A Ferrari 458 Spider burns an hour after delivery

Recently, a Ferrari 458 Spider burned to the ground on an expressway in Japan. According to the owner who had spent a decade saving to buy the car, it went up in flames within minutes of him taking it on a first drive.

The owner, a 33-year-old Japanese music producer, took delivery of his 458 Spider, only to have it immolate on the Shuto Expressway in Tokyo.

The owner posted on X: “My Ferrari burned to ashes an hour after delivery.” 

He added: “I bet I’m the only one in all of Japan to experience this kind of trouble.”

No one was injured in the blaze, which took 20 minutes to extinguish. Everything was charred bar the leading edge of the front bumper.

There was no crash prior to the incident. Evidently the new owner noticed the fire when driving on the expressway, stopped and got out, whereupon the fire took over. The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the cause of the blaze.

The Ferrari 458 was produced last decade. Ferrari issued a recall in July 2010 to sort a fire risk due to adhesive used in the wheel arch assemblies of Coupe models. Evidently it could overheat and was seen as a fire hazard. Ferrari rectified this by replacing the adhesive with metal fasteners. This particular car is a Spider model produced after July 2010, however.

No doubt owners of 458s will want to know the cause of the fire. As for the owner, he should be behind the wheel of another Ferrari soon once insurance is sorted.