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Ferrari California T gets sharper edge with Handling Speciale package

It's been about two years since Ferrari updated the California to T-spec with a 3.9-liter, flat-plane crank, twin-turbocharged engine, and we found it to be a suitable change – rewarding to drive, and compelling to experience. Now Ferrari has introduced a new handling option, which will debut at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show in March, which should add a sharper edge to the roadster. Like most handling packages, the springs and dampers get the most attention. The magnetorheological dampers fitted to the conventional California T get changes that increase their response time to changing road conditions. As before, damper settings are controlled via the steering wheel manettino, and the most aggressive change is to be found in the Sport setting. The front springs are stiffer – 16 percent up front, 19 percent in the rear – which will aid body control in all axes. Ferrari claims that, overall, the setup only marginally reduces the ride comfort. It'll take driving a Handling Speciale-equipped car to find out. The changes go beyond just handling hardware. Shifts are faster in Sport mode, both in automatic and manual modes, thanks to recalibrated transmission logic. Ferrari's engineers also found some additional corner exit speed by tweaking the F1-Trac stability control system's programming. The company claims this tweak also helps with acceleration on bumpy surfaces. Cosmetically, the California Ts with the Handling Speciale package will feature a matte grille, a rear diffuser with matte-painted fences, and matte black tailpipes. A special-edition plaque, located in the cabin, is also standard, Finally, in a very Italian move, the exhaust note has been recalibrated "to underline the performance gains." That is to say, if you don't happen to have a skidpad handy to do a direct measurement of the increase in cornering capability – which, it should be noted, Ferrari doesn't quantify – the sportier sound will serve as a psychological reminder. There's no claim that the new exhaust system changes the engine's output – cars so equipped make the same 553 hp at 7500 RPM as the model we tested back in 2014. Look for the Handling Speciale package to debut at the Geneva Motor Show.

Best speculative Ferrari Enzo successor rendering yet

While so many supposed Ferrari fanatics are just sitting on their collective hands and waiting for the Italian supercar maker to finally reveal its F150 (or whatever it'll be called) Enzo follow-up, designer Josiah LaColla has gotten busy with his Wacom tablet and set to work. The results, though quite possibly no closer to the actual F150 as any of the other renderings we've seen thus far, are lovely to behold.
Well, actually, "lovely" probably isn't the perfect descriptor - anything less than a little bit brutal wouldn't be a proper successor to the Enzo, nor would it fit the parameters laid out by the test mules we've seen so far. Accurate within the best of LaColla's ability to guess and imagine is probably a better way of looking at these designs, which show a car that has enough venting to keep the bowls of Hell cool (should Hell ever hit the autostrada at 150+ miles per hour).
We've recapitulated the designer's own words in press release form, below, so as to give you a good idea of his intentions with the design. Read, view and tell us what you think the renderings, in comments.

Infographic: Comparing the Veneno, LaFerrari and P1 supercars

This year's Geneva Motor Show served as the launch platform for three of the world's latest and greatest supercars. The Italians brought us the Lamborghini Veneno and the Ferrari LaFerrari, while the British unveiled the production version of the McLaren P1.
To put the three in better perspective - as if any of us will ever fully comprehend trio of million dollar coupes - the Aussies at Motoring.com built an infographic (click above to enlarge) that outlines what makes each of these cars so spectacular. Using unique colors to represent each of the vehicles, the team put together a variety of charts that focus on vital statistics, pricing, total production run and other parameters all designed to ease the process of digesting an overabundance of exotic goodness. We have uploaded the graphic full size in this link.