2009 Ferrari California - Second Drive

Ferrari breaks tradition in a big fat way. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in automotive applications, visual perception can be mitigated by sensors located in the viscera and the gluteal region, inducing a sort of benign myopia. And that perception can also be colored by viewing the subject through the rose-colored filter of a brand steeped in glory. Behold the new Ferrari California. To the jaundiced eye, the rakish Pininfarina lines culminate in haunches that are just a little too big to be called graceful. You might argue that, in some cultures, an ample booty is seen as sexy, and that some haunch-heavy designs work very well, e.g., the Porsche Cayman. But the Cayman's haunches are wide, suggesting power. The hindquarters of this new Ferrari are both broad and tall, suggesting . . . well, suggesting a design that had to deal with more than just making room for luggage, though luggage volume was one of the priorities. The result, to our eye, falls a little short of DDG (drop-dead gorgeous), and if the front end hints at earlier Californias—the 250GT (1957–63) and the 365 (1966–67)—the hefty stern does not. However, Californias uno and due were classic cloth-top spiders. Numero tre has a two-piece power folding hardtop that stows itself under the decklid in 14 seconds, the first Ferrari so equipped. The benefits have become familiar: sun in face and wind in hair with the top down (nicely damped by a wind blocker that snaps in place behind the front seats); coupe quiet with the top up. Remarkably quiet, in fact, up to about 90 mph, when wind noise begins to build around the hefty A-pillars. Getting the roof sections stacked under the decklid and leaving luggage space for something bigger than a wallet obviously added dimension at the rear. And the design team also had to build in a trunk passthrough for longish cargo. Not to mention the mechanism for a pair of pop-up rollover bars behind the front seats. Or a quartet of exhaust pipes. And a big aero diffuser down low. And a decklid spoiler up high. Oh, yeah, can't forget about the rear-mounted seven-speed transmission, either. Keep Reading: 2009 Ferrari California - Second Drive