Well I happened to be in the area and so stopped off to see my friend at the Ferrari Dealer.  Saw about 6 430's and a pair of 599's.  They even had a Alfa 8c which in person was not as cool looking as in the pictures.  Then the truck pulled up and out rolls a metallic black Ferrari California.  Wow.   and I mean holy moly Wow.
My friend looks at me and of course says, "You want to take it for a spin?"  5 minutes later with the top down I'm at 90 up the 101 freeway.  This thing could be my new favorite car.  


Looks:
This is a bit of a sneaky car.  I will be the first to admit that I wasn't in love with it from the pictures. It seems off somehow.  Kind of 550 looking from the front and a lot of rear end. Almost corvette'ish there is so much real estate in the back.  Much like the Cayenne though, in person it was 1000% better.  To start, the back. The much maligned rear end is actually pretty darn cool in person. First off it is broken up by a black swath of hardened metal/plastic next to and around the license plate.  This does a good job of breaking the view as opposed to the giant 4 foot high fiberglass wall of the corvette.  Beneath that is the typical Ferrari air diffuser and a very very interesting four exhaust with the exhausts stacked like the Lexus IS-F. . . uh except you know, these are actually connected to the exhaust.  The front of the car looks sort of like a 550 but also reminds me of a thunderbird or of course my 250GT.  In video it looks squattish but man in person it's a real looker.  Just very cool looking.  Not the aggressive knife styling of the F430 but more the cruising look of the 599 without the F1 mating.  Headlights and back had LED's all over the place.
HardTop: I timed it and it went down in just over 12 seconds.  That's very fast for a hard top and it went down in a very cool way.  The back flipped back first then the top went right into and under the back before the two pieces (not three just two) slipped into the trunk.
Trunk: Lots of room back there believe it or not. Golf clubs would be no problem AND the car had a pass through so you could put stuff in there and pass into the cabin.
Interior: Now this was not what I expected. First off there were two jump seats in the back. Theoretically, you could put a child back there but you'd have to move the front seat up.  Meanwhile, the seats.  The seats are not typical Ferrari but are similar to the Alfa Competizone 8c.  They are diamond stitching with F430 side bolsters.  All electric seats and the leather was butter soft.  The interior was extrememly quiet. Honestly, it was like driving an Audi.  The seems were tight and quiet with zero squeeks or squawks and with the top on it might as well have been a coupe it was so quiet. Extremely comfortable and I could see myself driving it for 4 hours with no problems whereas if I drove the F430 for 4 hours I'd be a bit aches and pains for a while.  
The center panel between the seats was great.  It had this aluminum uh it can only be described as a handle.  It's really cool to see and would be handy to throw your cell phone under.  The car came with a USB input Nav TOUCH screen 30 GB Hard Drive, bluetooth, etc display that worked very nicely although some different speakers might be needed.  At the top of the "handle" were Launch control and start buttons and things.  The instrument gauge had this little TFT screen on it that showed all kinds of cool info like tach or oil pressure or temp, fun stuff.  I couldn't find a parking brake. (I'm sure it's there but I couldnt find it)  When the car starts and gets put in drive, the parking brake auto releases and auto goes on when you stop the car and kill the ignition.  
Drive:
This was not what I expected.  The engine is in front of this car but is pushed back so it's sort of back of the front.  In other words, when you pull the hood you can see the engine is pushed almost into the cockpit and doesn't extend to the front bumper.  It's a v8 and is hooked to Ferrari's first SEVEN speed. I will say this, hands down no question best transmission I've ever seen.  Seriously guys, the transmission is unreal.  (Can't stress that enough!).  Tranmission stalks are on the steering column (where they should be!!!) and when you click this thing, it's in gear and at correct revs before you even can possibly take your fingers off the clicker. It's pretty much instantaneous. (Are you reading this you morons at BMW??? INSTANTANEOUS!!!! Sorry I couldn't help it and almost kicked my M6 with it's retarded SMG transmission when I got back to my car) The gear box makes an incredible sweet sound when clicked too.  "Smack" "Crack" "Smack" it's worth it to just click gears to hear that thing go.  The seven gears means you can of course cruise very comfortably.  It is a very smooth engine.  It's really more of a baby 599 then a F430.  It may have the same 8 cyl as the mid ship family of Ferrari but it belongs in the GT family.  Where an F430 is more of a track car you can drive on the streets, this is more of a cruising GT car that you can drive on a track.  The car felt smallish but is actually the same size as the 430.  The engine is nice and smooth as is the ride.  No jarring bumps or rattles.  It even sits higher so you won't scratch the bottom at all.  I will say it rolls more than say the M6 or the 430. It wasn't as vacuum stuck to the pavement around this sharp bend I went around.  In the M6, it feels like the car actually flattens to the pavement, this rolls a little but no tire squeel or anything.  It does move in a hurry though. I believe it had like 440 HP and had some nice giddy up.  It's stable though and I pulled the back out only with some effort.  The exhaust note isn't as loud and obnoxious as the F430.  There is also no random bark like on a Gallardo (never did understand what was causing that).  It's kind of like a muted F430 until you stamp on the pedal.  Then something opens up and it screams just like an F430 and it's just such a nice sound.  Reverbs through your whole body.  Try at least once in your life driving a 430 and you'll know it.  It comes at 3k rpm and is almost animal like in growl and just music to any car enthusiast.
I hear the thing actually gets pretty good gas mileage but honestly I wouldn't care.  
Anyways to sum things up, it's the best Ferrari for actual use that I've ever seen.  It is NOT a racer. It is definately a GT car and is just made for trips to Napa or Monteray with your wife.  Hell it's simple enough in auto mode, your wife could actually drive this thing.  Seriously.  (it actually starts in auto!)  In short it's the most livable Ferarri.  Other than the fact that it stopped traffic wherever I went.  Finally, yes I did in fact put a deposit down when I got back.  The one coming in is Red on Beige which is lame because I want it in either that exact same metallic black (drool) or possibly that sky blue you see in the videos.  I'm on top of the list though and with only 500 coming in, I feel pretty psyched about it.  Sooo, the R8 might not happen. This thing has me thinking in a whole new direction.
P.S. Only 500 means I should be in rare company and would see few if any of them on the road which makes me very happy.

i thought it was really small, but i guess i was thinking in terms of other more "worldly" cars.  Sounds pretty liveable for a ferrari.  nice choice!

Mom Ferrari?!?! Ouch that really truly hurts.  Bleah I don't want to buy this thing if it's going to drop in value like a rock.  Just a 18 months ago 3 year old F430's were going for 45k over sticker for a brand new one.  yes I know this is a different world but I was thinking of getting it brand new and paying sticker then selling it for sticker or maybe 10k more in a year or so if I didn't want it anymore.  Or just keeping it if I loved it still.  Hmmmm, going to have to research this a lot more now.

hehehehe, unless you are lucky enough to be dealing first hand with Ferrari....  you remember Trin's post on how Ferrari works?  At that level you are basically getting a deal and making the "outsiders" pay the higher price tag..hehehe

nice to know the horse peeps....

Yeah that's true. It took me three cars to get to the top of the list. Good news is if the world gets back to normal (HUGE "if") then I should be able to take new models for free or maybe even make a few bucks.  Bad news is the world is not normal and these cars took an absolute beating over the last year.  My best example is a 4 year old F430 with low miles and convertible is now going in the 140k range when it was going in the 240-240 range in March of 2008.  599's are going at MSRP and used ones are going at a discount to MSRP.  Haven't seen that since like 2001.  Before that 1998-2000 they were way over msrp even on 3 year old cars.  Hopefully the world gets back to normal.