Drove the 488 today.. thoughts, photos and videos

This writer is a somewhat irritating chap imho..

To all who like the 488 go buy one: too many justifications!!

 

Since most of the discussion on the 488 seems to be on this thread, I wanted to point out the video I posted yesterday morning under the "488 spider" thread. I've not seen it posted anywhere on FChat, yet, and I think you'll find it interesting. It's all in Italian, and features one of Ferrari's test drivers/engineers, De Simone, discussing the 488 Spider. It shows some views of the car and video of it running, etc. Don't want you all to miss it. Here's the link, again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsJSazFvZcI&app=desktop

 

I posted the full version of it one post above yours.

 

Funny! Oops! I watched the beginning of the video you posted, and thought it was one I had already seen (it was the footage from the release video). Ok! Sorry about the repost!

 

Sad Sound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKvEX4LJI0Q

 

The amount of hate towards the 488 makes it almost feel like a conspiracy to help prop 458 residuals lol

 

Yes but the lines are out the door

 

Sure I hope residuals stay high, but I bought knowing it was headed only one way, down. And like most, I am ok with that because the 458 is SO GOOD and to own a Ferrari, THIS Ferrari, was a dream.

But to cough up the $ delta for a car that is easily faster, quicker and handles better, but loses some of the raw edge and much if not all of the visceral sound...well, you see the honest reaction.

Maybe if the 488 body shape was drastically different I'd have a more favorable reaction.

When there are aftermarket loud/better exhaust options, I reserve the right to change my mind.

New owners to the brand wont know the difference or care, and will end up with a very cool direct McLaren competitor.

 

That's absolutely in order.

However, for a non-owner of a 458 and a non-new owner to the brand, this entire 458/488 theater is very witty to follow and makes fun of course.

For me it was never an option to switch from my Scuderia to a 458. Yes, I had different good deals on the table, the last one was a trade in for a nice Speciale. But for me the Scuderia is very special to drive, I love the driving experience with this car extremely. My Scud is my choice in the Ferrari NA V8 mid engine world.

Nevertheless I never wrote a disparaging word about the 458. Even on the contrary I was one of the first posters with laudatory words about the Speciale, there was also negative written by some 458 Italia owners at the appearance of the new king.

I was always very curious about the 458 and am now extremely excited about the 488 because it offers a completely new drive concept, a completely new experience.

The entire whining is somehow predictable.

 

The 458 to 488 reminds me of when Porsche went from the 993 to the 996. The 996 was a better car but had questionable looks and went away from the traditional air cooled engines. The 993 seems to be more loved and valued today than the 996 and I think that will be the same with the 458. I'm keeping mine.

 

^ interesting analogy.....one that does resonate.

 

My $0.02....

Drove a US-spec car for a bit over an hour last week in Monterey.

Impressions:

The side intakes will take some time to adjust to visually. Really do like the evolution of the nose, rear and interior tweaks. Interior build quality seems improved, though the car we had was equipped with an odd black polyester-mesh like headliner (standard? pre-production?)

The car drove wonderfully (chassis). Tried it in all modes, it was as sorted as a 458 in high speed, low speed and transitions. The car runs the chassis software of the Speciale (incl SSC) though is a tad bit softer.

Brakes were great (Speciale brakes, so should be). Pedal in the car I was driving was slightly soft, but this car had been thrashed. Would imagine new pads and a full bleed would remedy it. Stopping power was great.

Power? in the meat of the curve, it has an F12-like pull, much more grunt than an Italia or Speciale. It's really noticeable, but very drivable.

Need to be careful to stay off the rev-limiter - took me about 30 seconds to calibrate to the lower rpm redline. Use the LED's and be ready to shift quickly especially in lower gears.

Lag? We played around with getting on the power from different rev levels/gear combos. Like almost any engine, low(er) revs and high(er) gears, there was some lag. However, if you can keep the turbo spooling, the lag was almost imperceptible. The "turbo response" gauge seemed sort of hokey, but it did correlate to the performance of the engine. For most folks, it might mean staying in a lower gear or keeping slightly higher revs in transitions. In full acceleration (we did many 20mph-to-very-illegal speed sprints), shift points kept the turbo in the zone, almost no lag. Cruising along and then mashing the throttle, you could feel some.

Sound? while different than the Speciale (which we drove for 8 straight days and 800 miles on similar roads last week), the sound is actually quite good. Does it scream like the Speciale at 8500rpm? No. Frankly our Speciale doesn't scream like our 355 either. I guess some will not like the sound, but I thought it sounded great. Imagine that you can put an aggressive exhaust on downstream of the turbos and make it louder, but not sure it will be better.

In terms of livability, in 7th gear and in Auto mode, the engine is damn near silent. Which, if you drive your cars a lot and sometimes have to go Point A to Point B on a highway, is actually nice.

Overall, incredible car. Religious discussions around NA vs. forced induction aside, they did a great job with the engine and the overall package. Sound differences will be a matter of taste, though I'll speculate that many will begrudgingly admit that while slightly different, it's great. (we drove with an F40 and a 288 last week, and they sounded different than the LaF, Enzo and F50, but sounded fine to us). Last, to get the most out of the engine you might need to slightly adapt and modify your driving style, but then again even our Speciale needs to be driven higher in the rev range to come alive.

Given what we have in our garage and plan to do, I was holding off on wanting a 488, but now having driven one, it's moving quickly up the list.

YMMV

 

Great review and very helpful.

Was the rev limiter in the lower gears actually 8k or was it 7500? Been reading some other threads that suggest the car is actually limited to 7500 in lower gears while the tach has 8k as redline.

 

Always 'sound' advice from Entropy. Thank you for taking the time to share your 488 observations! Especially which parts bins Ferrari borrowed the 'good stuff' from...

 

It's 8,000 everywhere but some of the test cars seem artificially limited to 7,500.

 

7500 in 1st, 8K at the top.

The quoted logic is that they were trying to keep the "feel" of the engine like a NA one. Interestingly each gear and mannetino setting has it's own unique engine map (fuel/air/ignition/boost).

In reality, I wonder (i.e. I'm speculating) if capping it at 7500 in first helps reduce wheelspin; you CAN break the rear end loose easily at higher revs in lower gears. While true of most performance cars (eg. F12), coming out of switchbacks hard on it wanted to make the rear end dance.

FWIW, the engine revs quickly enough that I didn't worry much about the lower revs as much as grabbing the next gear; said otherwise, I didn't feel like I was short-shifting at all, which some lower rpm cars feel like after you've plowed a 9K rpm Ferrari engine

 

No, it's 8K everywhere but torque is limited in the lower gears (1, 2 and 3) and the curve is tweaked. This is what they've done to make it feel N/A.

 

Thanks for your perspective

 

Thank you.

 

If so I stand corrected. Seemed like 7500 in 1st, but I was going off the lights only. Product guy riding with me also said 7500. The maps are different by gear according the briefing (which I believe) which changes the actual torque

 

I've read all the reviews so far and watched all the vids and as far as I remember it's all been about having a different torque curve in 1,2 and 3 and I don't think I've seen anything about different rev limits for the lower gears. I could be wrong, though.

EDIT: I just went back and looked at the Autocar, Car and Evo reviews and there was nothing in them referring to a lower rev limit in 1 to 3, just a different torque map to artificially limit the torque in the lower gears. Mind you, if the product guy said it's so, now I'm wondering. Others have been reporting a 7,500 limit on the test cars (though not everyone), but it seems to have been throughout the gears. All seems a bit confused.

 

Great review man. This is how I envisioned the 488 would be like. Also the sound, I havent hear it in person, but all the videos make me feel the same way. Thanks for the in depth review.

 

Entropy, I totally agree with your assessment of the car. My buddy and I both loved the car and are waiting for allocations.

The 488's we drove also had the rev limiter set to 7500 rpm. I've asked for an official response to this issue and have not yet received a response. I've been trying to find a video of the Tach revving to 8000, but haven't found one yet. Logic dictates that the rev limiter should be set to just above 8000 rpm in all gears. Nothing else would make sense.

 

What's the redline??? Found this factory video that hopefully answers the question... Looks like 8200

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Bs_V3h8-yW0#t=416