Chris Harris drives the Ferrari 488 Pista

Conclude what we wish about the root origins for CH’s growing fondness of turbo’s, I think we all can agree that his specific comments on that subject indeed ring true.

 

I wasnt googgly eyed over the tdf when it came out but i felt like i cldnt pass up the opportunity to get one so i bit the cali t bullet after biting the ff bullet and being left without a laferrari allocation. I passed on the 458 speciale for myself and dont regret it. Since then its been incredibly obvious to me that i have a real issue selling my Italian cars so the barrier to entry has risen significantly in terms of what i let into my collection. Id much rather keep my 94 512tr and my 2+2s than make space for a 3500 unit LE car. I toyed with selling the tdf over the past few weeks, got a very healthy offer and got cold feet. I passed on the pista and having zero regret over that decision. If i had unlimited funds and space i wld be of the buy one of everything camp. Given all the ferraris available today, new and old, id say the f50 and a second f40 are the cars im most likely to be willing to part with dollars for. With ferrari taking alot of the juice out of the secondary market Its unlikely the laferrari replacement will be something i can afford so thats out the question.

Everyone who is getting a pista shld be super excited to be involved. At end of day beauty and value are in the eyes of the beholder and no one can slight another person for being willing to play a game, one that we have all played.


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Amen.

 

I agree. Something silent is actually very loud in this video of his, comparing to his old ones. And i am not talking about the turbo sound. No pun intended.

 

LoL, perfect comment.

 

I agree.
I have never ever watched a “review” to get objective advice as to whether I should consider a car or not.
Neither do I require 0-60 and top speed bragging rights to offset a serious insecurity problem.
I watch reviews to enjoy the kinetic art of cars, their sounds, and to get a broad sense of the “nature” of a car.
Better, more widely known, reviewers tend to have higher-dollar equipment, better editing, and thus better cinematography—that is it.
I’d trust my friend’s car buying advice far more than CH or similar.
In fact, reviews by owners here on FChat are far far more reliable (except for the “purchase-justification pontification” dance that goes on).

 

same, numb and flattering to the driver - turning the electronics off reveals just how much the computers are making what is an unmanageable amount of power usable for the road.

that's just where we're at atm

 

Sure wish those great lotus Elise or exiges were sold here in USA. Epitome of perfect w/o the F nonsense.

 

Written review:
Words: Chris Harris for TopGear.com (Hope It's OK to post it, otherwise feel free to delete).


When the base car is a 488, how much can it be improved? Turns out, more than you’d think

The truth, as is so often the case, is contained in the tyre. It is easy to be bamboozled by a Ferrari technical presentation – endless charts and statistics working in combination with frantically hyperbolic Italian-English that overload your grey matter and pummel you with information that leaves you almost brainwashed. During the performance, at least five people will stand up and tell you how fantastico-amazing the latest Ferrari Berlinetta is. By the end, if they told you it could soft-boil an egg and halve the third-world debt, you’d simply nod in accordance.

But the man from Michelin, notably the only non-Italian in the building, is the quiet voice of reason. He tells us that the new Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyre that has been specially developed for the Pista isn’t an extreme track-only item. It offers consistent grip in all conditions and no significant peak when it is new. It is a tyre that compromises outright lap time to be usable in the wet. Because for all its 710bhp and Fiorano lap time superior to every other Ferrari bar the LaFerrari, the Pista isn’t designed to crush your spine or go hunting lap records. It’s a real, usable road car. And this is a good thing.

Mind you, its specification reads like something that could have won Le Mans a few years ago. The engine is lifted from the 488 Challenge racecar, and is substantially different from the GTB’s twin-turbo V8. The big numbers are 710bhp and 568lb ft of torque, although that last figure is only available in seventh gear, such is the extent of the calibration to make the car feel as unturbocharged as possible.

Weight has been reduced by 90kg through the usual blend of lightweight components and a barren interior – carbon-fibre wheels are also an option for the first time on an F-car. The front cooling package is taken from the Challenge car too, allowing for the large bonnet scoops, and the whole aero package has been revised to create a downforce figure that is, as usual, meaningless to me. Interestingly, the vast side intakes no longer feed air into the plenum like they do on the GTB, that is now ducted from two new scoops on the deck lid.

The latest version of Ferrari’s traction and stability programme has added abilities and acronyms, but majors on juggling a variable locking differential with single brake disc applications to make the car turn more effectively and to make owners feel like superheroes.

And they’ll feel pretty good about this car, because it is shockingly fast. The 50bhp increase over the GTB doesn’t make it profoundly different to the “base” GTB, but I can only judge these things according to my trusty swear-ometer, and, from the moment I gave it full beans, the vernacular flowed in much greater quantities in the Pista. The motor pulls from below 2,000rpm, and the effects of the reduced torque in the lower gears can be felt but is never a frustration, because even those fancy Michelins simply cannot cope with how potent this motor is.

The systems are something else, though. You really can place yourself in the hands of the Pista and let it carve its way around a circuit. It helps if you stop in the correct places and aim for the odd apex, but otherwise it manages the available traction to perfection, and the interventions are so seamless, the juggling of differential and brakes so smoothly deployed that, at times, you have to remind yourself it’s actually happening. In fact, you can only fully appreciate how much work the systems are doing by switching them all off – at which point the Pista becomes one of the most outrageous motor cars I’ve ever driven.

Because there comes a point when pure motive force overwhelms even a delicate mid-engined Ferrari chassis. At Fiorano, corners that were full throttle in second gear in the old 458 Speciale are part throttle in third, and if you push any further on the long-travel throttle pedal, the car moves into big oversteer. And it will do this everywhere, even into fifth gear. It’s completely outrageous and also totally addictive and quite unlike anything I’ve experienced from Ferrari before.

Of course, you can drive the car neat-and-tidy, manage the torque yourself and rely on what must be the most approachable mid-engined chassis on sale. The set-up is very conservative, with a good chunk of understeer on a constant throttle to stop the thing looping around on itself. Grip is actually very good, but because the rear is so easily unstuck if you want to be silly, it gives the sensation of actually not being that grippy.

In fact, this is the paradox at the core of the Pista. It deploys the very latest in sports-car technology, is probably making more calculations per nanosecond than a spacecraft, but with all the systems switched off, the resulting driving experience sits somewhere around the mid Sixties. And I mean that as a huge compliment. The torque-to-grip ratio is actually very similar to an old sports car in that drivers really can choose to overcome traction whenever they want to.

The brakes are monstrous carbon-ceramics, and they need to be, because the Pista arrives into braking zones at such silly speeds that they take an absolute pasting – you spend most of your time thrumming into the anti-lock and praying it will stop. The steering is typical modern Ferrari: pretty inert and fantastically quick – to the extent that you just steer between your wrists.

And Ferrari has worked very hard to make this turbocharged engine want to rev all the way to the 8,000rpm limiter. The GTB always feels breathless over the last 1,000rpm and that dulls the excitement factor on a circuit, but the Pista keeps pulling all the way to eight grand. What I didn’t realise was that the base car has a soft limiter that tapers power away gradually as you near the cut-out (see, always listen to the technical briefing), and that obviously hurts the sense of aggression even more. The Pista does away with that, so it offers far more zing at the top end. No, it doesn’t scream like a Speciale, but it is so much faster that the two can’t really be compared. I’m probably the wrong person to ask about the quality of the noise because I’ve always found Ferrari flat-plane V8s (apart from the 355) to be rather tuneless and shouty, especially the Speciale. This thing is less shouty and still pretty tuneless.

On the road, the Pista is arguably more surprising. I only spent a couple of hours on the usual shambolic roads around Maranello and, apart from missing some carpet and a little more general commotion in the cabin, it is no harder to live with than the standard car. The springs are a little firmer but the car never feels too raw for the road, and the hyperfast steering comes into its own on very twisty sections, because you just don’t need to use too much lock. The front grip of the car is especially impressive – the way it wants to dart into an apex and then hold a line is quite something. You can feel the differential open to allow that freedom to turn and then lock to find traction on the exit. Crucially, it’s a car that is fun to drive at normal road speeds. Yes, it could cover ground at a rate that would land you in serious trouble, but the slow thing works just fine. It’s a great shame that Ferrari no longer offers manual transmissions, but this dual-clutch gearbox is a pretty strong argument for not having one – in the context of this type of car. Upshifts are flick-snap quick, and coming back down the ’box is even more impressive.

So, as a driving device, this is Maranello at its best. On paper, a 710bhp twin-turbocharged, mid-engined Ferrari should be approximately as approachable as a Victorian headmaster with a cracking hangover, but this thing is a complete honey to slide around. However, as an object, I have a few reservations. The cabin design is now eight years old and it looks it. There are so many different materials and textures that the whole thing looks a bit of a mess. And much as you have to admire the use of underbody aero as it means no ugly rear wing, there’s an unfortunate fussiness to some of the details. But that really is a matter of opinion, and, on this subject, mine probably doesn’t count for much.

The Pista is a stunning achievement. In a marketplace that seems to be increasingly obsessed with track-focused machines, it exists as a very fast track toy that can be used perhaps even more effectively as a road car. The lucky few allowed to buy one will not be disappointed.

 

That looks like a pretty ringing endorsement to me. Those that are reading something else into it are obviously dealing with a case of sour grapes.

 

Sounds like it was written by a different person than the guy who drove it in the video.

 

that written text and the video dont jive...maybe the editors got involved on the written article

 

Absolutely. The written review takes on a completely different tone and sense of enthusiasm. Something happened , unrelated to the car itself, between the video and the written review.

All those who couldn’t sleep at night , now can forego their sedatives. The Pista just got a whole lot better.

 

I love his comment that with this much power, with the state of the art of high performance tires the cars drives like an XKE in the rain.

 

If you go back and listen to what he says in the video you will see he loved the car- he loved that its so adjustable. Like that old Jag in the rain. Yes he also called it numb at one point, but lets not forget he just got out of a race car. Compared to a race car, everything is numb. And by the way, I'd venture to say modern cars as a general rule are less tactile than they were 10 years ago, and again from 10 years prior. My F430 had more steering feedback than my 458. Yet I think the 458 a superior car.

What if they shot the street driving part first and decided to edit the video so he would be on the track first? I don't see any disconnect between the words and the video. I think it just depends on which words you've chosen to cue into. It just goes to show we all absorb information differently.

I loved my 430 Scuderia, yet I had friends who drive race cars tell me it was way too understeery, and not as visceral as their race cars. I quickly reacted and thought: is he crazy! But no, he just has a different frame of reference. So I think let's not get too bogged down with specific wording. Its one man's viewpoint in that one moment. It is worth checking out, and I do love seeing the car being slid around by a good driver and also seeing 2 Pista being driven next to each other was really nice. It's a gorgeous car.

Anyway I think we should be glad Harris gave us his thoughts: the good, the bad, even the ugly. We don't only want to hear the positive side, there are always things that could be better.

 

Isn't this just essentially a transcript of the video?

Illustrates the difference tone and inflection on a video versus flat words on a page can make.

 

It was just more twitchy. The 360 was even more twitchy than the 430. Let's not confuse that for steering feel. When a car telegraphs to the driver the amount of grip the front axle has, well that 's feedback. When the steering just gets jerky, that 's only nervousness.

 

sour grapes indeed....

that article read exactly like the video.

 

Sour grapes? What do you mean?

 

Meaning sour grapes are in the mouths of those who jumped ship..... unable to get back on the Pista boat....but can't do anything about it now except winge amongst one-another, over analyzing reviews in a negative sense in hope of feeling a little better about their situation.

 

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha


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Aesop:


A Fox one day spied a beautiful bunch of ripe grapes hanging from a vine trained along the branches of a tree. The grapes seemed ready to burst with juice, and the Fox's mouth watered as he gazed longingly at them.

The bunch hung from a high branch, and the Fox had to jump for it. The first time he jumped he missed it by a long way. So he walked off a short distance and took a running leap at it, only to fall short once more. Again and again he tried, but in vain.

Now he sat down and looked at the grapes in disgust.

"What a fool I am," he said. "Here I am wearing myself out to get a bunch of sour grapes that are not worth gaping for."

And off he walked very, very scornfully.

There are many who pretend to despise and belittle that which is beyond their reach...

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Lol. That's what I thought what you meant by the sour grapes. But why do you think these people were creating the perception of sour grapes? What did they say specifically?

 

Essentially, yes. Even the last part about the road feeling. He praises the handling, the steering, the front end agility and responsiveness. "I want to dislike it but I just can't" sums it up. However, he does say "it sounds good too", when in the written review he claims it to be tuneless. The weakest point of the car just seems to be the cabin: looks dated, too many different textures.

 

He won’t like my TM spider then...