My first ever Ferrari has arrived, 2019 488 GTB [updated] now 458 Speciale.

Thanks buddy

Thanks Nuno! Feels good to be a Ferrari owner, kind of surreal and a long time dream achieved.. now praying for a GP win

Thanks dude. The engine is wild, I don't know if everyone has just gotten used to it or what but this engine is insane and addictive. Just playing around with the throttle, it feels very NA because if I touch the gas pedal I lurch forward, and if I let off the gas to coast it engine brakes hard and is not very smooth, keeping the response just about as instant as I want it. Whole new dimension of power for me coming from the 4.0 flat 6

Forgot to mention the brakes in my write up - I'm not the biggest fan of them, maybe I need to bed them in some way some how, my experience was the opposite of yours for daily driving. They feel very spongy is a good way to put it. These are supposed to be LaF derived carbon ceramic brakes and they remind me of braking in my father's '97 993. Even the steel brakes on my 911 feel more responsive and have more bite. They don't hold a candle to the PCCB from Porsche, miss those. And tire temps were hot, brakes were used deliberately on open stretches to warm rotor/pads everything, so everything should have been warm

On my drive up I slammed the brakes hard to avoid hitting a poor little squirrel skirting across the road and turned him into road kill because the brakes wouldn't bite hard enough to my surprise

 

Took the car out for a cruise up the PCH during sunset, this car is wicked I'm having a blast!

turns out you are spot on and I am wrong after taking the car out for a quick drive again today

Brakes actually bite very good on the street/daily driving situations, they are just a bit harder to modulate smoothly in my experience. Driving through the middle of CA was, looking back on it, was more *cough cough* like track driving where under warm/hot conditions they were quite sloppy/smushy/spongy which I didn't like, just did not instill confidence in the car under hard braking scenarios

Haha thanks bro, appreciate it!

Thanks again my friend. Funny story /memory for me because I had only a couple of days to spec the car once I found an open allocation with 488 GTB production ending imminently and only demo builds left available which were locking at a moment's notice. So maybe it worked to my benefit that I had less time to agonize and go back and forth on certain choices, and just send it for exactly what I wanted and had in mind!

I always admired how classy and elegant Ferraris of old looked, and hoped to bring some of that to the current era with my titanio over cuoio spec. It doesn't show up well in pictures, and even less so in pics in low lighting, but I really like the thick cuoio sella stitching on the cuoio leather. You have to see it in person to appreciate how complementary the colors are, creating a nice/discreet touch for a very similar interior tone. Especially on the beautifully stitched leather headliner, need to grab a pic of that at some point


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Crossed 1000 mi on the odo in about a week's time...I guess more than some owners do in a year, or during their entire ownership. Different strokes for different folks but this car is becoming more and more enjoyable to me as I continue to understand and get a feel for the 488. Did an amazing white knuckled drive blasting through some incredible roads/scenery today in beautiful Southern California. It's a brilliant experience. I'm now more comfortable with the power and pushing the car through corners. Actually using the car as intended hopefully, short of full blown tracking. Calling it good for break-in

More observations:

- bumpy road setting is awesome, a discernible difference making the ride much more comfortable/supple

- Paddle action way better/more satisfying than Porsche's PDK mini paddles, and don't mind them mounted to steering column

- I still wish the steering wheel would come out further to me for a better driving position without having to move the seat even more forward/crunch my legs more

- Knock on wood the car has been performing brilliantly and I'm pushing it pretty hard in hot temps for over 4 hours today, saw >95 during some stretches

- Passenger seat unoccupied and the belt buckle keeps rattling/hitting the CF backside of the seat. Will need to buckle it in I guess, my seats don't have the F12/812 loop on the shoulder to hold the belt in place

- 8k redline Feels like I got a special gift lol. Can only speak for my car but I was driving a bit briskly and for a split second thought I saw the tach needle hit a red number. Ok, lets slow down and be sure. Sure enough, race mode 3rd gear slam the throttle and glance down very very quickly: my tach needle is hitting about 8k (I don't want to let it bounce off rev limiter, so to be scientific sure maybe I should call it 7900/7950 as I'm shifting to 4th but that's fine with me). No way on Earth will I be able to get a picture or video, I'm just holding on for dear life with both hands already as it is

- Engine does feel like it's running out of breath around 7-7300 RPM, but I don't mind because I am already getting amazing sound from 3k RPM when valves open and what feels like full power down there. I used to run my GT3 in 2nd gear all the time so I could feel the pull and scream past 7k RPM to 9K, but don't need or want to do that with my 488 and I'm liking it all the same

- Got to my first tunnel and dropped the windows. The sounds from the engine under full load are amazing, same for downshifts

- Got my first scrape. Was out for a small night cruise last night even though I was a bit tired. Wasn't paying attention leaving a gas station that there was a dip before the street and didn't have lift up (paying attention merging into traffic), nicked the underside. Glad I have the lifter, using it most times I'm driving as a precaution and the gas station experience tells me even the 4x4 ride height of the car sometimes is not enough. First cut is the deepest and now glad to get it out of the way




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turns out I might be going this route Jim - funny how I was dismissive of it at first but likely going to eat crow now

First scrape on the underside has me now thinking about getting this done @ Ferrari South Bay. Service advisor (Chris - he's awesome) says many clients have opted for it, saying roughly $1400 all in after ordering the kit, labor, taxes etc

Because I'm driving the car heavily and in all sorts of environments, will likely get this done soon before even more scrapes happen. Will help me feel better with something plastic there (makes me really appreciate Porsche's tactic with the replaceable plastic front lip)

Do you have the scrape armor installed? Have any pics of it/is it detectable or visible at all from ordinary angles?

yep. Heaven on Earth, did 33 to Lockwood Valley. Wanted to do the full loop and take Cuddy Valley, but ran out of time thinking I could beat 405 traffic. Was wrong and got clobbered anyways

Based on those numbers one might, or might not, be able to make the argument that I was Have never been much of a track rat, I liken it to cocaine... might be hard to stop if I started! I would like to get the car on a skid pad of sorts though, to start playing around with CT/ESC off settings and learn more about the car. Might wait for a rainy day and head for an empty parking lot (if such a thing exists in LA)

Haha thanks Nuno! Never really kept a journal of sorts for a car before, but figured this might be a good place to start with the first Ferrari and share with anyone interested