You can tell by these racing seatbelts... There's carbon in the interior, no floor upholstery...
If you look at it from the outside, with that racing stripe from front to back...
It's hardly subtle, but you'll immediately know it's special when you get in.
The Ferrari 488 GTB is special, but this is one step above that.
This is the Pista. The hardcore, lighter, more powerful,
and dressed down version.
If you ask me, it's got quite the challenge ahead of itself.
It's the successor to the 458 Speciale, a car which I drove four years ago.
And for me, that's still the most spectacular and exciting car I have ever driven.
So it's got some proving to do. It's not only that,
because a lot of modifications from the Speciale, aerodynamics, electronics and such,
have been put through to the 488 GTB. So Ferrari has created a very good and exciting base car,
and you can ask yourself if that can be beaten with this Pista.
Well... On paper the answer is yes of course, otherwise Ferrari wouldn't have released it.
It's a well known recipe. Less weight, so it's 90 kg lighter than the GTB.
It also has more power. 50 to be exact, so the total power output is over 700 horsepower.
Then, we've got more downforce. 20% to be exact.
If we're looking at the lap times at Fiorano, this Pista is two seconds quicker than its predecessor.
The Speciale. Mostly, that's because of the downforce.
Just look at the front bumper. There are all kinds of lips and air channels which lead...
the air beneath and besides the car. It's also fitted with a kind of S-duct,
something which was introduced in Formula 1 once...
It makes sure there isn't any pressure from below, but that the air doesn't escape from the hood,
but from some kind of valve at the front, which leads the air besides the car into the air vents.
It's almost crazy how Ferrari has treated it as a F1 car, on every single detail.
They've looked at everything, and everywhere they could win some kind of percentage.
The same goes for the weight.
I already mentioned carbon before, and the exterior is fitted with carbon as well.
The bumpers for example. The exhaust manifold however, is made from inconel.
An incredibly expensive and incredibly light material, which also comes out of the Formula 1.
But it saves 10 kg. The driving rods are made of titanium,
which saves additional kilo's. It's got a stripped interior, and I can keep going here...
It's crazy how they've done this.
You could say: 'Can you even deal with the 720 horsepower?'
Remarkably enough, you can deal with it.
Because of all of the electronics in this car... If you put everything in the safe mode with the Manettino...
on the steering wheel, you can keep control.
Especially combined with that chassis, which processes all imperfections incredibly smoothly.
It's got lots of traction and it's very stable, whilst being incredibly sharp at the same time.
It will react to the slightest movements, but in one way or another,
Ferrari has combined the chassis and the electronics, which makes the car incredibly accessible.
That's remarkable, because it's incredibly quick.
It can do 0-200 km/h in a little over seven seconds. That's almost impossible to process.
If you turn the Manettino a tad to the right, if you put the systems in a slightly more agressive mode,
if you put the gearbox in manual mode with the button and you put your foot down...
It changes. It transforms into a wild beast.
It really is...
You can hear the engine screaming up to 8.000 RPM. It might not sound as spectacular as the Speciale,
but for a turbocharged engine, it's unbelievable.
A little countersteer to catch the drift...
But if I push too far, the car will step in and save the day.
The electronic systems will still catch me...
if things start to go wrong. And that's a nice feature,
the electronics are pushing you to push yourself to the limit.
It'll allow you to drift in certain angles...
But when it thinks it starts to go wrong, the safety systems will kick in.
Of course, you can turn everything off if you want, but I'll save that for when I'm on a track.
You don't need more than this. But it's unbelievable how violent this is...
It's incredibly violent...
For my feeling however, the step from the GTB to the Pista just isn't as big...
as the step between the 458 and the Speciale was. Of course, that's because of the engine personality,
because it doesn't differ a lot from the GTB. It's more powerful and it has more torque,
but it doesn't have the challenging aspect from the Speciale. The 9.000 RPM in the Speciale was magical.
Maybe I'm a little too old fashioned, but the high-revving, atmospherical feeling...
will always have the upper hand in experience if you ask me. This just doesn't have that,
despite its blistering speed. If we look at it as a whole though,
if we add it all up... The electronics, the aerodynamics,
it's a little lower, it's slightly harder...
If you start putting your foot down, and you can feel the car melting into one dynamic whole...
It's almost like you can throw it into corners, just like in a videogame.
The way you can play with this, despite the amount of power...
It's unbelievable, it really is.
If you ask me, this is the most exciting supercar on sale today.