+1. Interestingly, rather like the Lusso, Ferrari has two market segments almost to themselves. I'm not surprised about my dealers order book, and that's before we even see the car in the flesh.
No one who has any idea of what they like seriously cross shops a front engine hard top grand touring car with a mid engine fabric top sports car. you are either trolling or have no idea what you like LMFAO But the Cali nor the Port are 300 BHP are they ? So why make the ridiculous comparison. Theres a term for that logical fallacy but Ill spare you. As far as 0-60, do you understand that on the street, a difference of a half second is meaningless ? As far as 1:4 mile, do you understand that on the street, a difference of a full second is meaningless ? As far as top speed, do you understand that on the street, anything over 100 mph is meaningless ?
Next time read more carefully before defending a position that noone went against. All I was saying is that performance does matter and that's why Ferrari ups the ante with every new model. They could have stayed at 400 horses, which are plenty, but they haven't. Anything over 100 meaningless? That's funny...
Well to me the new Portofino shows what id consider the natural progression of the CaliT. Most of the changes look to me like they tweeked the design a bit. Its certainly not a huge deviation from the predecessor, but is enough to make it a different car. To me this can only be a good thing, as im going to guess the price of the older Cali's may come down as deliveries for the Porto get closer. Heck yesterday I saw the first Factory certified preowned Cali for under 100k that i have ever seen. As far as the California and California T, I honestly enjoyed driving both cars. There were things I liked and disliked about both models, However the one key component was my wife liked riding in them, where she didnt like the F430. I liked it better then the Maserati Granturismo and the DB9. It took a few weeks for the california to really grow on me as im not a huge convertable fan, however once seeing and driving the cars in person i was hooked, and i didnt mind putting the top down.
I have a funny story that may give you hope. I have a friend who is a sucessful poet. He was contacted by Ferrari and commissioned to write a poem which will accompany a film to be made of the 70th celebrations. He included various model names in the words, initially including "California" which he dropped from a second or third draft. Maybe it's hard to rhyme something with California, I to have to warn ya ! Anyway the Factory asked him to put the word right back into the poem. Would they do that if it mainly referred to a soon to be defunct model? Sounds to me that they want to keep the name "out there". The poem is called "red". Listen out for it soon.
You missed my point... You used the word 'satisfying' which is 100% subjective. Its meaningless which was my point.
Good pick-up. One of the issues with the prior Cali tail lights were due to being mounted on the trunk lid which is a moving panel for stowage of the hardtop. As such, the rules meant that the light could not be a turn signal or brake light. In fact I was pulled over and given a warning by an officer for not signaling that I was changing lanes. Nevermind the fact that I was moving to a right turn in lane to a building and not making a turn in traffic. Also I did use my signal. When I mentioned that I had signaled, the officer got testy saying that he knows what he saw. I told him that the tail lights dont work as signal lights and he seemed perplexed. I turning on my signal again and asked him to look at the lower bumper region. He didnt say anything and got into his car and drove off. By moving the rear light to the side, they are now turn signal and brake lights. Some Cali owners complained that they were afraid of being rear ended since the uppper lights didnt have brake light function. Some FChatters wanted to do some custon custom work to adapt them to perform as brake and turn lights. Some are also wondering why the Portofino didn't adopt the quad rear lights--812 style. On the 812 the inner lights are the brake lights. So if they existed on the Portofino, they would be basically decorative. Nothing wrong with that though. Perhaps we will see the quad light design on a future Portofino based model.
I doubt you will see different lights on this generation. I think they did a great job and I don't think it competes with an AMG GT. That is meant as AMG's sports car. Not a GT. This is Ferrari's GT convertible. I would agree its useful to see what else is out there- but I have to tell you at least for me, Ferrari really does stand alone. I'm really excited to see this car in person.
amg gt convertible might be a good comparo to portofino. a sports car amg would still be less sports biased than a gt ferrari
Difficult to compare any MB amg with a Ferrari as they are coming at the joy of driving from the other end of the aguement. One is scalpel sharp in its responses and requires finesse to extract the best whereas the other celebrates in brutal performance but like all bullies finds it difficult to control its temperament,
Only a two seater for sure. Only direct competition would be Porsche Tubo convertible, but those rear seats I think are even worse. For me, and I suspect many, a no brainer.
I find the back seats on my 911 more useful than my Cali, but maybe that's a generational thing: first gen Cali versus 997.2S Porsche. T
I think Ferrari are really struggling to keep on finding new reds to accompany each model launch and this is the result.
