Driven: Ferrari 458 Italia

Wow. If you've ever been lucky enough to drive a 430 Scuderia and thought you'd reached motoring nirvana, then I'm afraid the world has just moved on. The Ferrari 458 Italia makes that car very old school...

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The latest all-new Ferrari is the most useable yet - a racer for the road but with more than a nod in the direction of GT talents as well. To that end, there's a dual-clutch gearbox as standard, complete with full auto mode, as well as adaptive damping, a 4.5-litre V8 which revs to 9,000rpm and produces 570bhp and 398lb ft, a steering rack with two turns lock to lock, plus the usual electronic trick diff.

Suffice to say, it's neither slow nor boring. The noise is epic (we found a long tunnel and it sounded like we were sat slap bang in the middle of an F1 car because the exhaust baffles open at 2,500rpm) and the way the pace builds through all the gear changes is far too addictive to be legal. These are seriously quick up and down shifts, although not quite as mechanical and brutal as the F1 gearbox on the Scuderia.

But the single best thing about this 458 is that it's not intimidating. Switch the adaptive damping to the ‘Bumpy Road' setting and there isn't a supercar out there which rides as well. And because everything is so intuitive - from the steering to the gearbox, even the satnav controls - you feel immediately at home in it. Nothing shocks, nothing surprises.

The whole thing feels modern. If we're going to be honest, the Scuderia wore its technology rather reluctantly. But the 458 has been designed with it from the outset, so even the satnav now feels like a proper satnav system, not some botched after-market thought.

Perhaps the greatest compliment we can pay the 458 is that it no longer feels like it needs a Challenge Stradale or Scuderia version. The 458 does it all. And does it bloody well.

Piers Ward