Long ago, we discussed possibly the best supercar to ever come out of Maranello, well a new Monster has been launched in Maranello, it’s the elder sibling of the 458 Speciale, or it can be said as the wilder version of the 488 Pista. It is one of the fastest Ferrari’s on sale today. Just when we all thought that the 458 can’t get any better, Ferrari came up with the 488. Unlike the 458, the 488 is turbocharged, twin-turbocharged actually, and it puts out a colossal 710 Horsepower from its 3.9 liters forced induction V8 engine, which is down in size from the 458’s 4.5 liters naturally aspirated V8.
0 to 60mph takes just 2.9 seconds, just like every other supercar nowadays, the top speed at 212 Mph is quite fast, but neither of these numbers impresses me, the number that surprises me the most is the time this car takes from 0 to 125Mph, in just 7.5 seconds, you will be well past the 200kmph mark. It’s faster than its arch-rival the McLaren 720s which isn’t a slouch either at 7.8 seconds to 200kmph. The 458 Speciale felt like the perfect car, it had the right amount of horsepower, looks, and it was a true driver’s car, but Ferrari with the 488 Pista just took it to another level. The technology today has gone so far that a turbocharged engine feels hardly differentiable from a naturally aspirated one, that’s exactly the case with the Pista, even though it isn’t naturally aspirated, it feel like one for sure, it has all the charm of a naturally aspirated engine with the added benefits of a turbocharged one. The torque that the 488 Pista generates is also impressive, 770 Nm. That’s the sole reason why the 488 Pista accelerates with so much momentum. The 488 GTB, felt muted, from the looks to the power delivery, it wasn’t aggressive at all. What Ferrari has done with the 488 Pista, is to take the engine and all the technology from their 488 Challenge car and put it into the 488 Pista road car. What happens when a company derives the design of the car from the previous generation is that, the new design often comes out to be messed up, that’s not the case with the 488, even though it has been largely inspired from the 458, the addition of side intakes, bigger wheel arches and added aerodynamic components hasn’t ruined the design at all the 488 Pista looks much meaner than all the previous Ferrari’s.
I agree that no one needs this much horsepower in a road-going Ferrari Track monster, but does that mean that the 488 Pista is a Bad car. If someone says that the Pista is a bad car just because it’s faster and has more horsepower, it’s would be the same as saying that A chef who is rated 5 Michelin stars is worse than a chef with 4 Michelin stars. The exhaust in the 488 Pista has been made from Inconel, it’s the same material used in Rocket engines. The Aerodynamics have been inspired by F1 cars. The most noticeable change is at the front, Ferrari calls the air channel created at the front by the plunging hood an S-duct. What it does is that, channels the air through the duct and flows it over the car and that increases downforce at the front, thus adding weight on the front axle and that helps the tire I gaining more traction, which in turn makes the car more agile. That’s some clever way of creating downforce, well doe Ferrari. Those stripes over the car just add to the looks and make the 488 Pista stand out even more. Lighter flywheels, lighter connecting rods, and a stripped-out interior mean that the 488 Pista is 90kgs lighter than the Standard 488 GTB, but I still feel that there is too much padding in the seat and a few kgs can be shaved off by making the seats lighter. To be honest the interior has started to feel dated, very dated. Ferrari needs to do a serious revision and come with updates soon in the future Ferraris. One very significant improvement that can be spotted while driving the 488 Pista is the braking, the 458 Speciale brakes were good, but with the 488 they have been immensely improved.
Regarding track performance, the 488 Pista is 2 seconds faster than the 458 Speciale around the Fiorano circuit that might not seem like a lot but when you do 10 laps around the same track, you are 20 seconds ahead of the 458 Speciale and that indeed is a huge improvement. That flat-plane crank makes the 488 Pista sound good, not as good as the naturally aspirated 458 for sure.
The 488 Pista is one of the very bests that the Ferrari has made, I know that I say this for almost every Ferrari, but that’s the thing with Ferrari, they never make bad cars. Lamborghini makes one of the best cars in the world, but if I had to go with one, I had taken the prancing Italian horse over the raging Italian Bulls, cause it’s Ferrari that started the Supercar revolution in Italy.
That’s it for this time guys.
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Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash