A very speedy and very rare Ferrari 458 Italia China Limited Edition, Spotted in China on the Beijing Tuning Street. It was launched in 2012 to celebrate two things: 20 years of Ferrari in China and the Chinese Year of the Dragon.
Therefore it got an ultra dangerous golden dragon on the bonnet, head aimed at the prancing horse. Only 20 cars were made and they were all sold out. In 2012 they went for a staggering 5.588 million yuan each ($879.000 in 2012 money). That was $251.000 more than Ferrari asked for the base 458, which sold for 3.88 million yuan or $628.000 (2012). So what did you get for all that extra money?
Besides the dragon: yellow-gold racing stripes, gold-painted alloys, special red paint called ‘Marco Polo red’, gold-painted stripes on the doors, a numbered gold-painted plaque in the interior, special stitch work in the interior, the character ‘long’ (dragon) stitched in the head rests (in a special very old hand writing), the same character stitched on the floor mats, some other gold-painted things in the interior, and best of all: the aeroelastic winglets in the bumper are painted in gold too.
The stripes are stickers, not painted on.
Over the roof. No changes to the engine. The 458 Italia China Limited Edition was all about the looks.
But sadly that wasn’t enough to turn it into a worthy investment, as some buyers no doubt had aimed for. Prices went down steeply instead. We saw one on sale in 2013, with one kilometer on the clock, for just 4.88 million yuan or $795.000.
Black leather interior with gold stitching and a red-gold center tunnel. The gold colored tube is a Wifi speaker, added by the owner I suppose, and matching nicely with the red of the color scheme. Parts of the dash are in red too, see this pic for a better look.
We have since found out that Ferrari has an odd way of numbering their special editions. They don’t go 1/20, 2/20, 3/20, but they call ‘m all 1. So every car has the same number. Wuzzy.
Plague on the dash in front of the passenger, so the little lady will know she’s riding something special.
Maybe, if the owners waits long enough, values will go up a bit again. Until then the Ferrari 458 Italia China Limited Edition is just an ultra cool special edition of an ultra cool supercar. With dragon!
