The Ferrari 488 Pista Has Landed: Updated
Updated with new useful tidbits from the Geneva Show release.
Because motor shows are now just after-parties for pre-show press releases, we’ve got the Ferrari 488 Pista for you. Based on the Scuderia’s outstanding 488 GTB, it’s another in the line that gave us the 360 Challenge Stradale, 430 Scuderia and 458 Speciale.
Ferrari 488 Pista
Maranello’s press team says the Pista has evolved straight out of the FIA World Endurance Championship GTE series success. Ferrari has won five championships in the last six years, so that’s not a bad place to start. Added to that is the three decades of experience running the Ferrari Challenge Series.
Maranello took the 488 GTB and started by knocking the weight back to 1280kg dry, mostly by flinging stuff you’re unlikely to need on the track. That dry weight is impressive. To put it in context, it’s 90kg lighter, or one chunky person, lighter than the GTB.
488 Pista engine
The Pista’s V8 is an evolution of the GTB’s 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8. Power is up 40kW (50PS) to a staggering 530kW (720PS), matching McLaren’s twin-turbo in the, er, 720S. Torque is up to 770Nm.
The Pista is clearly aimed at Porsche’s GT3 RS and McLaren’s Senna and is going to be extremely fast and rare.
The engine itself is 18kg lighter, with some weight-saving pinched from the 488 Challenge. The savings come from titanium conrods, lightweight flywheel and crankshaft and carbon fibre intake plenums. Cooling is courtesy of the inverted radiators of the 488 Challenge, part of the reason the front-boot is gone.
The Pista uses the seven-speed twin-clutch to send you to 100km/h (62mph) in 2.85 seconds and 200km/h (124mph) in just 7.6 seconds. Top speed is 340km/h (210mph).
488 Pista Aerodynamics
Oddly enough, the road car’s aero is a harder-core version of the race cars, because it can be. The front splitter is hugely aggressive. An F1-inspired “S-duct” helps suck the car to the road (and if you look down the windscreen, you can see the road) and the rear wing is bigger and more aggressive than the race car’s. The vortex generators beneath the car are also redesigned for a bit of extra whoosh.
All of that boosts the downforce by 20 percent.
488 Pista Chassis
Ferrari is becoming almost as addicted to acronyms as Porsche. Starting with SSC (side-slip control), there’s the E-Diff3 active diff, F1-Trac stability and control systems, SCM dynamic dampers and FDE, which stands for Ferrari Dynamic Enhancer.
FDE controls brake pressure at the calipers, which sounds like a torque vectoring technique to aid turn-in and overall stability.
Some of the 90kg weight loss comes from the carbon fibre rimmed wheels, a Ferrari first. Handily, they also decrease the car’s unsprung weight.
More details will come at the Geneva Motor Show (now incorporated into this story), which is shaping up to be a classic. Either way, this car is a classic and likely already pretty much sold out. And for prospective owners, a genuine investment. No, really – 458 Speciales are known to go for double their purchase price in some markets.
