When looking for exotic sports car thrills on public roads in the summer, it simply doesn't get any better than the Ferrari 458 Spider. How nice, too, that Italy's summer has gone on and on this year – it thoughtfully didn't end until the evening after our epic drive through the Apennine mountains.

Our mostly sun-drenched route started at around 500 feet above sea level in Maranello, climbing to near 3,200 feet over Passo della Cisa, finishing the outbound portion on a deserted sandy beach in northernmost Tuscany.

Then, instead of taking the suggested direct route back along the three-lane autostrade, we chose to retrace our steps over Passo della Cisa on the amazing S 62 two-lane highway where Enzo Ferrari competed in his very first road race back in 1919. It was a very appropriate 300 miles in paradise.

The all-aluminum 2012 Ferrari 458 Spider is built primarily at the Scaglietti facility in Modena, and the rakish drophead is scheduled to arrive in North America by mid-February carrying a base price of $257,000.

Rather surprisingly, our mountain hop reveals that the Spider possesses perhaps an even better sum of its parts than does the $225,000-ish much-ballyhooed fixed-roof Italia. Certainly, either body configuration fairly thrashes anything the old F430 lineup was ever capable of.

2012 Ferrari 458 Spider - YouTube

To be fair, when compared side by side with the coupe, the Spider weighs some 110 pounds more at 3,384 lbs., and its overall structure is said to be 30 percent less rigid.

Regardless, just as we have shamed the Italia's estimated 3.3-second run from 0-60 by recording our own 3.0-second zap, the Spider loses practically nothing to the coupe, and we're quite sure of being able to punch through to a 3.1-second time despite cheeky Ferrari estimates of "<3.3".

In regards to those all-important power and torque figures, the Spider repeats the numbers seen on the Italia: 570 horsepower maxing out at the 9,000-rpm redline and 398 pound-feet of torque peaking at 6,000 rpm. Compared to the F430 it replaces, the 458 models produce 18-percent more power at 500 more rpm and 16-percent more torque at 750 additional rpm.

All of this screaming performance – and it is screaming at 9,000 revs – comes with a 27-percent improvement in fuel efficiency and likewise improved levels of CO2 emissions from the dual-phase direct-injected F136 FB 90-degree 4.5-liter V8 (as compared to the F136 E 4.3-liter in the 430).

If you can stomach driving the Spider as sensibly as you might drive a Ford Fusion, a full 22.7-gallon tank could conceivably take you 401.5 miles – at which point, pigs will definitely fly by flapping their trotters and your driving enthusiast's credibility will be unceremoniously and permanently revoked.

[It took us about three quarters of a tank to get over and down to the beach and then a similar amount to get back.]