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The new Ferrari California, 2+ convertible, had a very special “test-driver” behind its wheel the last few days as the Prancing Horse President Luca di Montezemolo put it through its paces over several laps at the Fiorano circuit.

“I am very satisfied indeed with the work that the women and men of Ferrari have done,” declared Luca di Montezemolo. “The California is an extraordinary car and I was delighted with the performance, comfort and driving pleasure it delivered. The California is, like all of our models, the epitome of cutting-edge innovation. Its gearbox, suspensions and chassis are the most advanced possible.

“This is the first dual-purpose Spider/Coupé with a retractable hard top that closes in just 14 seconds. Despite its extraordinary performance, the California 2+ is also exceptionally easy to drive and has a space behind the front seats that makes it supremely flexible in terms of usage.”

The latest photographs of the new Pininfarina-styled retractable hard top convertible released today show it with its top closed and in an Azzurro California livery. Azzurro California was the colour chosen for the legendary 1960s spider’s appearance at the New York Auto Show in 1962 and proved one of the firm favourites with owners of that model too.

Like the rest of the current Prancing Horse range, the Ferrari California has been aerodynamically designed to deliver significant downforce values – 70 kg at 200 km/h, in fact.

This is the first time too that the new 7-speed dual clutch has been used on a Ferrari car. This technology is the fruit of in-depth gear shifting systems research by the Scuderia Ferrari. The system utilised on the Ferrari California cuts the gear shifting time to zero and enhances to the utmost the car’s performance in terms of comfort and driveability.

Performance is further boosted by the new Launch Control button which when hit delivers blistering high performance starts by ensuring correct torque delivery and preventing tyre spin during acceleration.

The car is 4560 mm in length, 1900 mm wide and has a wheelbase of 2700 mm.

The luggage capacity of the Ferrari California provides further proof of the versatility of this latest addition to the Prancing Horse range: when the roof is up, the boot has a 360-litre capacity and a 260-litre capacity when it is down.

For the first time on a Prancing Horse car, the boot and cabin communicate directly, allowing a choice of luggage configurations to be used.

Particular attention was also paid to fuel consumption levels which in the case of the ECE combined cycle is 13.2 l/100 km with CO2 emission levels of around 310 g/km.