Out of all the various car manufacturers in the world, none are as recognized or loved quite like Ferrari is. This Italian company has been producing some of the finest, most beautiful, and arguably best performing cars since their inception as a company. They have come along way over the years, and their current vehicle offerings are probably some of the companies finest. Ferrari isn’t like any other car brand on the planet, and are often very secretive about their business operations. With the recent release of the 488 GTB, Ferrari has upped the game yet again. So what’s this car, what is it about, and what does the future have in store for Ferrari?
Back in 2009 Ferrari released the incredible 458. It was a beautiful, mid-engine supercar that quickly became the favorite among car enthusiast around the world. It embodied pretty much everything that Ferrari stands for as a brand, and it quickly became one of their best selling vehicles. However there were some problems with the car, namely a few models caught fire, so Ferrari had to issue a recall on the vehilces. This left many wondering what the brand would do next. Well earlier this year Ferrari unveiled the 488 GTB and it is now the vehicle replacing the 458. Ferrari upped their game again, worked out some issues, and developed an incredible vehicle. It’s arguably better in every way possible. No, it is better in every way.
The world of high-end sports cars are moving away from large V12 and naturally aspirated engines, to smaller V8’s and V6’s with turbochargers. We see this not only in production vehicles, but in Formula One as well. The 488 follows this movement as well. Under the hood it has a new and improved Ferrari F154CB V8 engine with two-turbocharges. The engine is now 3.9-liters, while the old 458 had a 4.5-liter engine. Some fans were concerned by this decision, however they shouldn’t be. Despite that the engine is physically smaller than the one previously seen in the 458, this new engine is more powerful. The original 458 produced 562 hp in total which is certainly very impressive. The new 488? It now offers 661 hp. That’s around 100 more hp compared to the 458, and that increase is noticeable. Combined with an autmatic dual-clutch 7-speed F1 transmission, gear changes and acceleration are now quite fast (not that they were slow before). The 488 can accelerate from 0-60 mph in 3 seconds flat, and can achieve speeds of over 210 mph. That 661 hp engine has actually the highest specific power output of any street-legal Ferrari…ever. But not only is this vehicle faster and more powerful than the 458, it has better brakes, much better handling, and is lighter as well. Strictly speaking in terms of performance, this car is objectively better in every way compared to the 458.
So outside numbers and statistics, what else is new with this Ferrari? As usually, Ferrari has worked with Pininfarina to come up with the cars design. In terms of just sheer appearance, the 488 seems much more refined when compared to the 458, and that’s a good thing. Looks are subjective, but I like the 488 a bit more. It seems as though Ferrari has trimmed the fat off of the 458, as the 488 appears sleeker, and it certainly is. Pininfarina and Ferrari designed the 488 to increase the downforce of wind by 50% compared to the 458. They also beefed up the active-aerodynamics in addition to reducing the aerodynamic drag. Again, these improvements are certainly noticeable when driving the car. So in case you haven’t been following, the 488 is faster, lighter, more aerodynamic, handles better, more advanced, and more powerful than the 458. Like I previously mentioned, it’s better in all aspects.
It seems as though Ferrari took an almost perfect vehicle, and then released one that’s even better. I mean, they typically do this, but these changes in the 488 are pretty astounding. As the vehicles are just rolling out now, many are looking as to what Ferrari will do next. Now, Ferrari isn’t big on doing concept cars or revealing what they have in the future, but we can speculate. The 488 GTB will now serve as the brands flagship vehicle. Sure, the LaFerrari is more expensive and faster, but that’s a limited-run hypercar that’s even more exclusive than the 488. This will be the vehicle that future Ferrari owners will most likely purchase. So Ferrari already has their latest flagship and hypercar, so they will most likely work on updating their other models. Rumors most likely point towards Ferrari updating or replacing the FF and F12. While the F12 is “the most powerful series-production Ferrari” currently, it is still not faster than the 488 and the FF is significantly slower than both. Both those vehicles are outfitted with V12’s, and given the nature of the current car industry, it looks like we are moving away from those engines as turbocharged V8’s are faster and lighter. If Ferrari replaces either the FF or the F12 with a V8, then we will know for certain that the brand is moving away from those types of engines. It’s hard to say what Ferrari has in store next, but given how incredible the 488 and LaFerrari are, the future of the brand is as promising as ever.
Photos from Ferrari
