Posted by Jamie Hibbard at 10:30AM on Tuesday 13 May, 2008 29 Comments
Here's the scene: brand new pictures of the Ferrari California have just landed in the office and everyone's gathered around the our art director's computer looking at them.
It's polarising opinion like no other car we've seen this year - some drooling, some gagging into their coffee.
Now it's your turn, have a read and chip in:
"Oh my god, it looks like a Lexus!"
"Looks like they chose to release it bit-by-bit on the internet because it was designed bit-by-bit, by different people."
"In the dark. And they never met."
"I don't know what you lot are on about, I think it looks hot."
"It could be a grower."
"I'm not convinced. I wanted a shrunken F430, with a full roof."
"I don't like coupe-cabriolets."
"But it's not a bloody Peugeot is it?"
"It does look like a Lexus, though."
"If it ends up as small as it looks in the pics, it'll be ok."
"Look at that single seat in the back! Did Ferris Bueller inspire that?"
"Surely some tuning company will do the decent thing and chop off the folding hard-top for a scruffy bit of canvas instead."
So all that was in the first thirty seconds. Now give us your first thoughts, using that handy comment box.
29 Comments for "Ferrari California thoughts"
All comments are checked by a moderator. Constructive, intelligent and humourous comments are all welcome, but not all will be posted.
You need cash to buy a motor - our guide to finance will help
Buying a personalised plate? Check out our buyer's guide
Sure, she looks hot, but Ferraris are meant to look better than that. At least its red.
We've all complained that Ferrari has recently moved away from making good-looking cars and instead focussing on performance to the nth degree... well, here's a car that brings some style back!
However, I definitely disapprove of the folding hard-top - very un-Ferrari.
Looks like a Lexus LS430 with a nosetrill and a Ferrari badge.
I'm disappointed in Ferrari. It looks like a collection of other cars: Lexus, vintage Ford T-Bird, Toyota MR2.
Yet alone, to give it an American name? When the Italians screw up, boy they do it big time.
DB9 meets Soarer meets Ferrari. I like it, though it is a bit cross-eyed.
The overall design seems a bit too busy to me, the exhaust pipes are a bit tacky and my first thought was, oh no! But it's a Ferrari and I'd still like to add it to my ever-growing collection of Ferraris I've never bought.
I almost spat out my tea when the picture appeared on my computer... it's absolutely gorgeous! I want one!
It looks like the new evolution of the Toyota MR2, and that's not a compliment. It looks awful.
It is a bit Lexus Soarer, a bit Infiniti Cabrio and at last - a good bit - a bit Alfa 8C spider. But I think the problem really is that they have painted it red. I've just Photoshopped the image into black and it's still a little dumpy but heaps better for the colour change.
It looks decent but it doesn't have that presence the other Ferraris have. The wheels should be better, it needs a hard top and it should have a slightly vulgar design?
Maybe they'll change it a little bit when they are ready for production (I hope).
Lack of glamour notwithstanding, we can be thankful it was a Pininfarina job, or the carbuncle would've been hideous.
I like it, I don't know why, but I am generally attracted to anything Italian, and this seems to fit the bill.
It deserves a better name then California, though. What were they thinking there? They are an Italian brand trying to appeal to Americans, that's what I don't like.
Having said that, it looks a little too high and the wheels don't suit it. The bulge where I'd say the roof is kept, needs to go, and then you got it spot on.
If I wanted a Ferrari that looked like a Lotus, I would buy one of these... bitter disappointment.
Without the badges, it's TVR from the back, Toyota/Lexus from the front, and a dose of wrong in the middle.
Hope the performance and handling compensate for the design (and the name).
It's kinda funky in its own way. The rear is awesome in my opinion, very cool and sporty. Side view looks beautiful too, but disappointed with the front view. Don't like those grille and headlights combinations with the rest of the car's body. Somehow reminds me of the race car from the cartoon movie, Car.
However 460bhp... in a two-seater small car, and knowing it's a Ferrari, having a screamer for an engine, it would be great to have and drive on a daily basis.
If it appeared on your drive one morning you wouldn't be asking Ferrari to move it so you can get your Euro box out of the garage...
It looks a tad amphibious at the back, and the front, with that gaping mouth lined with chrome mucus. But are those double-decker exhausts actually attached, unlike the IS-F? And is that the only reason people are comparing it to a Lexus?
It still doesn't make me want it straight away, though, like a good ol' 355 or a 250 SWB. I want Ferraris to stop me in my tracks, to use the phrase 'Holy crap!' and to tell everyone I know about seeing one. This one, and the current crop of Ferraris, just don't.
But I'm not calling it ugly. I'm waiting to see if it grows on me like BMWs do. Well, apart from the 6-Series. That'll ming for ever.
It's OK only if it fits in the £70,000 pound mark with Aston and Porsche. But we all know the car to go for now is the new Nissan 350 GTR or the BMW M3. Good work, Ferrari. But this one is a bit of a hit-and-miss story
I don't think it looks like a Lexus. I'm not convinced by the style of the last Ferraris - Maserati is making a better job.
But it's a Ferrari, and every Ferrari looks like something that comes from another universe; they're are not just cars (like a boring Lexus, for example).
I love the hard top; I HATE that it's identical to a Peugeot. If I passed this, I'd think it's an updated 307CC in red. California is also a terrible, terrible name.
The California name is meant to pay homage to the GT California Spyder of the Sixties. I won't make any definite conclusions until JC test drives it, but I don't see anything really wrong with it right now.
It sounds like Ferrari wanted a car that would end up a mix of the old 456 and 550. Civilized for around town, yet still Ferrari. I think they have something here.
It's so ugly, only for Americans like the name suggest.
The lights are completely wrong, the grille looks like a grin. It have a profile of the Maserati GT with the roof chopped off.
It's far too expensive (around F430 price, or just maybe because I expect a cheap Ferrari like a Dino), doesn't sound high pitched enough for a Ferrari and has too many gears, 7.
A comfortable, useable Ferrari, you say? My stepdad's got one. It's called a Porsche.
The problem with Ferraris is that they have to be cars that you just drool over just by looking at it. And this isn't it.
I'd much rather have an Alfa Romeo Spider than that. And the price is the final nail in the coffin - hands up who wants this car, or a F430 Spider and some leftover change? I rest my case.
Hmmm. I think they are taking design tips from their sister company. Personally if I wanted a car with a front end looking like that I would buy the Maserati GranTurismo.
In fact, it seems they did little more aesthetically than chop the top off the GranTurismo and paint it red!
I, being American, think it looks like a Corvette, at least from the side. It looks a lot like the Corvette Z06 and that's a bad thing.
If your an American car manufacturer then the Corvette makes sense, but for an Italian company to make something like this is stupid.
It'll sell over here, though, because it looks like an American Ferrari. Europeans have more taste though and it probably won't sell over there.
No dice. I think it by the way it looks it seems like it is going to be towards the bottom of the Ferrari price range (although I haven't seen the performance specs.)
So it will either become the stingy man's midlife crisis car, or be quickly swept under the carpet along with other cars premium makers have made which haven't received enough public praise to warrant ongoing production.
Beautiful! A proper front-engined sports car - and it's a proper Ferrari! OK, so another quartet of cylinders wouldn't have gone amiss, but it would have reduced the market potential by being too big and too expensive.
To all the theoretical purists - you're wrong. And Ferrari already make the ultimate; this is an alternative, get it?
This new Ferrari is disappointing visually. The front looks like a true Ferrari but the back... what were they thinking?!?
It looks like they tried to make the back of the car look like a mid-engined car, which is pointless as the engine is in the front. What is with the black strip across the back? Does that serve a purpose?
The mufflers are OK but the Lexus IS-F has beat them for being original. Also why is the back of the car so high like a mid-engined car? It just looks awkward.
Finally what is with that weird crease along the sides of the car. It looks contrived and has no function.
I like the idea of this car and I am sure it will have excellent performance but they have botched an opportunity to make a truly beautiful Coupe-Cabriolet.
Maybe it just doesn't photograph well... we can hope.
The name, however, is definitively insufferable. California?? It seems like the product of some late night, wine drenched, dare session among the execs at Ferrari. "Hey, Carlo, I bet you're not man enough to name our new car after a wacky state in an unpopular country." "I am so, and I'll prove it!" Sad indeed.