Ferrari 458 to come with a turbocharged engine next year

"I will not ask for more power

I will not ask for more torque

I will not pursue light weight materials

For your construction

But if you can't reduce your C02 levels

If you can't please the guys at Greenpeace

I will find you

And I will add a turbocharger to you"

This seems to be the pledge that the engineers at Ferrari have decide to abide by, when they decided to give their Ferrari 458 a mid-life update. The car is expected to be launched any time next year and forced induction will push the power output in the bandwidth of 650PS which will take this steed from Maranello to an even higher performance plateau. While the 458 is not the latest offering from Ferrari stables to get the turbocharger treatment, it will be the direction that Ferrari may have to be headed to, if they have take on the other supercar manufacturers in this segment. While Ferrari did come up with a breathtakingly exceptional supercar in the form of Ferrari 458 Speciale which even bagged the runner-up award in the World Performance Car segment at this year's World Car of the Year awards, competition is heating up with McLaren launching their 650S which is an equally capable car and comes with twin turbochargers.

The reason why Ferrari is taking the turbo route is to reduce their C02 average across the range, currently they are exempted from meeting C02 targets, but their cars need to show depreciation in C02 emissions if they are to continue to receive exemption. Currently the Ferrari 458 Speciale clocks 275g/km but the figure is especially high even by supercar standards, considering the competition especially Porsche.

Ferrari have indeed almost reached their limits while extracting performance from a naturally aspirated engine, the Speciale produced approx 135PS/cylinder from its 4.5L V8, which is a world record for a road going naturally aspirated engine, so to bend the performance envelope further turbo charging was the only option. The turbocharger's benefits can be seen on the newly launched California T, engine displacement was reduced by a good 500cc to 3.8L. There are now seventy more horses available on tap and the total power output is now a healthy 560PS, with torque up by fifty per cent to a mind boggling 755Nm. We expect similar performance benefits on the new 458.

For those who are complaining that this will hamper the power delivery and exhaust note, remember the Ferrari F40!! Well that too came with a turbocharger and it had a breathtaking exhaust note. Still not satisfied well equal length exhaust manifolds and flat plate crankshaft work in unison to ensure zero turbo lag and give you an even better exhaust note than the legend of 1987.