The Italian-made Ferrari has been one of the biggest-selling sports cars of all time. Not only do the cars look sleek and stylish and like something you’d see in the sky as opposed to on the ground, but they’re also extremely well built, lightning fast and rugged enough to hold up to the rigors of prolonged high performance. One of the newest Ferrari’s is the 458 Italia.

The 458 Italia came along to replace the Ferrari F430. Not that the F430 was obsolete or a lesser car by any stretch of the imagination. It’s just common practice with a lot of automakers to bring in the new to get out with the old.

Unlike Ferrari models of the past, this new design wasn’t really based on any old design of street model car, per se. Instead, Ferrari used their experience with Formula 1 racing and new technologies and designs to piece together the 458. The results speak for themselves.

To simply call the 458’s engine powerful would be too much of a compliment to other powerful engines on the road. The mid-rear mounted (a first for Ferrari) 4499 cc V8 direct injection engine is dominant on all fronts. The engine is able to deliver 570 CV at 9000 rpm and has a power output of 127 CV per litre.

Ferrari aimed to make this car driver-friendly, and to do that they made sure that a standard automatic transmission would be used. The 458 doesn’t have a manual option; instead, the Getrag dual-clutch 7-speed transmission handles all the shifting duties.

The car’s performance is breaking previous Ferrari records. The car hasn’t even been in production for a full year, and already sports car lovers are lining up to drop the $230,000+ for a 458. It hits 60 mph in around 3.3 seconds, and it can achieve a top speed of 202 mph while surprisingly being kinder on the gas tank than previous models.

Ferrari didn’t have to go completely off course. They still believe that if something’s not broke then there’s no sense in fixing it. This is why the 458 has a recognizable double-wishbone suspension in the front and a multi-link suspension in the rear, as well as traction control systems and state-of-the-art brakes.

The Ferrari 458 was designed to drive at high speeds. Nearly everything about the car is fine-tuned to provide ultimate power and precision handling at any capable speed. Even the body of the car was thought up with speed in mind. The styling features were designed specifically for aerodynamic efficiency and producing a substantial down-force.

Ferrari has been busy in recent years with various models. The 458 was more or less to allow Ferrari to get back to their powerhouse roots after the California. The design of the car did mirror some of the best features of the Enzo in terms of practicality, but the 458 is a design all its own and a car the likes of which Ferrari has never produced.