It is incredibly ironic, I feel, that you can buy a new Audi R8 with a good old fashioned, solid steel, open H-gate gearshift, but you cannot buy a new Ferrari with the gearshift they helped make the object of boyhood dreams. Well at least my boyhood dreams. Ferrari don’t even make a manual transmission for this car.

This driver might have been wishing they had, as he’s in reverse for the start of this race against a Dodge Viper. The Viper does start off with a massive burnout, which might have made the Ferrari driver a bit nervous, overlooking the large R on the display. Well that was embarrassing.

If both cars are stock, its likely the Ferrari would have edged the Viper over the quarter mile as it reaches 100km/h from standstill in 3.4 compared to the Viper’s 4.6. But then again, if you’re going to race an old Viper against a new 458, chances are you’ve done a little work under the bonnet. Tuning company Hennessy has been known to extract 1000hp from the old buck.

Let us know if you’ve seen the Ferrari 458 matched up against anything special lately. Post videos below!

Ciro De Siena – OverdriveTV