It’s a question that seems to bother Ferrari itself. A predictably confident press conference detailed the key features of the car, namely a torque-biased evolution of the F430’s 4.3-litre V8 with gasoline direct injection (GDI), a new DSG-style seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, a folding metal hardtop and a new suspension design developed with ride comfort in mind. These are all firsts for Ferrari, and I detected a faint whiff of anxiety in the ranks.
The California takes the company outside its comfort zone and invites comparison with a range of impressive adversaries including the Porsche 911 Turbo Cabrio, Aston Martin DB9 Volante, Bentley Continental GTC and Mercedes SL, which in SL63 AMG form offers a hurtfully powerful V8, seven-speed paddle-shift gearbox and folding metal roof. We’ll come back to that later. The 453bhp California charts at the low end of the power table, yet when it arrives in the UK in the middle of next year priced at £143,320 it will be more expensive than any of them.
As is often the case, the California looks better in the metal than in photos. For me, the clean, crisp nose works well but the shape gets less convincing the further back the eye travels. (‘You try to style a car these days with all the regulations you have to comply with,’ grouched one employee.) The pronounced swage line that kicks up into the tall-decked tail looks a bit over-worked, while the rear lacks cohesion. Still, it works on a practical level, allowing stowage of the folded roof with useful boot space beneath, and a space-saver spare in the floor below that. Also, the bumper-level smoked-lens rear lights can still be seen while the boot carapace flips back and the roof folds itself away.
Yet while the exterior may not be wholly convincing, swing open the door and, oh yes, this is a Ferrari all right. It’s one of its best cockpits, too. Simply sculpted and leather trimmed with aluminium highlights, it has an attractive, faintly classic feel. In part this is fostered by the facia’s quartet of circular air vents and also by the lack of clutter thanks to the multi-function touch-screen display and the hiving off of all the heater controls to an underslung pod. I’m not so sure about the ornamental bridge running down the centre console, nor the ‘metal’ surrounds of the air vents that are actually plastic, but overall it’s warmly inviting and a great success.
So, snuggle into the firmly bolstered, deep-sided seats (which are electrically adjustable every which way) and grasp the fat, sculpted rim of the steering wheel. Dead ahead the instrument pack is dominated by a large tachometer with wonderfully clear, retro markings; the numbers go all the way to 10 with the crimson band beginning at 8. The flat-bottomed steering wheel is similar to that in other Ferraris, with a juicy red start button on the left and the twist switch of the manettino on the right, only here you’ll find what Ferrari has dubbed the ‘GT manettino’, a simpler version offering just three drive modes – comfort, sport and stability control off – compared with the usual five. Is this Ferrari lite? Time to push the big red button…
The starter whirrs at double speed before the California’s flat-plane-crank V8 fires up. It has a similar architecture to the F430’s V8, but as well as being direct injection, which allows a higher compression ratio, it displaces 4297cc (instead of 4308cc) due to a wider bore and shorter stroke. Yet it sounds exactly the same as a cold-idling F430 – clean, hard, resonant – just with the volume turned down a couple of notches.
It could be a front-engined F430 – up to the point where you pull back on the right-hand paddle to select first gear, squeeze the throttle and drive the still-cold car out of its parking space on full lock. Ferrari has mastered the automated manual transmission (AMT) better than anyone else, but its F1 shift hates such scenarios, revs rising and falling, clutch in and out. There’s no cringing today, though. With its new twin-clutch gearbox the California drives away with near torque-converter-auto smoothness.
Half a mile up the road, my initial reaction is that Ferrari has pitched the California just right. A confident tautness pervades the whole car, from the firmness of the seat beneath you to the weight and directness of the steering to the resilience of the ride. A grand tourer the California is, but on the comfort scale it’s lodged at the firm end, offering long-distance suppleness in what used to be a typical German style. At a motorway cruise with the roof up there are low levels of wind noise and road roar, and although there’s a faint hammery note from the engine, it’s nothing that a little light music can’t suppress.
Left in its default ‘auto’ setting the transmission shuffles unobtrusively into the highest practicable gear ratio, and ambling at low speeds on a light throttle the engine note fades to little more than an indistinct and distant whirr, like the sound of a big fan. Press the throttle and the engine becomes vocal again, working with a flat, hollow drone. Snap it to the floor and you’re instantly and seamlessly up to around 6000rpm and enveloped by an enthusiastic yowl thanks to the gearbox’s responses and willingness to work the engine at the top of its rev range. Stow the roof – a one-finger, 14-second operation – and the volume of the engine seems to go up threefold; you can also better hear the lip-smacking phat! at the tailpipes on full-throttle shifts.
Jean-Jacques His, Ferrari’s powertrain manager, states that DCT transmissions will feature on most of the company’s upcoming models because as well as being superior to an AMT in general use, they also meet ‘all sports requirements’. That is to say they offer full-throttle upshifts the equal of those of the F1-Superfast2 ’box in the Scuderia, the fastest AMT of all. The ability to respond quickly and smoothly, and the seven progressively spread ratios, help the California to feel genuinely potent and deliver a 0-62mph time of ‘less than 4sec’ and a 12.2sec quarter mile. The top speed of 193mph is reached in seventh.
All very good, but a desirable feature of most GTs is their ability to make rapid progress without being worked to within a few millimetres of the red line. Judged by figures alone, things don’t look good for the California – its V8 makes 358lb ft of torque at 5000rpm compared to 343lb ft at 5250rpm for the F430, a car not noted for its root-ripping muscularity. Then factor in that the California weighs 1735kg, a solid 300kg more, and things look even worse. However, if you twist the manettino to the top setting, as well as switching off stability control, you’ll also have full manual control of gear selection and, against expectation, you’ll discover that there’s more than adequate go at modest engine speeds.
On fast, flowing roads the California gives a positive, connected feel through its taut ride and weighty steering. Yet while the detail ride remains firm, mid-corner lumps and bumps reveal an absorbency that takes the swing out of their impact. The trick, as other car makers have discovered, is to have suspension-mounting bushes that are firm laterally but flexible longitudinally, allowing the wheel to move rearward when it hits a bump. On the California, Ferrari’s traditional double-wishbone rear suspension has been replaced by a multi-link design to better perfect this characteristic because, as project manager Andrea Binotti explains, in cornering the rear wheels take much more of the load and exert a stronger influence over how the car feels. And it works well at speed, the car feeling comfortable and stable.
Some, perhaps many, California owners will never turn the manettino to the top and switch off stability control, but when we came across a sequence of second- and third-gear corners we felt obliged to do so in the interests of science. Go halfway there, from comfort to sport, and the gearbox will help out with snappier shifts and a willingness to hold on to gears, while the stability control cuts in early so that neither end slips. But switch it off and it’s surprising how much attitude the California adopts.
Our car had standard damping – an adaptive electro-magnetic set-up is optional – and felt positive and accurate diving into the turns. Although the surface wasn’t the grippiest, the California quickly built up quite a lot of roll, the nose lifting and tail squatting, before the power overcame the grip of the rear tyres. Stay positive, maintain throttle and the slide can be cleanly and easily gathered up. Back off sharply when you’ve prodded it wide and the weight transfer and shift in attitude makes it a bit of a handful. My colleague John Simister reports that the magnetic damper option improves things slightly rather than transforming matters.
That’s hardly going to bother anyone who is in the market for a convertible GT like the California, though. In every other practical respect, this new Ferrari hits the bullseye. It’s a comfortable long-distance cruiser, it’s impressively poised at speed on lumpy A-roads and it’s a doddle to drive in town. It’s practical too – you can specify tiny rear seats and there’s a fold-through facility for long items such as skis.
The big ideas it embodies – direct injection, the dual-clutch transmission and the folding roof – may not be new, but they’re used to great effect. The new gearbox is especially impressive, among the very best of its type, and it helps make the California a serious every-day proposition. Indeed, in anticipation of owners clocking up bigger mileages than is the Ferrari norm, the California has been designed to require just 11 hours of servicing in 50,000 miles.
So, yes, it turns out that Ferrari can do novel, versatile and cosseting, but more importantly than that, the California still feels, drives and sounds like a Ferrari.