The King is dead…long live the King. Wasn’t that what they always said in the old movies? Anyhow, the sneak shots of the Ferrari 458 Italia are out a couple of months before its official roll-out, at least enough photos to enable this design critic to form an opinion and submit it ever so humbly to the cognoscenti, i.e., you.

The Ferrari 458 Italia is a robust-looking car; to sum it up in one sentence: “it takes the bizarre out of the Enzo” yet saves enough of the old car to make an all-new shape that is reminiscent of the late Enzo but still its own design. Although it may replace the 430, the 458 might be considered an “Enzo light”.

FRONT
Painting the body outside the front intakes flat black removes any complaints about the front intake shapes which marred previous V8 mid-engined road cars. The headlights, proceeding up the fender line, are a bit too busy and sci-fi-styled. But since lights are asked to do so much these days, you can’t have normal headlamps on an exotic anymore. Ferrari revealed that it contracted with Audi for the LED technology. Ferrari didn’t realize was that this technology, in El Cheapo form, would soon be available at any Pep Boys or Auto Zone for kids to put on their Camaros, so what looked cool originally, quickly “trickled down” to low price cars. The hidden windshield wipers are well done. If there’s anything that compromises the cleanliness of a design it’s those big windscreen wipers. Now they should work on replacing the outside rear view mirrors with small rearward facing TV cameras and inside monitors. It requires no big tech breakthrough to do this, just finding a place on the dash to put the monitors.

The air intakes on the front fender are in an unusual place but don’t seem distracting either in front-3/4 or side view so I can’t object to their presence. The little eyebrow shaped air intake between the headlamps and the front bonnet take more getting used to–it looks like a trunk lid that was slammed down on a tool and permanently bent. But maybe in person I will hardly notice it when looking at the totality of the design.

SIDE
The back half of the car is bigger in side view than the front half, as fits a car whose drive train is all behind the driver. It’s like saying “This is the serious end.” The rear fender shape is very, very strong, and especially laudable is the way the body surface snakes upward below the rear 3/4 window area. The cleverness of putting the side air scoops just behind the window is good–doesn’t attract attention to the scoop but gets the job done. The lack of a bodyside vent was a bold departure—and makes the car look so much cleaner. The way the taillights show from the side is very Enzo-like. The side sculpturing that goes downward as the rear fenderlines arch upward is done well, not bevels and sculpture just for the sake of varying a smooth surface as they are on the disappointing California. The molded-in front spoiler is a bit distracting and thick-looking from the side but not noticeable from the front or front-3/4 view.

REAR
Backlite (rear window) gets an “A” and I like the way the curvy rear haunches of the car can no doubt be seen through the rear view mirror. On the tail lights: though Ferrari tradition in the Sixties was one tail light per side (275GTB, Lusso, etc.), I wouldn’t have minded two each side, a la Enzo. The mesh-covered vent should have gone all the way across for better cooling (they could still have floated the chrome horse over the mesh) and the way the vent cavities are cut off on the inside edges is at a weird angle for no reason. What was wrong with just straight up? I also question the reasoning for three exhaust pipes–I’m only looking at pictures but they seem to qualify for the appellation “excessive bling”. I would rather have had four exhaust tips, in the traditional sets of two, or two with space in-between and stainless steel, not chrome. Didn’t they also do something weird with exhaust pipes on the original 365GT4BB that they later had to correct?

IN SUM
The best part of the 458 is that it totally rejects the “folded paper” look of the most recent Lamborghinis by having every part of the body be a sensuous curve. Bear in mind, all the above comments are based on photos—I might be seduced and have entirely different thoughts when I see the car in person….