When designing the Ferrari California, Pininfarina opted for a classic, sculpted chassis, with a long bonnet and the passenger area slightly weighted towards the rear.

The Ferrari California is ideal for those looking for a highly exclusive sports car, that consider driving enjoyment a value to pursue on every occasion: a weekend out of town, a long journey, shopping in the city, or simply getting to the office.

The rear baggage space has a capacity which is unique for a convertible of this type. The boot, for the first time, connects directly to the rear bench or seats via the folding seat-back.

Ferrari once again turned to its historical partner Pininfarina for the design of the California. The result was muscular, flowing, sculpted lines where considerable attention was paid to ensuring perfect proportions and harmoniously balanced volumes with the roof up or down.

Work on defining the styling was undertaken in close collaboration with Ferrari's own in-house Styling Centre, and great emphasis was placed on characterizing the design and function of every individual detail to confer an immediate and lasting sense of quality and bespoke craftsmanship.

The sides are characterised by a strong dynamic line rising to the level of the door handle, to create a powerful and muscular outline of the rear wheel arch, in line with the car's character.

The waist is high, while convex and concave surfaces follow each other with pleasing fluidity.

The nose, which takes up the characteristics of the side and rear lines, has the teardrop lighting cluster and the slatted radiator grill typical of Ferrari. The slender air intake vent on the bonnet and the side air vents both echo distinctive features of the 1957 Ferrari California 250.

Getting onboard one immediately notices the high quality of its materials, together with the traditional skills of the craftsmen who have selected the finest leather to cover the dash, the interior and the seats with couture precision.

The seats can be adjusted in every conceivable way to give any driver exactly the right position.

The back-rest structure is in magnesium, designed to achieve the maximum in comfort and ergonomics while reducing weight at the same time.

The new infotainment system, with its 6.5-inch touch-screen display and its intuitive controls, offers maximum functionality and ease of use.

The designers of the Ferrari California started out with a precise and ambitious objective: to create a GT with no limitations to its use. Perfect for sports driving but also suitable for long journeys and trips to town. For work or for pleasure. A car 4.56 metres long, with the space to comfortably seat a driver or passenger which represent more than the 99 percentile of the population's stature, and making possible the novel 2+ configuration with a large useable space behind the rear seats. The car allows, on request, a rear seating area with two seats and Isofix attachments, indicated for hosting two children.

Alternatively, one can request a bench with the space for storing two travel trolleys or two light golf bags. In both versions there is, for the first time in a Ferrari, a fold-down rear seat-back, allowing the California to be used in different situations by linking the cockpit with the spacious 340-litre boot, which becomes 240 litres with the roof down.

When folded down, the hard-top takes up only 100 of the 340 litres in the luggage compartment, thus saving plenty of storage capacity. A wide opening of the luggage compartment level with the bottom simplifies the various operations. The large amount of space available allows two large and two small suitcases to be accommodated or, with the seat back folded down, golf bags, skis, or snowboards.

The California 30 has an innovative gearbox that ensures higher performances and at the same time greater driving comfort, is more efficient, and requires less maintenance. It is indeed like having two parallel gearboxes, where the dual clutch permits independent control of the odd and even gears and their pre-selection. In this way the gear change occurs in close-to-zero times and without wheel torque interruption. The so-called acceleration gap is eliminated, obtaining, apart from a real improvement in performance, a new and thrilling driving sensation. Perfect also for normal daily and city use, in automatic mode the dual clutch transmission guarantees the highest values of comfort and drivability. Positioned with rear overhang following the traditional transaxle system, it contributes to the ideal weight distribution, with 53% of the total weight of the vehicle at the rear and 47% at the front axis.

DUAL CLUTCH TRANSMISSION

The new dual clutch transmission (DCT) increases driving comfort and performance under sporty driving conditions, with seven speeds, reverse, electro-hydraulic operation and no torque converter.

GDI ENGINE – DIRECT INJECTION

Direct injection guarantees improved engine performance because of the cooling effect of the injected fuel inside the cylinder and the fact that the fuel is injected directly into the chamber rather than passing through the intake valves. The high injection pressure (200 bar compared to current systems with160 bar) guarantees correct pulverisation of the petrol as well as optimum mixing and combustion at up to 8000 rpm. This in turn boosts performance and reduces fuel consumption whilst ensuring that current emission limits are respected. Direct fuel injection also delivers a compression ratio of 12.2:1. This is higher than that of Ferrari engines with indirect fuel injection. Once again the result is improved performance and reduced fuel consumption.

Like other Ferrari engines, this one also boasts variable timing on both inlet and exhaust cams to optimise performance and reduce fuel consumption right across the entire rev range. Its inlet and exhaust tracts were designed to deliver a high efflux coefficient and a high turbulence index. This guarantees a good mix and efficient combustion without impinging on performance. The exhaust system consists of two metal matrix catalysers (one per cylinder bank), one central pre-silencer and two rear silencers. The aim was to reduce back pressure whilst still respecting current noise limits. There are by-pass valves on the rear silencers and these are electro-hydraulically commanded by the engine control unit.The adoption of a secondary air system in the cylinder heads means that only one catalyser per bank is necessary which keeps back-pressure down yet ensures compliance with the very strict Euro5 and LEV2 emissions standards.

The Ferrari California is equipped with the exclusive traction control system originally introduced on the 599 GTB Fiorano. The system is the result of the experience built up over the years in the racing world. It allows even less experienced drivers to get the most out of the car's potential in terms of performance on bends, safety and stability. The system estimates the maximum road-holding available by continuously monitoring the relative speeds of the wheels, comparing them with a vehicle handling model memorised in the control system, and subsequently optimising performance by acting on the engine torque output. 

The F1- Trac is faster and more precise than a traditional stability control and is capable of delaying and minimising the engine torque corrections required to maintain the desired trajectory. The result is an average increase of 20% in acceleration on exiting curves compared to a traditional control system, greater stability, and ease of steering even under race conditions.

The multilink system increases the longitudinal flexibility of the suspension, retaining high values of transversal rigidity. This means greater impact absorption capacity and lower vibration and acoustic levels. In short, greater travelling comfort and identical vehicle handling values.

For the Ferrari California, the magneto-rheological dampers used for the first time on the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano are available on request. Compared to traditional olio-dynamic systems, these systems provide much shorter response times because they do not have mechanical controls and adjustments. As a result, under high performance driving conditions, the movement of the vehicle body is markedly reduced, to the benefit of all road-holding indicators.