488 gtb ground clearance

I put 5000 miles on a 488. No lift. Never needed it once. It rides high.

 

Go with your gut. The 488 can scrape even with a lift. I personally would not buy a 488 without lift.

 

The issue with the 488 isn't so much the front lip, but the part just behind that area (sort of the second lip further back under the nose); it scrapes a bit more due to the angle of things. As mentioned the clearance is pretty good, but I'd personally suggest some sort of skid plate under there. I scraped my 488 driving out of the dealer with only 5 miles on it (of course the dealer has a retarded driveway also).

Skid plate is the way to go.

Ray

 

I wouldn't buy a 488 without the lift. Many will disagree, but it saved me many times.

 

On my 458, I purchased it from another state and didn't realize it had a skid plate installed by one of the previous owners. At first, I almost cancelled the purchase when I found out someone had drilled the nose and installed something like that. The dealer said it was nicely installed and he would have it on his car. I ended up going ahead with the purchase.

At first, I was a little iffy on the whole skid plate idea, but it actually turned out to be one of the things I loved most about the car. I'm sure having a lift is also nice, but having the skid plate provides protection 100% of the time and also without having to stop to activate anything.

I think if you do buy a 488 - and it doesn't have a lift - it's definitely worth while looking into some of the under carriage skid plate solutions.

Ray

 

I have the lift on my 488 and it was a feature I much preferred to have than not. I hardly ever use it. Driving it day to day there has been no need to use it. I thought at a minimum I would need it for railroad crossings and certain raised cross walks, but I haven’t.

 

Exactly.

 

I had similar ground clearance concerns when looking for either a 458 or 488.

The 458 and 488 as measured with a tape had about the same clearance at around 5 inches under the nose as I recall. The 458 had a totally flat underside.
However the 488 had several narrow channels that ran parallel to the front and rear wheels that protruded downward an inch or so from the belly pan.
This may change the 488's effective ground clearance negatively in some situations.

Still I think the ground clearance on either is high compared to most sports cars. Either has more clearance than my 2011 Boxster Spyder (no lift available) which will occasionally drag the spoiler getting into my driveway when my 458 clears it fine.

My 458 does have a lift but I have yet to use it. My 14 Porsche GT3 had one too and I used it only very occasionally. Obviously if you can't remember to use it, a lifts value is limited.

After having my 458 awhile and driving it exclusively in the mountains, I would be ok with no lift on it. On the 488 it might be a different story. If you can test drive one and ground clearance is not an issue with your personal daily driving situations, I would not hesitate to buy it just because it has no lift.

 

Never had issues with the front, but the rear diffuser fins I consider wear items.

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Have it, rarely use it, and rarely scrape. Wouldn't purchase the option again. I have around 16,000 miles on the car and think I've scraped just once.

 

I used the lift every time in/out of the driveway (and the occasional odd intersection). Highly recommend having one.

 

Do not buy one without the lift....if you ever want to roll one into race ramps or an inclined driveway you will wished you had. I turned down two Pistas because they did not come equipped with them. I presume many don’t know about the air deflectors underneath the front and rear belly pans.. The front ones can be vulnerable. Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

And of course anything beyond a four inch drop in the rear will scrape your diffuser.

 

Does the F8 have the same ground clearance than the 488?

 

Pretty much yes.

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For my driveways and uneven brick lined and settles streets in my town, lift on all. Glad I did. Granted not everyone needs it but as noted above it makes it easier to get in my lift as well.
I would have assumed your AR is much higher than the 488 in terms of clearance.

Hate that noise. You know the scraping noise .....

Good luck

 

i love having the lift ,you guys that have the lift ive noticed when down postion my left front is a bit higher than right side?

 

I have a Bendpak lift and take my former 488 and current Pista off the lift on a daily basis. Never ever once have scraped. Neither car had a lift.

 

No lift...I looked for a 488 without the lift. I never needed the lift on my GT3 Porsche cars and so far in a year and 3k miles have not needed the lift on my 488. However I really would not let lift or no lift totally determine which 488 I'd buy.

 

The rear diffuser on the Pista is easier to scrape than the front because it's hard to guage even at an angle what the rear will do. I scraped my carbon rear diffuser too easily. And lifting the front doesn't help. If anything it makes it worse. I was really surprised.

 

I respectfully disagree with not having the lift for the Porsche. I have a 2014 991.1 and 2018 991.2 GT3 and they are amongst the lowest cars I've ever owned when not lifted. I would scrape weekly if I didn't have the lift and I take every driveway at an angle. The 488 and F8 are doable without the lift, but it would be inconvenient not having the lift for me. I live in Los Angeles and our driveways in Southern Cal are not that steep.

 

Hi Ray,

Thank you for your feedback,
I am looking at a 488 GTS and it meets all my other Specs, BUT unfortunately does not have a LIFT. The dealer says, put a skid plate and it won’t have issues …I am trying to understand the skid plate features ….I am in the Bay Area and we have lots of speed bumps /bad driveways and trying to understand when the car hits a speed bump w/ a skid plate …isn’t it still elevating (scrapping) entire nose …thus potentially damaging paint/flexing the nose?

 

Novitec springs with lifter?


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