Yahoo Autos 2019 Ferrari 488 Pista Makes Crazy (Sort of) Safe
Aside from money, no material is so closely associated with modern supercars as carbon fiber. And to be sure, the Ferrari 488 Pista incorporates the stylish black weave—spoiler, splitter, seat frames, and more, including on the optional wheels that cut a total of 22 pounds from the car's curb weight. But aluminum, more than carbon fiber, defines not just the 488, but the Pista in particular.
Aluminum. Intensive!
Even rolling down the freeway, the 13th element makes itself known. Some of the Pista's claimed 198-pound weight savings over the 488GTB comes from a reduction in sound deadening. The truly hard core can spec their car without carpets. This of course saves weight, but it also amplifies the aural experience, intensifying both the engine shriek and the ping of pebbles off the floorpan. Even sand and leaves rustle audibly off the bottom of the car. Those full-road rumble strips warning you you're entering a construction zone hammer through the Pista's aluminum cockpit like incoming flak. And be warned: This is not a car you want to drive with loose change in your pockets (but the $350,000 starting price will probably take care of that). Or Mentos. That one must have finally gotten hot enough to melt and stick to something, because it eventually stopped rattling around. Good thing nobody spilled a Diet Coke, because the last thing this car needs is to be more explosive.
Ferrari changed nearly half of the part numbers in the engine between the 488GTB and the Pista, from the intake plenum and exhaust manifolds to the crank, rods, and flywheel, cleaving a massive 40 pounds, while cranking up output from 661 horsepower and 561 lb-ft of torque to 710 and 568, respectively. The Pista seems to live in a vacuum, the rate of acceleration hardly slowing as the speedo readout jumps to eye-widening digits. Sixty mph arrives in 2.7 seconds, 100 mph just 2.5 ticks later, and the quarter-mile passes in 10.1 seconds at a heady 144 mph. While the 8000-rpm redline is certainly higher than most production V-8s, the characteristic Ferrari shriek is dulled somewhat by the turbos, and it takes on more of the anonymous burr of other turbocharged eights.
No Dumbbells in Here
"Pista" means "track" in Italian, but aside from the noise, the Track is plenty comfortable on the road. Magnetorheological dampers take the pain out of most impacts, and there's ample room inside for most. The one-piece carbon-fiber racing seats fitted to the example we drove will even encourage a healthy diet and exercise, so you can count at least part of the steep buy-in as health coaching. Ferrari steering is light, albeit packed with feedback of exceptional clarity, so cranking the Pista down a mountain road isn't much more strenuous than carrying a couple of cute pink rubberized dumbbells during a power walk, but hey, every little bit helps.
And on the track, the lightness of the controls conveys an effortlessness that readily translates into confidence, speed, and awe. With 710 horsepower pushing just 3300 pounds, there becomes here right about now, but the brakes—activated by an extremely firm pedal—can make up for all but the most egregious acts of overexuberance and/or stupidity. For only moderately egregious overexuberance, there's Ferrari Dynamic Enhancer, which works kind of like stability control but is better thought of as instability control. The aim of the system is not to keep all four tires locked to the pavement; it's to manage their letting go, to smooth the loss of traction and balance between the four corners, so that not only is the Pista easier to drive faster, it's easier to drive dramatically, too. Making hairy, smoky slides easier is exactly the sort of superhero thinking that defines a great supercar company.
Dr. Feelgood
Even when it's stationary, few things turn a person into a superhero quite like a red Ferrari. A kid at a gas station gave our driver a hug when we let him sit inside the Pista. Later that day, a guy followed us on the freeway for several miles, got off at an exit he didn't need to take, and tailed us until we finally parked. As we wondered if we'd cut him off, he got out of his car, politely asked for a minute of our time, and then blurted out, "You must have some advice I could use," saying that even if our professions were completely different, there must be some sort of principle or overarching lesson from our lives that he could use to improve his own. We didn't want to disappoint him by admitting the car wasn't ours, so we suggested he buy stock in aluminum.
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