Drove the 488 today.. thoughts, photos and videos

The speculation, the debates, the arguments and the immediate disapproval of the 488 GTB have been entertaining to read about here..... I was lucky enough to keep my head out of the nonsense and wait until today to get to form an actual opinion of the car, with the car at my disposal.

I drove my 458 today for a charity event with sick children, we picked the kids up took them for about a 25 minute ride and then back to do it again with another kid. With getting there, driving the kids around and the trip back home I put 640km on my 458 and ran through 2.5 tanks of fuel. I cannot count how many rides I gave but I started at 1400 and finished my last drive with my car at 1900 without any stops in-between aside for fuel and a drink of water. The kids ranged from 8-19 and all had an absolute blast. Each saw twisties, the autobahn and some city driving only one of my passengers did not see 300+kmh as she warned me before hand that she wanted to take it easy. I mention this as immediately after the 7 hours of fun, I picked up the 488 and took it out. It was my goal to have just driven the 458 and then get into the 488 to do a true back to back comparison.

Some of the reviews that you see (EVO being the most dramatic) start with their closed circuit videos of a Speciale where you can tell they spent hours rigging cameras, perfectly placing their microphones and filming the car between 8 and 9000 rpm tearing out of corners sideways while yelling and laughing. They then flash to video of the 488 with a go pro audio recording from the windshield while putting around the track or on a back road talking about how the car has the same something or another as the Speciale... springs? sway bars? who knows.

Whatever the shared part was, I found it to be a very poor way to open a review on a new car as the same thoroughness in preparation could not be made on each car and it was apparent. Even more so when this car is not replacing the speciale, its replacing the 458

Enough of my rambling, lets compare cars.

The brakes on the 488 are remarkable. They have better feel and feedback, better modulation and seem to stop the car nearly 10% better than the 458 brakes do. I have felt that of my cars, the 458 gave me the most confidence in stopping from 300kmh in a hurry and the 488 certainly improved upon this area.

Suspension. I am going to give this one to the 458 for now. The 488 in race mode felt softer and has more roll mid turn. I actually thought I may have put the car in rough road setting by accident but had not. It was not particularly slower through the turns nor did it affect performance negatively as you could still fling it around quite nicely but using this as a very far fetched comparison, it had more of a GT feel leaning in the direction of the F12 mid corner but no where near as dramatic. This is not a normal production car that I was in and I am hearing that the feedback from these drives should go into some tuning for final production. I am hoping that the suspension gets firmed up for the later cars.

Technology. The screens, lights and tones are far advanced over the 458/FF/F12 platform. The TFT displays have more colors are higher resolution and contain much more information than previous. They really do have a nice look and its a welcome update.

Interior. The interior fit and finish is just as nice as the 458, nothing that really stood out to me here similar materials similar quality nothing to note. The new design of the dash and center console is pleasant to the eyes and not an improvement but still just as nice. The F12 Reverse, Launch, Auto panel is sharp looking but I did like the set up in the 458. I will go again with different but not better. The carbon fiber door panels... gotta have item here. I loved them and would absolutely take them in my 488.

I was able to drive on surface streets, in traffic through town and on the Autobahn. If you're curious, flat out the 488 GTB will do 341 kmh at about 7250rpm and thats all it has in it. It pulls much harder than the 458 anywhere in the RPM and aside from the new brakes, thats probably the best part about this car. I do have a video that I spliced down showing the car hit 341 briefly. On the return trip we did not video but I ran it bouncing between 339 and 340 flat out for 10km straight. It truly felt nice and planted at speed.

Here is a video of the car on the Autobahn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of4hRRkMPO4


I imagine this is the big one... the sound, from outside, inside and how does it make you feel?

Exterior Sound. I feel that this is workable with a valveless exhaust system to get more volume. You should hear more of the turbos and a just a bit rougher of a sound. You will not get the NA scream so we will have to do with more noise!

Here is a video from the outside of the car revving just a bit.
https://youtu.be/dXX8bzpEGiw

Interior Sound. What can I say? It does not compare to the 458 on any level. The tone, the volume the excitement.... none of it is on the same playing field. Revert to my comment above about an exhaust system possibly being able to clean this up. My first impression was that I did not want the car based on this......Below I will comment on this topic further.

Here is a video of some revs and a small acceleration.

http://youtu.be/Wn0uj2edQDk

The Motor. See the above video for this as well. The engine provides very nice linear power band, you can certainly feel what they did with the torque by gear system. The car pulls great from 4000 RPM where as the 458 just does not. The NA motor revs and it revs nicely. It has a very lightweight but strung up feel to it. Put the 488 in neutral, wrap the throttle a few times and its just not as responsive. This has nothing to do with the drive but its a character issue.

Its as fast as the F12 but with better traction. The motor really delivers power in a similar method as the F12 and that is an exciting feeling.

The rev limiter was very annoying and after my first few minutes with the car I was done w the car for this reason as well. 9000 RPM is nice, you can run the motor out and it just feels right. 7500 RPM is the limiter in manual mode. It does shift at 8000RPM when you use launch control which only makes me think that it would shift at 8000 in Auto mode too. I can say that I did not use Auto mode so I cannot confirm this. The bottom line is that the loss of 1500 RPM just felt strange, I was all over the limiter for the first 15 minutes and it was annoying. Take away 1500 rpm and make a faster accelerating package, people will be annoyed.

Things just felt special at 9000..... at 7500 they don't. I can't say more than that.

Here is a video of the Launch Control from 0-150 kmh
https://youtu.be/pP7Fch_6ZZQ

 

After the first 30 minutes i stopped for a moment to think about things. I was not too happy, I had just been in my 458 all day, enjoyed the motor, the excitement and loved the car more than I did yesterday. I was kind of bummed even though the breaks were what they were, the car was truly fast and really is good looking in person.

I was ready to cancel my order and figure out what to get instead.....

I then relaxed a bit and took the car out again. A little time now had passed since I was in the 458 and the feelings of what the 488 was lacking had diminished a bit and let me focus more on what it did offer. I went back out, really ran it through its paces, tested the top speed on the autobahn, really got on the brakes and thew it into some decent speed corners... the car started exciting me in a different way. The corner exit speed is amazing, the traction phenomenal, the balance one step better than the 458.

All of a sudden I realized I could not compare the two cars in the way that everyone here wants to. I have a choice here, stick with what will very soon be 10 year old design and technology simply because of engine tone and the excitement it delivers or really take my time and find what makes the 488 special.

This helped me clear my mind and consider how this is by far the best sounding turbo motor out there, Porsche doesn't compare here. As mentioned above an exhaust system will certainly wake it up and I am excited to see what comes out. What we need to realize is that you do not get this sort of power and torque out of an NA V8. If you want to be this fast in a rear engine V8, you're going to have to sacrifice the engine note.

I got to play with the RPMs find how the power was delivered and it was special. They did an amazing job with the power delivery, the traction system the SS2 and this package is certainly better than the 458 platform. The entire system runs smoother, the transmission functions more smoothly and seems less glitchy when coming down to first at lower speeds. Over all it was more refined from a coordination standpoint.

After getting back out there and appreciating the car for what it is and what it has improved upon I am okay with what it is not and what it has lost. Will I miss the 9000 RPM NA motor? Yes I will however I will be gaining in other areas that I think will compensate for this. We have a new platform and if you are not the type to adapt you will fight with the 488. If you can get excited about new things, new directions and embrace this car for the truly amazing accomplishment that it is..... You're in for a treat.


I have added some photos as well.

One of the carbon doors which I love.

Another of the key! I saw a lot of talk about how huge this thing was. Someone mentioned maybe the guy holding the key had small hands. I am going to say that was most likely the case as the photo I attached compares it to the Audi key and as you can see, it is right in line with other marks.

The third and fourth photos are of the dash just for fun. We have all seen many photos of this but what is one more?
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I believe I updated my posts since you read them!

Do I like the 458 motor more than the 488 motor?

Yes and no... I like the 9000 RPM and the note that it makes. However I like the Power and torque delivery of the 488 more. To determine which you like more you have to ask yourself if you want to go faster or sound faster?

Many will argue that at this level the acceleration different will not matter. Here for me however I am over 300 kmh every time I get in the car and the power is very nice to have.

A Turbo S will beat a 458, from 250-305 you'll barely pull away from an X6m... times are showing that an NA 8cyl just won't put the difference between you and many of the other cars that you'd expect or like to have when you're driving in your Ferrari.

On a fun note, we did confirm today that the 458 Speciale is no faster than the Italia at any point from 30-330. We ran with my buddy at the charity event all day and the speciale never pulled away, in fact (as many know) the Italia actually is faster from 290-330 than the Speciale. I can also assure you this wasn't down to driving either both cars are driven just fine...

 

Yes, I do believe and more so hope that the car was running an artificial rev limiter.

I had a September delivery option and I pushed it off to March 16. It was due to the fact those two months will be filled with other things and then gone for most of December. I then didn't have a need for a November or January delivery in Germany. I am glad it worked out that way as I feel by March build (same build month and delivery month for us over here) many small updates may have been already applied.

I was offered the last Speciale slot from my dealer in May this year. I turned it down and kick myself daily for it. They called me on a very busy day, told me the slot was open and we need to order that day to get the order in. I was cheating and looking at the spec/ pricing sheets on my computer while in other meetings and it was just too tight of timing for me that day so I said I'd pass..... Short side of my story is that I think the Speciale is a keeper.

 

If someone reviews ride from a comfort point of view and they say that the 458 is better you should never listen to a thing they say again. The 488 ride quality is immeasurably better than the 458.

I do not expect the aftermarket exhaust to make any change other than volume of sound. The characteristics of a turbo motor won't change. I mentioned you'll hear the turbo more and just get louder. And I do think that will make a big difference for the feel of the car.

In a different realm of "badass" listen to a 650s with an aftermarket system. It's popping, whistling and whirling. It's no NA scream but pretty darn cool. This is one of the things I mentioned that if we want to go forward in the line, we need to embrace. If not, go another direction or keep the "old" cars.

 

I can say if I was in the U.S. Running speed limits and not tracking the cars I would have a much more difficult time with the switch. Here we don't have the power and speed just for bragging rights but we to actually get use it

 

Eilig, on the A5 running south just south of the A3 is a great stretch. Straight smooth 3 lanes and in the evenings wide open. Another great run is where the A5 splits off to the A67 towards Mannheim. Still 3 lanes and in good condition while being straight as an arrow. If you're wanting to stay down that way, I've had some good fun on the A8 as well on a Sunday morning when no one is on the road.

The A95 is okay and I've hit some good speeds there too but you definitely get a lot of holiday traffic, people not knowing where theyre going and because of that driving erratically which is dangerous when traveling that fast.

 

Marmist when the LaF came out it wasn't even on my radar. In hindsight it should have been. I'm not the type to pay double for a car like that aftermarket especially when it's not something I was able to spec.

I'm definitely looking in this lightweight rear engine segment. I love the F12 in fact I took the F12 back after playing with the 488. Here is a picture I took of the 488 from the F12 heading home/back to the dealer.
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I couldn't even make that decision. The F12 is a great GT fast and exciting but not the best in the turns. Low speed traction is limited and I always have the traction kicking in or spinning the tires.

The Speciale is a beautiful thing, exciting etc not much need to be said about it.

The 488 takes the traction and handling from the Speciale and combines it with the speed from the F12. If you're going off that alone you could say that my answer is the 488 would be "the one".

Add in the engine note and excitement to the equation and I am sorry, I don't know the answer.

Of all 3 the F12 sounds the best when you're on it.