The 2021 Ferrari F8 = The Perfect Supercar

Simply saying the word Ferrari conjures vivid Technicolor images of flamboyantly colored cars with sleek curves racing along a coastal road on the French Riviera toward a James Bond mission -- evoking feelings of status, power, speed, and just a pinch of pretentiousness and why not? The pedigree these cars have speaks for itself.  

The F8 is a mid-tier Ferrari, which makes it not quite as powerful as the 812 Superfast with its 6.5-liter V12, which is the car version of a Celestial from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Nor is it the entry-level Ferrari like the Portofino M or the older California. But the thing we find most compelling about the F8 isn’t the mere fact that it sits in the middle, but why it is the perfect supercar because it sits in the middle.  

The reason we even want to answer the question of why the F8 is the perfect supercar is, essentially, the wealth of choice enthusiasts have in this genre of car. If we were lucky enough to happen upon a buried horde of pirate treasure, and want to celebrate our new found wealth with an amazing  purchase, there’s a dizzying supercar selection of Pininfarinas, Lamborghinis, Porsches, McLarens, Aston-Martins, and so many more, to invest an embarrassment of riches. Ahoy Mate.... 

Aye, Aye -- we get it. There’s no such thing as going to The Cheesecake Factory for a light snack – it ain’t gonna happen. So, we dug deeply into the fantasyland of our gold-plated auto-tuned imaginations, unilaterally arriving at the - shiver me timbers - Ferrari 458 Italia, which would be the perfect choice if this were 2009, but it’s 2021 so we’re going with the F8.  

Now, we haven’t driven the F8 so we can’t give our review; however, like most enthusiasts who don’t have ready access to $300,000 in discretionary income, we do have the unique perspective of having digested most of the reviews that have come out on the F8, the 458’s precocious grandson.  

This aggregate of opinion, kind of like the Rotten Tomatoes of cars, is that this car is fresh. Very fresh.  

When you survey the landscape of subjective opinion on both the Spider and Tributo coupe you find a firm consensus of pros and cons. Which in and of itself is a small miracle, because in the car world, as in any subjective medium, consensus is about as easy convincing a history professor that Rome was built in a day.