Rendered: 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia Spider

In just a few weeks Ferrari will show to the world for the first time its stunning new 2010 458 Italia supercar, which is set to replace the outgoing F430 at the end of the year. Like the F430, which also came in a Spider convertible version, Ferrari will eventually launch a new open-top version of its latest, which has been previewed here in this latest computer generated rendering.



Likely to be called the 458 Italia Spider, the new model is expected to be launched one year after the hard-top, which pegs its release for sometime late next year as a 2011 model. While Ferrari has a adopted a folding hard-top roof for its most recent convertible model, the California, the 458 Italia Spider is likely to retain the lightweight soft-top roof seen on the F430 Spider and high-performance Scuderia 16M.



Apart from the roof and some chassis reinforcements, the 458 Italia Spider should be identical to its hard-top sibling, which means power will come from a 4.5-liter V-8 engine rated at 570 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque and sending torque to the rear wheels via a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission.

Dimensions should remain at 4,527 mm in length, 1,937 mm in width, and 1,213 mm in height, though weight will almost certainly be higher than the hard-top's 1,380 kg measurement.