Dreams drive all human activity. They are the engine of history, our passport to the future. Enzo Ferrari had a dream, an audacious, premonitory dream that left an indelible mark on the history of motor racing. That personal dream has grown into a collective one, an icon recognized the world over, because Ferrari's ingenious inspiration of all those years ago has continued to produce dream after dream.

The latest of those dreams to come to life is the Ferrari 458 Italia, a car so innovative that it can already be considered a milestone even by Maranello's design and construction standards. It represents a farewell to the past, a leap forward into the future. A product of prodigious technology, worthy of the Made in Italy moniker.

In fact, while the 458 in its name refers to its number of cylinders and displacement, "Italia" pays homage to an extraordinary country and its ability to create innovations, of which this car is an example.

The Ferrari 458 Italia continues the classic Maranello 8-cylinder tradition that produced the likes of the 158 F1 in 1964, the Ferrari 308 GTB in 1975 and the F40 in 1987. However, at the same time it also brims with unique innovations, thus combining both history and progress. Also known by its project code of F142, the new car retains the unique characteristics that make any Ferrari instantly recognizable yet offers something never seen before. As said, a leap into the future. This is a completely new car from every point of view: engine, gearbox, chassis, suspensions, electronic controls, aerodynamics, design, instrumentation and ergonomics. With exceptional fuel consumption and emissions levels, given the 570 CV it punches out. This 8-cylinder lays the foundations for the Ferraris of the future, yet is still very much in touch with its roots.

The 458 Italia in fact continues the long and honorable tradition of every Ferrari guaranteeing unique driving pleasure as well as presenting a plethora of technological firsts, derived directly on the track, the most extreme test bench of all. It is the fruit of the advanced research laboratory that is Formula 1 and which has always allowed Ferrari, both as a racing team and a constructor of sports cars, to push the boundaries of technology, innovation after innovation. The benefits that our track experience has yielded can be seen and felt from behind the 458 Italia's wheel: the immediacy and precision with which it responds to driver inputs are unprecedented and revolutionize the driver-car relationship.

The 458 Italia is actually designed around the driver's body so as to become a natural extension of it, thanks to a perfect human-machine interface with controls ergonomically laid out to instantly respond to his commands and ensure complete concentration when at the wheel. An almost symbiotic relationship of complete complicity between driver and car. Thanks to its soul, at the top of sporty driving, it is there to satisfy the driver's instinctive desire to dominate, through a mixture of courage and talent, something far faster and more powerful than himself.

The 458 Italia is a two-seater berlinetta with a mid-rear mounted V8 engine, a configuration for which Ferrari is well renowned. Designed to fulfill the expectations and ambitions of our sportiest clients and closely tied to the marque's tradition, it is powerful, light and compact, designed for frequent use on the track where it is, of course, at its finest. This is also where the electronic control systems, which guarantee it magnificent versatility and handling in all conditions, excel. In complete safety and with a surprising ease of driving.

These characteristics also make the 458 Italia suitable for everyday use by sporty driving enthusiasts. Born for the track, built for the road. With the arrival of the 458 Italia, the current Ferrari range now includes two very different 8-cylinder models, each one linked to separate traditions with deep roots in Ferrari history. While the California is a top performance car which, in the rich history of Ferraris' Granturismo, lends itself to regular and versatile use with friends or family, the 458 Italia represents the Ferrari tradition of extreme cars which redefine sport car driving. A lean, mean thoroughbred.

With this the 458 Italia, Ferrari has pushed the boundaries of sports car engineering yet again. It has done what it does best: drawn a new dream from the unconscious. One that shows the way to the future. That's the 458 Italia: a glimpse of what's to come.

The 458 Italia's engine is a 90 degree V8 with a displacement of 4,499 cm3 , mounted in a mid-rear position. It's entirely new concept architecture was designed with the aim of delivering a maximum of 9,000 rpm, an unheard of achievement for a road car, a compression ratio of 12.5:1, and a maximum power output of 570 CV.

This translates into extreme sportiness, great fun and superb driving pleasure. Other distinctive structural features of the new V8 are its dry sump lubrication and flat-plane crankshaft with a 180° angle between the throws. Unlike wet sump lubrication in which the oil is stored in the crankcase pan, dry sump lubrication systems use hydraulic pumps to draw the oil out of a separate oil reservoir and then spray it at high pressure onto the various engine components, bearings, pistons and gears. When the oil runs back into the sump, it is pumped back to the oil tank by a scavenge pump via dedicated oil recovery ducts.

This solution prevents excess oil splashing out of the sump and onto the rotating crankshaft and thus reduces power loss caused by friction. The flat crankshaft with 180° degrees between its throws is typical of racing car engineering and has since long been adopted by Ferrari because of its lower mass and inertia and because the even firing order between banks allows an optimal exhaust manifold design. The use of radically innovative machining and engine component manufacturing processes has resulted in a specific power output of 127 CV/l, another first for a car of this kind. At both high and medium revs, the 458 Italia's torque figures exceed those of the F430 by up to 20 per cent, in fact.

One of the 458 Italia's most significant technological innovations is its dual-clutch gearbox which contemporaneously boosts performance and ride comfort. Mounted longitudinally and to the rear, it is a seven-speed electrohydraulic gearbox without torque converter. It is capable of combining the fun driving experience of a sequential gearbox with the comfort typical of an automatic one. This double achievement is due to the fact that overall gear shifting time has been reduced to near zero, thanks to a combination of the reduction of response times to virtually zero and the elimination of torque interruption.

This enhances and integrates torque delivery and the car's super-sporty feeling. There is in fact an instant response to gear shifting and therefore in the engine acceleration, while improving at the same time comfort. All of the gears feature triple cone synchronizers which guarantee the sportiness and feeling typical of a sequential gearbox, whilst contemporaneously improving efficiency and cutting fuel consumption. The technology is based on the independent management of even and odd gears which are pre-selected using two separate input shafts.

The gear shifting time (the overlap between the opening and closing phases of the two clutches) is zero and thus there is no interruption of engine torque to the driven wheels. Response times are faster than those of the gearbox installed in the previous Ferraris and the car has in addition been given an even sportier character, thanks to specific work done on the final gear ratio and on first and seventh gears. The result is a progressive increase in response, more torque distributed to the wheels at lower engine speeds, and a powerful seventh gear that takes the car up to its maximum speed. In the Ferrari 458 Italia, the E-Diff 3 electronic differential has also been integrated with the gearbox, resulting in an important architecture synergy and overall weight-saving.