‘JUNIOR’ SUPERCAR CAN FLY
Most powerful V8 engine in Ferrari’s history powers the impressive Pista
Come to Italy, they said, and test a Ferrari on the racetrack. Escape all that horrible snow that’s blanketing the northeast. Bask in the warmth of a spring Mediterranean breeze.
What we got was snow — yes, snow — on a spring day in Italy that was colder than in Toronto. How cold, you ask? So cold, Ferrari’s public relations mavens told us, that the Pista — Ferrari’s fully “weaponized” version of the 488 GTB — would have to run on winter tires, the Michelin Sport Cups specifically designed for it being simply too stiff in these cold climes to serve as anything other than giant hockey pucks. So, yes, I ended up travelling all the way to Italy just to sample the magic of Ferrari’s latest supercar on the most famous test track in the world — on snow tires.
Snow tires or no, though, Ferrari’s new Pista is a mad thing. First off, there’s the claimed 720 horsepower. Oh, to be sure, they’re of the slightly wimpier “CV” European-breed equines, translating into about 710 North American Clydesdales, but that’s still 50 more horsepower than a garden variety 488. What one gets is a supercar that now tops out at more than 340 km/ h (that’s 210+ miles per hour, folks), accelerates to 100 km/ h in less than three seconds and hits — in what is becoming the new benchmark for true supercar performance — the 200 km/ h mark in under eight seconds.
That makes Ferrari’s supposedly ‘junior’ supercar virtually as fast as all those million-dollar hybrid ‘hypercars’ introduced but five years ago.
What really matters — at least for those lucky denizens of Bay Street fortunate to have half a mil to blow on a set of wheels — is that the Pista’s 7.6 seconds is barely 0.2 s slower to 200 km/ h than Porsche’s million-dollar 918. Lamborghini’s Aventador LP 750-4 Super Veloce — with four more bellowing pistons — is barely 10 km/ h faster on the top end than the baby Ferrari.
Even Maranello admits that its own, once-thought-indomitable electrified V12 LaFerrari is less than two seconds faster around Fiorano than the new Pista. Equipped with similar tires and without all that aforementioned snow, of course. And yet, as scintillating as that incredible turn of speed may be, it’s not the best thing about the new 488. No, what makes the Pista so special, what makes this one supercar stand out in a sea of similarly turbocharged competitors (virtually everything supercar-ish these days, save Lamborghini’s Huracan and Audi’s quasi-super R8, is force fed) is that this particular twice-turboed 3.9 L feels like the good old naturally aspirated V8 we thought we had lost with the passing of the 458.
Where the GTB’s rendition of the F154CD (the designation of the latest variant of the Ferrari V8 that powers everything from the base Portofino to the GTC4LussoT) almost lumbers, the Pista fairly zings. Where previous Ferrari turbos, well, lag when you punch the throttle, the Pista’s 3.9 L responds with almost naturally aspirated zeal. After nearly a decade of the (supercar) industry claiming its turbocharged cars were as involving as the naturally aspirated glories that emissions and fuel economy standards have forced us to leave behind, Ferrari has delivered. It’s a good one, this new Pista engine, still not quite as involving, perhaps, as the 458’s old 4.5-L gem, but more than close enough, as they say, for government regulations. It’s waaaay more engaging than the GTB.
As for the source of this goodness, it’s actually important to look past the traditional problem of turbo lag. Oh, Ferrari has performed tricks here, such as adding speed sensors directly to each turbocharger so they are always kept near their optimum operating rpm to optimize throttle response. There’s also a new, almost counter-intuitive, camshaft/airbox combination design which actually bleeds off a little air at the end of the intake stroke, which permits an even higher-compression ratio without the detonation that plagues all high-performance turbocharged engines.
But, despite those very real sources of improvement, the reason for all this new-found turbocharged magic, I think, is the fact Ferrari claims a 17 per cent reduction in rotational inertia for the Pista’s engine compared with the garden-variety GTB. A measure of how quickly all the moving parts inside the motor can “spin up,” the Pista’s ability to zing to redline is immeasurably aided by a crankshaft that’s 1.2 kilograms lighter, titanium connecting rods that are lightened by 220 grams each and even the F154’s first use of hollow intake valves. Hardly as exciting as gargantuan turbochargers these details may be, but they are responsible for regaining what turbocharged supercars had lost: Personality. As for exactly how good the Pista’s roadholding, cornering and steering will be, please see my first paragraphs about snow, cold and winter tires. Snow tires on a Ferrari, even Pirelli’s entirely creditable PZero Sottozeros, are a bit of the proverbial fish on a bicycle. What little I can say is that in its full attack mode, the Pista’s suspension is decidedly more firm than the base GTB’s and that Ferrari’s latest Side Slip Control system manages to contain all that power in conditions better suited to dog sleds and snowball fights.
What we can say — again, for those with a small fortune burning a hole in their pockets — is that if the 488 GTB felt a little tame in the way it charged about, breaking speed limits, Ferrari has now let the dogs out.
Indeed, the highest compliment I can pay the Pista is that it felt a lot like the much-missed 458. On steroids, of course.