Buy an iPod Touch, Get a Free Ferrari
By Chris Haak
11.12.2008
Ferrari has just revealed its open top 430 Scuderia Spider 16M, which features a 510 horsepower 4.3 liter V8 and six-speed F1 paddle shift transmission. The Scuderia Spider is a full 176 pounds lighter than the standard F430 Spider, and is capable of accelerating from zero to sixty in just 3.7 seconds.
The 16M part of the car’s name comes from the commemoration of Ferrari’s 16th Formula 1 victory in the Constructor’s World Championship. The limited edition car (one of just 499 built) includes a special rear grille plaque commemorating the occasion. Most interestingly, however, is that each of the 499 cars include a limited edition iPod Touch that comes pre-loaded with Ferrari images and engine sounds. The car has a special docking port built right into the center stack for the iPod Touch to seamlessly integrate the music player into the car’s interior.
Pricing for the limited edition Ferrari-branded 16 GB iPod Touch begins at around $280,000, but does include a very exclusive Ferrari automobile in the price, one that is available in either a standard black exterior color scheme or a three-color theme offered as part of the Carrozzeria Scaglietti personalization program.
The funniest thing is, in spite of a global financial meltdown and the resultant evaporation of wealth around the world, Apple Ferrari will sell every one of the special iPod Touches499 Scuderia Spider 16Ms that it builds. Though we at Full Metal Autos are clearly not holding our collective breath waiting for a Ferrari to show up in our test fleet, it would be interesting to see how seamlessly integrated the iPod Touch is into the car’s audio system. Would an iPhone also use the same interface?
Apple has a frustrating habit of rendering accessories obsolete between generations of its products; for example, although an iPod Classic is more or less the same shape as earlier versions, covers and other accessories won’t fit. With the iPhone, cars that have built-in iPod integration (and therefore a dock cable that fits onto the iPhone’s dock connector) will play music from the iPhone’s library, but Apple doesn’t allow the iPhone to charge on the connection the way an iPod can. Instead, the iPhone displays a message on its screen that says it will not allow charging because it is connected to an unsupported accessory.
Apparently, Ferrari and Apple have a far more integrated solution than what I described above. At least one would hope that they do for $280,000.
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