MARANELLO, ITALY – “You guys are definitely the first ones to drive the car in snow,” says the man from Maranello, cheerily. “Congratulations.” Thanks a lot, mister. In spite of the sunny landscape in the pictures you see here, it does rain in Italy, sometimes miserably. During our time there the skies dumped icy water over the place as if the weather gods had thought of us as rats to be drowned. Or frozen. The only time it wasn’t raining was when it was snowing. Great conditions for Ferrari’s all-wheel drive FF, but lousy for the 458 Speciale.

Especially since the Speciale is pretty much purpose-made for perfect days on the track. The factory says it’s meant for you if you spend around 15 percent of your time in your Ferrari on a racing circuit. Spiritually, it’s a hardcore follow-up to the hardcore 430 Scuderia, and even though it’s based on the 458 Italia, Ferrari says there’s enough new content here for you to think of the car as a separate model altogether.

The two models even look fairly different, thanks to aerodynamic mods that basically resculpt the overall shape of the car. In fact, you can tell a lot about the philosophy of the 458 Speciale (say “spe-chia-lay”) just by looking.

The front end, for instance, has large new vents in the boot cover. Why? Because the engine has more power than the Italia’s and needs some extra cooling, which meant either bigger, heavier radiators (or more of them), or additional airflow over the existing ones. And since weight gain is the last thing any athlete wants, the solution was to keep the radiators but improve airflow over them by adding those vents.

Yet, ducting more air into the radiators can add wind resistance. So the Speciale has simple spring-loaded flaps that guide the airflow elsewhere at 170km/h and above, when the flow through the radiators isn’t so critical, thus reducing drag. It’s clever stuff, and that spirit of avoiding tradeoffs is why the front-end styling of the car is so complicated. Actually, there are sacrifices, but they’re mostly yours to make: the bigger air vents cut boot space.

That’s the other thing to note: since you, Mr Speciale Customer, are such a trackday hero, you won’t mind a bit of discomfort in the name of performance. Hence, there are no floor carpets in the cabin (you get thin metal treadplates instead), nor even a glovebox. The centre console is the slim item out of a LaFerrari, and there’s a lightweight theme to the interior finishing, with Alcantara and carbon fibre being the dominant materials. Even the seats have a special breathable, lightweight material. There’s no sound system (but you can still pay for one), because Speciale customers ought to feel that the V8’s howl is all the music you’ll ever need in a car like this. All of that to shave 20kg from the cabin, which really makes you think about putting down that slice of pie.

Elsewhere, the car’s strict dieting programme means it has thinner glass and a polycarbonate window for the engine cover. Carbon fibre is used for the undertray and resin-transfer moulded material, for the nose and tail. Result? 33kg saved.

Meanwhile, those gorgeously slender spokes on the wheels and new brakes help to cut 13kg from the car’s unsprung mass. Those brakes are worth examining, too. Borrowing heavily from the LaFerrari’s anchors, the Speciale’s discs are made of a new material that means the car has more braking power without needing to move up a disc size and gain weight.

Using plenty of carbon fibre where possible for engine parts has chopped 8kg off the car, and all told the savings add up to around 90kg, which is fairly amazing when you consider the fact that the 458 Italia isn’t a porker. That leaves just 1,395kg for the engine to haul around, about the weight of a well-specced Merc A 200.

When an engine, too. The Speciale is driven by the most powerful V8 that Ferrari has ever built for its road cars, and with 605bhp to its name it cranks out an amazing 134bhp-per-litre, more than any non-turbo engine around. This wasn’t a simple ECU reflash job, either. Major changes had to be wrought upon the Italia’s V8, just to bump up horsepower by around 6 percent, which gives you some idea of how Ferrari’s current engines are already pretty much at the edge of what’s possible.

For the record, the Speciale’s V8 has a redesigned intake system, slightly taller cams to take advantage of that, a new piston design that raises the compression ratio to an explosive-sounding 14:1, a different crankshaft for improved lubrication, lighter gudgeon pins with a low-friction coating, and an exhaust system with 25 less back pressure. I don’t know if that’s also why it seems to have a little more bass to its voice, but the deeper rumble coming from behind you is certainly the first thing that strikes you about the Speciale.

There seems to be an extra eagerness to the engine as well, compared to the Italia. You have to work the throttle with sensitivity, unless you’re ready to deal with the consequences of a sudden burst of power. In the rain, forget about even giving the accelerator a meaningful look unless you’re in the car’s calmer ‘Rain’ setting. In ‘Sport’, the gentlest push had the Speciale fishtailing so wildly that it took my buttocks an hour to unclench.

You’ve had to put up with much more description than assessment so far, but the truth is I have no idea what the Speciale is like to drive in the dry. I can tell you, however, that in spite of being honed for the track, it would work perfectly well on a day to day basis. There’s more noise coming through from the road and the engine, but it’s nothing that would having you reaching for earplugs. The truly amazing thing is the way it takes bumps, which would put a few hot hatches to shame. The Speciale rides firmly and is well-controlled over some of Maranello’s awful tarmac, but it never jostles you in a way that sets the flabbier bits of your body wobbling.

Some trackday specials essentially take a car and strip out the parts that make them civilised, leaving you with something that’s a hoot in the circuit but a pain elsewhere. The 458 Speciale simply isn’t like that. Instead it comes across as a wonderfully coherent effort to hone a car that’s already marvellously sorted, without damaging its ability to stay relevant on a day-to-day basis.

Ferrari could have stuck huge wings all over the Italia for instance, but that would just have just lazy engineering. Instead, the Speciale has a slightly longer tail, along with larger rear diffusers for added downforce (which is also why the exhaust tips had to migrate to the outside of the rear, instead of exiting centrally like they do in the Italia). There are active flaps that open up to stall the airflow over the diffusers, cutting drag when you’re in a situation that doesn’t require much downforce. That’s anything but lazy, and means that in terms of downforce versus wind resistance, the Speciale is the best car Ferrari has ever built.

Another impressive trick is a seemingly simple flap in the front that’s spring-loaded to open horizontally, in order to tweak the car’s aero balance at speed. It basically shifts the car’s downforce rearwards to make the car feel more stable. Alas, it only opens up at 220km/h and above, so how well it works was pretty much left to my imagination, given the slippery conditions. Sadly, driving the 458 Speciale through the hills surrounding Ferrari’s hometown is one dream that’s better dry than wet.

NEED TO KNOW Ferrari 458 Speciale
Engine 4,497cc, 32V, V8
Power 605bhp at 9,000rpm
Torque 540Nm at 6,000rpm
Gearbox 7-speed automatic
Top Speed ‘above’ 325km/h
0-100km/h 3.0 seconds
Fuel efficiency 11.8L/100km
CO2 275g/km
Price $1,190,000 without COE
Availability Now

Also Consider: Ferrari F12berlinetta, Porsche 911 GT3

Photographs by Ferrari s.p.a.