What sort of car was Andromeda driving that wooed the gatekeeper?

The car that the Ritz’s concierge organized for Andromeda was a Ferrari California, one of the elegant originals, naturally aspirated and with the body designed by Pininfarina, as opposed to the later California Ts, whose engines were muted by turbochargers and uninspired coachwork was designed in-house at Maranello.

Andromeda is right in guessing that the transmission—dual-clutch automated manual—was derived from their race cars but is incorrect about the number of cylinders: it is eight rather than twelve, although the combination of a 90° V instead of the usual 60° and a flat plane crankshaft with low rotating mass means that the powerplant has none of the uneven rumble characteristic of American V-8s, instead spiraling toward the red line with the classic Calico-ripping sound that has been associated with high-performance eights since the days of Ettore Bugatti, and something that helped charm open the gates at Château Valaire.