This Ferrari 458 Speciale is armoured and remains a pure, hardcore supercar

The Ferrari 458 Speciale was the radical version of the Ferrari 458 Italia, a car that stirred excitement among enthusiasts. This variant was tasked with cutting as much weight as possible from the Italian supercar, improving its aerodynamics and increasing its power. With this premise, Ferrari set out to offer a far more radical supercar in every respect, but the owner of this example has decided to turn to AddArmor with a very clear intention: to armour it. Sacrilege or genius, armouring a Ferrari 458 Speciale?

At first glance, adding weight to a car whose raison d’être is a perfect power-to-weight ratio seems somewhat counterproductive. But the truth is that both the AddArmor team and its owner have achieved a high level of protection while keeping the essence of the 458 Speciale intact.

At first sight, we find no aesthetic difference between this armoured example and a “normal” Ferrari 458 Speciale. Yet this has not stopped AddArmor from fitting the Italian supercar with B4-level protection, which gives it the ability to repel rounds from conventional handguns, including .44 Magnums. To achieve this, the engineers used a material ten times stronger than ballistic steel yet 60% lighter.

This adds 70 kilos of extra weight, a figure that could have ruined the 458 Speciale‘s weight distribution, but it has not. To offset the gain, an exhaust signed by Capristo has been fitted and, by a happy coincidence, this particular car was already equipped with every available carbon-fibre extra, meaning AddArmor’s intervention adds just 30 kilos.

However, before raising any outcry, the new exhaust on this Speciale helps increase the power of its naturally aspirated V8 – as well as improving its sound. Standard, the Italian supercar produces 605 CV, but thanks to the Capristo exhaust that figure rises to 645 CV, so the added weight is hardly significant.

All this means we are looking at a Ferrari 458 Speciale that is not only safer, but just as fast and effective. This model carried on a lineage whose legacy was taken up by the Ferrari 488 Pista, and soon the corresponding radical variant of the Ferrari F8 Tributo, the current flag-bearer of Ferrari’s V8s, will do the same.