(Wed 16 Sep 09)

Having formally introduced the new 458 Italia at the Frankfurt Show, Ferrari has been more definite about the details than it was when the car was first mentioned back in July.

The power output of the mid-mounted V8 engine has been confirmed at 570bhp, which seems an awful lot for a non-turbo unit of 4.5 litres. It's now clear how this has been achieved - the damn thing revs to 9000rpm (not quite Ferrari's own phrase), which is a phenomenal speed for a road-going engine of this size.

It drives the rear wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox in which one clutch looks after the odd-numbered gears and the other the even-numbered ones. The unit predicts which gear will be required next, and if its guess is correct the shift from engagement of one to engagement of the other is instantaneous, leading to a constant flow of power. The electronically-limited slip differential is integrated into the gearbox (unlike in previous Ferraris, where it was a separate unit) to make a single, lighter and more compact unit.

What with all this and various other special features, the 458 Italia is mightily quick. The 0-62mph is still described with an interesting mixture of precision and vagueness, as it was three months ago, as being "under 3.4 seconds", but the top speed has been more precisely rated at 202mph, while 0-124mph is quoted at 10.4 seconds.

Ferrari has also revised the combined fuel economy and CO2 emissions figures in a favourable direction. They are now officially 21.2mpg and 307g/km respectively, an improvement over the 20.6mpg and 320g/km quoted previously and significantly better than the equivalent figures for the F430.

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