C’mon baby, light my fire!
Rumour has it, that it was Nero who first uttered this command. Marie-Antoinette wanted something sweet, Nero something hot. So successfully were his prayers answered that Rome burned down as a result. And from the ashes arose, not a phoenix, but a prancing horse, which happened to turn a Machiavellian society into a Maranellian one.
Sin, by the same token, was changed from something committed behind one’s back to something shoved straight into your face. For you just can’t miss Ferrari’s latest and greatest, the 458 Spider, now can you?
Not even with eyes pretending not to see what’s so great about Sophia Loren. La bella macchina, then. It’s the soul of Italy. The whole country – or actually all of this planet, except Bin Laden’s cronies – loves Ferrari.
The 458 Spider conjures up even more lust and passion than usual, as it is the open-topped version of Maranello’s brilliant 458 Italia. This means a retractable aluminium roof, plus the usual 458 hardware: a 4.5-liter V8 yelling and screaming and barking with 425 kW and 540 Nm of power and torque, which is enough to catapult the lightweight body to 320 km/h in a straight line.
And whilst the Spider also hits 100 km/h in 3.4 seconds after pull-off, we’ll give you a lot more time if you want to munch over the following conundrum: Who to pick as the executor of a “Light my fire” command – your favourite Playmate, or this stunning machine from the very heart of supercardom? A sweet little problem, ain’t it?
Until the answer is: I’ll be your baby tonight… At which point it turns into a massively hot solution!
View the 458 Spider’s exhilarating video here:
by Egmont Sippel
Published by Playboy South Africa October 2011