If, when you or your domestic assistant are fumbling down the back of the sofa, you happen to lay your hands on Dh955,000, I now know just the thing to spend that cash on. It's a machine that has been honed, crafted and perfected by the world's leading scientists and engineers. An instrument of extreme precision that has, in one fell swoop, changed its maker's future in a way nobody thought possible just a few years ago. It's a mode of personal transportation, yet that description does it a great disservice. For your Dh955,000 (plus options, naturally), you will get possibly the finest, most complete driver's car in existence – it's a bona fide bargain.
Anyone who has had the privilege of enjoying seat time in its predecessor, the 458 Italia, may well be perplexed. Just how can a car such as that be improved upon, apart from when it comes to the occasional, minute detail? And yet, as we all knew they would, Ferrari’s crack teams of experts have surpassed the expectations of every single jaded motoring hack. As I squeeze its throttle, feel the stupendous surge of torque, am pressed back into my seat and hear the outrageous engine noise while the new 488 GTB demolishes some of Italy’s most beautiful road routes, I’m left absolutely gobsmacked by how much farther forward Ferrari has taken the mid-engined V8 concept.
After a painful two-and-a-half-hour technical briefing that was anything other than speedy, it was obvious to the assembled journalists that this is a car borne of obsession, of the relentless pursuit of engineering perfection with just one goal: to be the very best. The men talking us through the new car’s highlights are probably not the sort you’d want to go partying with, but, wow, do they know how to design and build cars that are an absolute riot to drive. So much to talk about, so many people proud of what they’ve achieved.
The big news is that the 488 GTB has a smaller engine than its illustrious predecessor, but is fitted with two twin-scroll turbochargers. And this is something that obviously vexes Ferrari’s guardians. They would much rather have stuck with natural aspiration and left the blowers to the likes of Porsche and McLaren. But times change and demands from legislators become ever more demanding, so Ferrari has done what many think is akin to heresy. It had to, and though the company’s engineers appear to be hanging their collective heads in shame, they really needn’t. The 488 GTB is a resounding success on every level.
It even looks better. I’ve read plenty of comments from keyboard warriors and detractors about how it’s too similar to the 458 and how those side air intakes ruin the overall design, but trust me, wait until you see one for real. To my eyes, it’s easily the most visually satisfying Ferrari for 25 years. With a nose that’s absolutely LaFerrari in execution, it’s far better resolved than the 458, and its rear is neater, too. The overall profile is overtly similar, yes, but the two models share nothing, exterior wise, apart from their glazing and their roofs. Overall, 85 per cent of the 488’s entire construction is entirely new – this is far, far more than a mere mid-life facelift.
The 488’s aerodynamic superiority is obvious for all to see, with your eyes able to trace the path of airflow through its nostrils, up and over the beautifully fluted bonnet, across its roof, along its flanks and finally in through the superbly formed active rear spoiler. Function and form have rarely melded together so perfectly, and I find myself scanning the car for Pininfarina badges (they’re absent) – it’s that beautiful.
The interior is hardly changed from the 458, and many would say that’s a good thing, but I still find the dashboard to be over-styled and nowhere near as pleasant as the California T’s. The oddly shaped steering wheel is still festooned with myriad buttons and switches (you soon get used to it), but the TFT displays are new and much improved. There’s also a fancy 12-speaker audio system, the telemetry system from the LaFerrari and – I still can’t get my head around why anyone would actually want this – a passenger-side display that tells your nearest and dearest just how fast you’re driving. Why would anyone open themselves up to so much potential grief? It’s beyond my comprehension.
Not that most owners will care for it anyway, because Ferrari reckons owners of the 488 GTB will be alone 70 per cent of the time they’re in the car. It’s also believed that 60 per cent of 488 owners will already be Ferrari clients, and that makes sense, because it’s so entirely different from any of the company’s other offerings. Oh, yes, and the other little nugget of information gleaned during the technical briefing is this car is actually quicker than an Enzo, itself still viewed by many as the king of supercars.
That’s right. It’s faster than an Enzo. Around the famed Fiorano test track, it takes nearly two seconds less to do a lap, and it’s quicker even than the hard-core 458 Speciale. To show you how much progress has been made with the V8 Ferrari family, the beautiful 328 GTB of the late 1980s never bettered a lap time of one minute and 44 seconds. The 488 GTB – its sixth-generation successor – posted a time 21 seconds quicker.
The gearbox is basically the same as that fitted to the 458, but with revised ratios to better suit the characteristics of a turbocharged engine, and it remains one of the very best out there. With the car in Sport mode, it’s lightning fast at swapping cogs; switch it to Race, and it offers a thump in the back for every upshift if you keep the throttle open, but it’s never unsettling to the chassis – it just adds extra fizz to the experience of going very quickly indeed.
That engine is similar to the one fitted in the California T, but it’s very different in character and only offers its full 760Nm of torque when in seventh gear – something Ferrari says helps replicate the responses of a non-turbo unit. As quick to respond to my right foot as it is, though, there’s still a barely perceptible lag, but it’s so brief it’s hardly worth mentioning. What is worth mentioning is this car also produces 670hp and can crack 100kph from rest in three seconds flat. It also sounds marginally less manic, but, again, we’re talking in really small degrees here.
I experience it on some of Italy’s best and worst roads. Some form part of the Mille Miglia route; others are so badly surfaced, I fear for the 488’s health, but it never wavers from its course and remains incredibly civilised when others would feel crashy and uncouth. And when the road opens up to offer unbroken visibility, I get back on the gas and laugh out loud at the sheer pace of the thing.
Grip levels are monumental, but in the right setting, you can get it to break traction, and when it does so, it’s a most playful thing and not as snappy as its predecessor. It’s approachable and exciting, but it’s safe, too.
It’s on the Fiorano test track, however, that the car really comes into its own. It’s here, where Ferrari hones its F1 cars and experimental racers, that I get to really drop the hammer and experience the full rush as well as the superb brakes, which are lifted straight from the LaFerrari. After five laps, I emerge shaking, enthralled and in awe of this magnificent machine.
Any car, no matter what it is, will get on your nerves in some regard, and the 488 is no exception. But I can think of only one thing I would change about it: its silly keyless start. The weighty fob is lovely, don’t get me wrong, but there’s nowhere to store it, and in a car such as this, it’s bound to end up flying through the air unless it’s secured somewhere. I decide my pocket is as good a place as any, and after parking the car up at the Fiorano circuit, I head for a late lunch. Halfway through my food, I realise I still have it in my pocket – a minor inconvenience today, but potentially a massive headache on another.
If an errant key fob is the sum extent of my criticism, however, then the 488 really is one of the world’s truly great automobiles. And it really is. Interestingly, I drove a couple of 458s, back-to-back with a McLaren 650S and a Lamborghini Huracán. The Ferraris, as brilliant as they were, were made to feel a bit antiquated – especially by the McLaren, with its turbine whooshes and almost supernatural urgency. In the four years between my most recent drive and that day, the competition had snuck in and stolen a march on Ferrari, but that has now been reversed.
My most exciting steer of 2014 was the 458 Speciale – a nape-tingling thrill machine par excellence that had even my wife in raptures from the passenger seat. But even then I was thinking to myself that if the Speciale is the ultimate 458, then its successor would be better to the point of being indescribably good.
I was right: the 488 GTB is a sublime driving tool that has bloodied the nose of McLaren, if not Lamborghini as well. And while we’ll soon see countless numbers of these cars on every street corner in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, many no doubt owned by people who love them for what they look like rather than how they drive, when you do catch sight of one remember this: it’s an absolute belter – as good as it gets.
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