The Very First Lowered F8 Tributo On Premium Aftermarket Wheels In The World

Factory builds for the masses, there is always room to improve depending on your personal preferences both from a performance and aesthetic standpoint.

 

Exactly I don’t think I will track my F8 anyway so this looks killer!

 

My only knock with the F8 are the weird looking factory wheels and this fixes that issue.

 

I have a set of Pista wheels waiting to go on, just need the car.... maybe by the end of summer. I’ll have to see how I like the car with the stock setup before I think about springs and bigger wheels/tires. How do you like the Sport cup 2 tires on the street? I know they are not the best in cold weather and rain, how are they holding up for normal dry weather street use?

 

No you are not wrong.
I have driven a few 4X8's with the wide rears on track, and handling was very poor.
Yes you do gain more rear end bite, but that is the last thing these cars need. Despite the light steering, they have an insane amount of understeer with the factory set up, and adding tyres that are much wider in the rear, really adds to this. Turn-in becomes incredibly slow and not very predictable. It might be cool if you like the big wheel look, but it does nothing good for performance. On top of this, you're adding a lot of rotating and unsprung mass where it matters the most - namely the tyres. On an F8 or 488, you add 7 lbs PER tyre in the rear, and you're increasing diameter on top of that. Trust me, it is noticable on a car you track or drive hard.
Lastly there's noise. In stock size, the PZero is more noisy and rides harsher than even the MPSC2. When you increase the width and lower the profile, it gets even louder and harsher. It is also worth noting that the tramlining the PZero is prone to, intensifies with the wider rears.

Trust me, from a performance and comfort standpoint, you gain NOTHING. A normal 488 outruns a GT3RS, but with the 255 and 335 21/22 combo it is not even close go keeping up. The understeer kills the response and turn-in and the weight and diameter kills accelleration as well as braking performance.

 

Hmmmm. I see.

At any rate, the car doesen't need more width back there than 325. Have you increased fronts to 265?

One thing though. I may be wrong, but it does look like you have a bit more room on the outside. Maybe 8mm?

 

They are great on the street once they heat up.

 

Not quite that much and you have to consider that you may hit a dip in the road so the tire needs some room to rebound. I agree 325's in this tire is plenty. Front tire is stock size.

 

You guys that talk about these wider tires bigger rims offer better performance...ARE DEAD WRONG.

The stock rear is 305/30/20 overall diameter is 27.2" with 727 Revs per mile. When you put the 335/25/22 tire on you are going way up to a 28.6" overall diameter tire with 764 Revs per mile!!!

In other words you are changing your final gear ratio to a larger gear which in fact creates much less acceleration at the same rpm as the stock 20" tires. I have seen this happen time and time again at the drag strip test and tune nights...with Ferrari's in fact...stock size tire 488 or 458's out running guys with 21/22 big dub wheel/tire packages.

If you want to keep the stock acceleration times or improve acceleration and corner grip get some nice looking lighter weight HRE's or BBS helps performance and to further improve performance put on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 or Pirelli Trefeo R tires for better grip in acceleration and better grip in the corners.

 

No point in more power without grip. The std size is good but can be improved upon.

 

Correct... you can always use more grip....you get more grip with a stickier tire. With a large 22" tire creating larger overall tire diameter (not width) you are KILLING acceleration so yes less tire spin taking off more so due to the gear ratio change by the larger diameter but after than slower acceleration also through the gears...thus further KILLING performance.

A 21/22 wheel tire package is NOT a performance upgrade....it is a personal change in looks.

 

I agree, 22s are too large on these cars. 20/21 is ideal and consistent with other super cars.

 

I'm having a new set of HRE 101LW (LW denotes Light Weight) made for my Pista as we speak. When we are done, I will have six wheels for the car; a set of factory size wheels/tires all around (20"), and a 20/21 setup to match.

The front wheel and tire combo in this configuration weighs 4 LBS less per corner, which I personally confirmed. The savings at the rear in this configuration has yet to be confirmed, but I presume it will be another reduction of 4 pounds each. I will also have a pair of 21" rears, with the 355 fitment. We have already weighed these from a previous application, and unfortunately, the big fattys on the rear ADD about 4 LBS. per corner. Doh!

My theory is that the 20" setup will be the Superleggera setup, the 20/21 will be the superbling setup. . I'm inclined to believe that I won't use the 20/21 setup much, as the Pista feels so delicious with the lighter wheels at each corner.

 

This is the thing. People have a tendency to not think logically about it. Want a 488 to be really fast? Run 19" wheels with Trofeo R 265/35R19 in the front and 325/30R19 in the back. Wide footprint, light tyre and wheel combo and a shorter gearing due to the slight decrease in diameter. Put that combo on a Pista, increase camber to 2.5 degrees, run 0 toe. drop it 10-15 mm and it will be one mean weapon of a track machine.

Another issue with weight is this. Take a nice 22" wheel. It might "only" weight say 23 lbs. which is light for such a chariot sized wheel. But you move all the weight of the barrel an inch out, and all the weight you increase in the tyre, is at the outer most circumference of the rotation. It doesn't get much worse that that.

 

Unless you can keep the tyre temp above 50C, forget MPSC2. Below that, the MPS4S offers more grip. Add to that the fact that the MPSC2 is quite a bit more noisy and ride rougher. Depending on how you drive and where you live, sure try them. But honestly, unless you track, there's zero point in running MPSC2 imo. But for track work, the MPSC2 is great and far superior. It will grip and hold up where the MPS4S will get greasy and melt.

Some don't like the idea of the MPS4S being "enough", because then they feel they aren't driving the car properly or using it correctly. But fact is that for most drivers, even good drivers, you would have to run stupidly hard on the street to really take advantage of it. Sure if you live in the UAE or in a very warm place, you are in a position where the tyre easily gets to operating temps just by normal driving. But if air temps are in the 20-25C you need to push it constantly on the street to keep them hot enough. So be honest with yourself and how you actually drive, because that will result in the best performance from your car.

 

Yes I’ve been debating to go with 4s or cup 2. I will be doing track days, but not more than twice a year. I live in Phoenix AZ, so most of the year no problems with heat!

I did notice a K1 and K2 Ferrari spec tire for the front in the 4s, but no Ferrari spec tire for the rear size. Maybe rear K spec coming soon, or what is best for the rear?

 

For the Pista get the Cup 2s, I have the MPS4S on my F12 though.

 

There are currently no F8/488 specific MPS4S tyre. The K1 is the Lusso front and the K2 is the Porto front. Consider using a non-model specific front with a non-model specific rear. There's nothing to gain in terms of quality or compound by using a K spec tyre in the front. The better balanced set is a set of non-K tyres both front and rear. If you want to run one of the 245 K spec fronts, use the K1. It has a wider tread than the Porto specific K2.
You can also try 255 and 315 section tyres for the MPS4S. Just a bit more rubber all around.

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I think with the 20/21 package you can match overall tire diameter and acceleration performance will not be hurt.

 

You can. I think the issue with that is, that it will look terrible.

If you install 26.8" diameter wheels on the front and 27.2" on the rear, but 20" on the front and 21" on the rear, you end up with a much lower profile on the rear wheels, and that just looks really odd. The 458 was a good candidate for a staggered wheel setup, as there was a huge difference between front and rear tyre diameter. The 488 and F8 does not have such a difference, so it will need a difference in diameter which is out of spec. If you do the 245/35R20 front and 325/30R21 rear, you run 26.8 and 27.7" From a visual standpoint, this is spot on, but you do also get into both the added diameter which creates a taller final drive, and you also get the wider rears which contributes to the understeer. Best combo would be if we know 275/30R20 would fit in te front with 325/30r21 in the back. Then one would at least add some front end grip while adding rear end grip and that would work well. I do suspect that done right, 275 would fit out in the front as diameter is 26.5". If there's 9mm of clearance on the inside in the front, it should be doable on 9x20 wheels with an offset of 42 as we know there's about 14mm to play with on the outside. 275(30R20 and 325/30R21 now there's a pretty decent setup for both road and track

 

...and this is why staying with stock 20" sizes but a sticky tire works best....just lower the car either with the adjustable coilers or Novitec springs, balance and align it. This would give the best performance.

For me I will stay with 20" whees and probably do Cup 2's as I know them best and they are very streetable tires and work on the track. I'd do Novitec springs but 3 Ferrari dealers in Florida told me I will give up suspension and drive line warranty. I will just lower the car around 10-15mm like Manthey did for Robert Mitchel, balance it and set the alignment camber just slightly more aggressive...not much as Cup2's really do not require it. looks will be great and performance will be even better this way.

Doing 21/22 tries wheel package hurts the performance and I just do not understand why someone would want to do that to a performance type of car.

 

To be fair, I don't think there is much to understand. Remember that while a few of us are into racing and track several times per month and do drivers training and racing school classes, most others simply cruise around giving it the occassional bootful when the road is straight. For some the visusl statement and ownership status is what matters, and personalizing the car to enhance this aspect is what matters. You don't do the chariot wheels to go fast, you do it because it gets attention and changes the looks. Yes, some may believe that the car is faster and handles better, and for some it might be the case. If you are not trained and don't know how to drive fast, then these wheels might aide you as they will make the car easier to drive. It will be less tail happy with the added understeer, it will have less tendency to break the tyres loose as both the wider footprint, added weight and larger diameter allows this. So yes, some will end up with a car that is easier to point down a straight line and send or blast between red lights etc. But this is not added performance, it is the complete opposite. It is easy because the car gets sluggish and lazy compared to how it normally feels. I'm perfectly fine with people modding their cars, I just don't like it when the manufactures and installers make claims of added performance, when this is clearly not the case. This is why I respect Novitec. I have it straight from Mario Rill in an email regarding the Novi Pista/F8/488 springs. If you track and track performance is your thing, don't use them. That is not what Novitec intended them to be used for. Again, I have seen installers here stating they are performance enhancing springs suited for track work. This is the exact quote I got from Mario in March. "The sport springs are developed for sporty all day use on the streets and usually not for race tracks."
So if that is straight from the horses mouth, it beckons the question, why do the "race shops" sell them as track focused items? The answer is simple. 95% of owners and their cars will never see a track and they will never train as drivers in a way that makes them capable of running the car hard. So like with the wheels, it's a moot point talking about performance enhancement as it makes little to no difference to most who install them.
This debate carries on over in the tyre segment and underlines my thesis. When someone states thst MPSS or MPS4S are great for track work, I immediately wonder how well they drive, because if you can push the car a bit these tyres kverheat rapidly and stop working - no matter what tyre pressure you run. That is just their nature, but they are still absolutely brilliant street tyres. On the flipside of this you have people installing MPSC2 tyres on a car that will never see a track and kn a climate where getting them to working temps on the street is nearly impossible. Yes, in AZ, So Cal or the UAE etc. sure go right ahead. It is always warm enough and even cruising the car down the city high street will get them past 45c. But in my area in northern Europe, or in a northern US state, forget about it if you don't track and can't run the car really hard, because they won't offer more grip as they won't get hot enough.

There are so many sides to all of this and it's a jungle to navigate. With all the buzzwords and what not, it is understandable why people buy into the notion of added performance. Unfortunately, reality is not always the same as what one wish for. Purchase the big wheels of the looks makes you happy and makes you smile because that is what it is all about. But if you are into actual performance driving and care about the capabilities of your sportscar, do your homework and use common sense. No wheel manufacture can change the laws of physics and no tyre manufacture makes a tyre perfect for everything.

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