driver must dial back a little to accommodate that initial roll. The firmer chassis mode corrects this slightly, though not entirely.
The optional magnetorheological dampers can be set to an intermediary ‘bumpy road’ mode when the manettino is set to Sport. This gives the chassis an impressive secondary ride over smaller lumps and bumps, isolating the occupants from the road surface while still retaining enough body control when the corners come thick and fast. That mode will work superbly in the UK.
Ferrari limits the torque through the gears, which benefits traction and drivability. Unleashing the full amount of torque in second gear at corner exit would simply bonfire the rear tyres. Instead, it’ll only be provoked into modest slides away from the apex under full throttle in second gear, giving the car that sense of fun and agility that we expect of sports cars, but perhaps not of GTs.
This new V8 is as impressive as forced induced engines come and the gearbox is remarkable; each new gear seems to bang in before you’ve even fully pulled the paddle. There is no discernable turbo lag and the top end is just as useable as the mid-range, but there aren’t, as we should expect, the top end fireworks that we so love Ferrari’s normally aspirated engines for. There isn’t the same aural excitement either, despite the flat-plane crank and the equal length exhaust header pipes, although at very low engine speeds this new V8 does emit a crisp, hollow exhaust note that calls to mind a 458.
