MotorMouths

Perfect? Committed sensualists will miss some degree of adventure. Gone are the adrenaline chinchillas running up and down your spine. The 458 Italia is spooky fast without the haunting of mortality.

Make no mistake: In the 458 Italia Spider, you will be seen. Fascinating design, exquisite stick-and-rudder handling, raw power like Samson on Rogaine, the Italia is absolutely one of the two or three best sports cars in the world. Cutting the top off doesn’t make it any subtler, however.

The 458 Italia makes you feel alive, partly because you can easily imagine dying inside it. Those stars in your eyes are actually oncoming stoplights.

With an unparalleled combination of style, performance and agility, the 2012 Ferrari 458 Italia sets the bar for V8-powered exotics.

The Ferrari 458 Spider was purpose-built for the guy more interested in experiencing all of the pleasures, aural and otherwise, the world’s best driver’s car has to offer.

But if you have that kind of money, the Italia — unlike some high-priced, half-baked exotics — is worth every penny. I declare the 458 is the best sports car I’ve ever driven, the current state of the art.

For any amount of money, a Ferrari 458 is the supercar to have.

Despite some very compelling evidence to the contrary, the Ferrari 458 Spider is not actually perfect. But it is a spectacular car.

The 458 Italia is looking like a raging good deal, promising Enzo performance at 60 percent off. It’s also one of the prettiest and best engineered supercars of this century.

With all its high-g grip, straight-line zoom, and denture-launching brakes, the 458 is a new benchmark for megadollar vomit inducers. The 458 has performance that race cars could once only dream of.

The new Ferrari 458 Italia is a most fitting successor to the F430. On the track at Fiorano, the 458 is a treat. It feels like a race car. Response is crisp from the throttle, steering and brakes.

The 458 Spider is so good, that we imagine more than a few die-hard coupe fans might find themselves wavering for the first time. It’s a shame they’ve softened it across the board without offering the option of leaving it alone.