PISTA TOPPINGS

Bold white and blue stripes are a nod to Ferrari’s legendary 1950s North American Racing Team (NART), that only competed at the world’s highest-profile races.

a road-registrable racing 488, yet does not require the deft touch of a professional driver in order to tap its potential.

In keeping with its racing pedigree, the 488 Pista was put on a crash diet, which dropped 90kg from the not-exactly-portly 488 GTB’S kerb weight, to arrive at a bantam dry weight of 1280kg with all weight-saving options in place.

Shedding kegs is just the start of the Pista party, with the 488’s 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 also fettled by Maranello to turn out an extra 38kw for a vicious peak of 530kw. Torque is up 10Nm to 770Nm.

This weight loss and power gain has whittled the zero to 100km/h acceleration to a blistering 2.85 seconds. Standstill to 200km/h takes just 7.6sec and top speed is in excess of 340km/h.

For comparison, Porsche’s 911 GT2 RS makes the benchmark dash in 2.8sec while Lamborghini’s Huracan Performante does it in 2.9sec. Intriguingly, the Pista’s power and torque figures exactly match those of the Mclaren 720S. The Pista is also reputed to be quicker around the Fiorano test track than Maranello’s last hypercar, the Laferrari, which lapped in 1m 19.70sec.

As you might expect from a car hell bent on obliterating bends, the 488 Pista has been upgraded with racing aero lifted from the GTE including more aggressively angled front diffusers, redesigned underbody vortex generators and a bigger rear spoiler. Downforce is claimed to be up by 20 percent.

Not only have the 488 Pista’s Michelin tyres been specifically formulated, but the suspension set-up has been completely retuned for its track focus. Other adjustments have been made to the various electronic stability systems to optimise the extra power and potential, including a new Ferrari Dynamic Enhancer (FDE) which can adjust the brake pressure at individual calipers for handling that’s “even more effortless, intuitive and predictable”, according to Ferrari.

If you want a Pista of your own you may be disappointed. Ferrari Australasia CEO Herbert Appleroth told Wheels that the number of Pistas assigned to Australia would be similar to its 458 Speciale predecessor. However the company has received more than twice the demand for our allocation and all examples have now been assigned to Ferrari’s most loyal customers.