Amalfi Spider: Epic Greek blast in Ferrari’s £227k ‘entry’ drop-top
Before then, there are prosaic but nonetheless important elements. The freshly laid, glass-smooth motorway that takes us over from Attica, across the vertiginous slash in the landmass that is the manmade Corinth canal and into the vineyard-dotted Peloponnese bush is a chance to settle into the car’s unpretentious, cupped seats and take stock of what Ferrari says are myriad improvements to “quality of life on-board”.
The new electrohydraulically folding roof – five layers of fabric, three of rubber – is said to offer the same noise-insulation as a folding hard top, and in fairness this is difficult to dispute. The AmalfiSpider is a closer match for Bentley’s Continental GTC, as goes rolling refinement, than for any equivalent Porsche 911 convertible. I don’t think an Aston Martin Vantage Roadster, on its comically wide and roaring tyres, comes close either.
More impressive is what happens when you put the Amalfi’s roof down, which takes 13.5sec and can be done at 40mph. Keep the side windows up, deploy the rear seat-back panel as a turbulence-mitigation measure (it flips out to sit horizontal) and you need barely raise your voice to chat, even on rapid motorways runs. Uncanny.
The nose lift – not that you constantly need it, with the Amalfi’s unthreatening ride height – is also new and integrated into the Magneride dampers. Along with their springs, the dampers offer a broader spread of characteristics than Roma owners will know. Comfort mode is softer than before, Sport and Race firmer. And as ever, whichever mode you opt for via the anodised nub of the manettino, you can depress the dial itself to enter the ever-excellent Bumpy Road mode. This sets the suspension to its softest, no matter what the engine, gearbox and ESC are doing.
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