First Ferrari: 488 GTB - what do I need to know?

That wasn’t my experience. I did the first three courses (in Italy) a few years ago and found them to be good. You’e driving brand new Ferraris (that don’t belong to you) and the cars take a hammering. Everything is provided for you, including overnight stays and decent meals/wine in the evening plus helmets, race gear etc.

The instructors are all race drivers, mainly driving for Ferrari (though not always) in various FIA championships. They push you to drive faster and better, and often get a little frustrated if they know you want to progress and you don’t listen. You drive 488, 812 and Speciale/Pista in the years those cars are relevant, plus the 488 Challenge (worth the entry price alone - almost - and helps you understand that a fully prepped racecar is a very different beast to the road cars, even the track specials). You do four lap stints, about 10 or 15 per day from memory. It’s enough driving and you’re tired by the end. All runs are videoed and some of them are full telemetry where you review your data sheets with a different instructor. No hiding place. You also do a pace/chase car session to help you figure out the line with communication from lead to chase car via walkie-talkie plus there is a skid pan session that is very useful to show you how the 488 performs with ESC off and limited grip.

The two days end with a laptime competition, where your instructors seem to be very keen that one of their group wins, which ends up being great fun (especially if you’re among the quickest!)

You can go on a track day and hire an instructor but I don’t believe you will get the same experience - it will be cheaper (except that you will use your own car, which might not prove to be cheaper at all...) but you will not get to try and compare all of Ferrari’s products and you will not get to drive Fiorano - another thing nearly worth the entry price alone. There are other activities but only for people who want to bring a spouse/partner with them - the course price is for one driving place. It’s not cheap but I liked it and learned a lot. I didn’t come away thinking “I wish there was more driving”. If you have had plenty of tuition it is not needed but it is a good place to start and has the added benefit of driving plenty of different Ferraris at Fiorano or Varano.

 

Perfectly spoken Frosty !

 

One of the great differences between a lesson and Pilota lessons is: it's not your own car … you can go as fast as you want/can ...

That alone is worth a lot imo, but these courses of two days are frightfully expensive ...

 

I coud not agree more with these five items !! Yes, yes and yes. Bob S.

 

Totally agree .... thank you ....amazing advices for any Ferrari owner


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Meets with my approval!!! Great car...