FERRARI’S FINEST
Pista-power in the back of the 488 GTB’s replacement, layered by F1-inspired aerodynamics and electronic wizardry, make for Ferrari’s best series-production V8
The F8 Tributo at Fiorano and the hills around Maranello: this is the ultimate Ferrari experience
FERRARI, THEY DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY. Press drives for instance, there’s no hunt for fancy hotels in exotic locales — we always fly down to Milan or Bologna, a Lancia arrives to remind us that the brand still exists if only to ferry Ferrari guests, and a sharplysuited driver canes it like Sandro Munari on the Monte to bring us to the Maranello Palace, a palace only in name. The Palace does have a great location though. Our room overlooks the Ferrari factory and an obsessivecompulsive colleague counted 18 camouflaged mules driving out of the factory gates while he maintained station in the balcony for God knows how many hours. In the automotive sense then, I guess, it is a palace and there’s always a dozen or more Porsches, Lamborghinis and, of course, Ferraris in the parking lot. No time for much staring. We’re piled into another Lancia for a leisurely lunch and in the evening everyone dresses up and goes to classroom.
This time round, it was in the studio of the new Centro Stile, barely a year old, and designed by architects in London and Bologna under the supervision of Ferrari’s design head Flavio Manzoni. The Ferrari factory is, in fact, a museum of architecture. The historic brick entrance is for guests and selfies, the employees use the back gates in the shade of the immense grey tubes of the wind tunnel designed by Renzo Piano. Office buildings are by Massimiliano Fuksas, the factory extension a decade ago when the California expanded the range was by Jean Nouvel. The design studio, fitting for what goes on in there, is the glitziest and ritziest of the lot, your correspondent who knows nothing about architecture commenting on the shades of the Middle East in the gold filigree work covering the matt-black exterior.
But first we are ushered into the engine plant where the best engine of the past twenty years is made. For a company whose founder said, ‘aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines,’ winning the Engine of the Year for the past four years running is a matter of significant pride, so much so that they’ve now built a car around it. That’s what the Tributo in the F8 stands for, a tribute to the twin-turbocharged V8, quite possibly the last Ferrari V8 without any hybrid/electrical assistance. For those of you moaning about the demise of the natasp engine’s blood-curdling shriek, all I can say is enjoy the turbo engines before the politicians kill that off too.
So anyway, since it’s all about the engine, we get rid of our jackets, don overalls, and under the hawk-eye of a heavily-tattooed Italian technician, assemble some parts of the V8. No, we don’t sign any plaques, and definitely no, ‘our’ engine will not end up in the back of an F8 but, hey, we did get oil on our overalls whilst screwing down (screwing up?) a Ferrari engine. How many can say that? Is there a better way to make journalists fall in love with your car than getting them to work on the engine?
To the classroom then, a vast hall with a vast LED screen where Ferrari management reviews and signs off on their next cars and where multiple mules of the Purosangue must have rolled in and out of. Today there’s the V8 mounted on a pedestal at one end, an F8 Tributo in blue on the other (looks great, though we’re suckers for red), and in between are six guys who will take up two hours to run through 101 slides. I’m not making that up — 101 slides! Which brings us, and I apologise for the abnormally lengthy introduction, to the F8 Tributo.
FIRST WE ARE USHERED INTO THE ENGINE PLANT WHERE THE BEST ENGINE
OF THE PAST TWENTY YEARS
IS MADE
WITH 710BHP IT HAS 50 MORE HORSEPOWER THAN THE GTB AND MATCHES THE OUTPUT OF THE
488 PISTA
FIRST, THE PRODUCT MARKETING GUY RUNS us through the 40-year history of Ferrari V8 sports cars, starting with the 308 GTB in 1975. The F8 Tributo replaces the 488 GTB, will be launched in India next February and will be priced at `4 crore ex-showroom (though, weirdly, the India price was in British Pounds).
Next is the all-important engine guy who obviously takes great pride in all the awards. Developed from the F154 turbo-V8 that was originally launched in the 488 GTB four years ago, the F8 Tributo has the highest specific output of all Ferrari IC engines with 182.5bhp per litre. With 710bhp it has 50 more horsepower than the GTB and matches the output of the 488 Pista. On quizzing the engineers, we learn that the Tributo gets the Pista engine but with one crucial difference, the addition of the Gas Particulate Filter to get the engine to meet Euro 6 emission norms (a big step up from BS-6 that kicks in next year in India, and which we will migrate to in a further two years). The GPF reduces particulate matter by 90 per cent and sucks around 15bhp from the engine, so engineers are quite chuffed that they managed to put out the same power as the non-GPF Pista motor. It is, of course, interesting to see the changes wrought over the GTB’s engine — the intakes are new, a whopping 9.7 kilos has been shaved off the exhaust by using Inconel manifolds, the turbo chargers get their own speed sensors (developed from the Challenge race cars) that remove the need for power-compromising factor of safety, and overall there are 50 per cent brand new functional parts compared to the GTB. In total a whopping 18 kilos are shaved over the GTB’s V8, helped by a new titanium alloy for the connecting rods that saves 1.7kg, new connecting rods and crank shaft that are lighter by 1.7 and 1.2 kilos, a new flywheel that’s 1.5kg lighter and hollow valves that save 300 grammes. The added lightness means the engine has 17 per cent lower inertia and thus a more manic nature that we’ve already experienced in the Pista.
That’s not it for the engine guys’ slides. He proceeds to educate us on the Wall-Effect rev limiter that honestly I don’t quite get and the harder engine sound that I do get. A hot-tube resonator pipes sounds from the exhaust into the cabin raising the in-cabin noise by 8 decibels and
YOU ALWAYS PRESCRIBE A SMOOTH POWER OVERSTEER ARC WITH ONE CLEAN CATCH OF THE ’WHEEL. THE F8 LULLS
YOU INTO THINKING YOU’RE GOD
SSC 6.1 AND FDE+ NOW WORK IN RACE AND CT OFF AND PERMIT 15 DEGREES OF OVERSTEER
— at least it is claimed! — to deliver a more fun to drive soundtrack. We will see tomorrow.
Next up is aerodynamics, or Aerothermal design to be more specific. This is complicated and I fear you might tune out here so I’ll keep it brief. Downforce is up by 10 per cent over the GTB. The S-duct channels air from an opening in the air dam below the prancing horse logo, and accelerates and diverts it over the car through the channel in the nose to provide downforce. The radiators in the nose have been angled rearwards for better cooling and to lower the hot wake so that fresh air goes into the intercoolers. The air intakes are repositioned to the edges of the rear spoiler which itself is larger and ‘blown’. An opening in the centre underneath the spoiler channels air upwards, the ‘upwash’ as F1 people call it increasing downforce by 25 per cent while underbody ‘vortex generators’ enhance suction by a similar percentage. The underbody diffuser has movable elements, three of them, which work like F1’s DRS to increase downforce or reduce drag as and when the car’s brain thinks is necessary. When I ask, they say there’s no need to have different levels of downforce on the inside and outside wheels like their Italian rival employs — just the maximum downforce that is possible at all times.
Don’t say phew yet. Next up is the vehicle dynamics guy. This I’ll talk about when I actually drive the car but in a nutshell the SSC 6.1 (Side Slip Control) and FDE + (Ferrari Dynamic Enhancer) now work in both Race and CT Off modes and permit upto 15 degrees of oversteer with a safety net in case you run out of talent.
And finally, styling that is said to be a bridge between the past (488) and the future (SF90 hybrid and the upcoming pipeline) with slimmer headlights, twin round tail lamps (harking back to F355 and 288 GTO) and the transparent, vented Lexan engine cover that pays homage to the most iconic turbo’d Ferrari of them all, the F40. I leave you to make up your own mind; to my eye it is tighter, sharper and awesome, and the best looking car on this platform that stretches back to the 458.
And once done, we were ushered into the private dining area of the Ferrari canteen, components of the V8 mounted as centre pieces on the tables (ours had the turbo), bottles of Prosecco were popped, and homely pasta and steaks were served to us in the glassy wing designed by Marco Visconti that soars above the rectilinear industrial buildings. Next day we returned to raid the factory store where merchandise is offered at a heavily discounted rate for Ferrari employees.
The driving
Still with me? Awesome. For those who jumped straight here, you join me on a cold, grey, wet and windswept day at Fiorano, Ferrari’s test track where greats like Fangio, Ascari, Surtees, Villeneuve, Lauda, all came down to meet Il Commendatore at his home; where Michael Schumacher tested and developed Ferrari into such a dominant force that F1 banned the use of private test tracks and limited testing altogether; grounds that are even more hallowed and restricted than the Ferrari factory itself.
Our cars are parked in Piazza Michael Schumacher, the square in front of Enzo’s house that is now used by new Ferrari CEO Louis Camilleri and thus off limits to us journalists. I’m directed first into the pits where two F8s pull up and the test drivers step out shaking their heads apologetically. “Wet mode” he tells me pointing to the Manettino and, not sure if it’s for effect, proceeds to slide, shake, wriggle and make me properly nervous on the sighting lap. The problem is it hasn’t rained properly to wash off the ‘marbles’, bits of tyre swept off the racing line, so the track is slippery, inconsistent and unpredictable. Ferrari, unlike every single manufacturer, actually insist you try out their cars in the more extreme modes. You have four laps all on your own, nobody in the car with you, no car to follow slowing you down, just a request to get off the throttle for a short section on the main straight to comply with EU noise regulations for race tracks.
Today, though, the test drive recommends only Wet mode. It’s the first time in my life I’m driving a Ferrari in Wet mode! I guess there’s a first time for everything. Of course I try Sport but promptly dial it back — this thing is volcanic in its intensity and the last thing any journalist
wants to do is leave a streak of red on the guard rails of Fiorano.
Park up in the pits and we head to cars in the courtyard, the difference being the track cars run the extreme Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres of the Pista while the road cars have the Pirelli P Zeros. With Cup 2s the F8 is within half a second of the be-striped, super-series and hardcore Pista’s Fiorano lap time. And believe me, I know how hardcore the Pista can be — I rode shotgun with Bren Garage’s Boopesh Reddy from the edge of the Rann of Kutch back to Ahmedabad. Don’t know about him, but I was knackered after those two and a bit hours. (Please tell me you read the August evo India cover story on the Pista in the Rann).
A quick lunch of pasta and meat at the Cavallino, the Ferrari-owned restaurant opposite the historic entrance of the factory where Enzo used to lunch, with the inevitable snaking queues of fans waiting to get in to soak up the storied history, and we’re off. First impressions as we trundle out of Maranello is the F8 is far, far more comfortable than the Pista. A more relevant comparison is with the 488 so we will stick to that henceforth, and here too the F8 is more luxurious. Plusher seats, a completely new dashboard with more tactile switchgear, a bigger 7-inch screen in front of the passenger to scare them silly, and the Ferrari-typical hyper-quick steering that feels even more connected if a bit more heavy. Roads in Italy aren’t like, say, Germany and almost everywhere are bumps. Yet that’s another example of how Ferrari does things differently — they don’t go searching for the smoothest tarmac in the most isolated island in the world, they let their extreme machines loose on regular, narrow, bumpy roads of their home town. And over regular roads, which is a bit like what the road up
IT’S THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE I’M DRIVING A FERRARI IN WET MODE! GUESS THERE’S A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING
to Aamby Valley or Lavasa (outside of Mumbai/Pune) was before the monsoons, the F8 rides well. It faithfully follows the contours of the surface but it takes the edge off of it; it doesn’t jolt you or send shivers up your spine. It flushes the ‘where are the roads?’ questions down the toilet. If you’re lucky enough to have one in India, I guarantee you will enjoy exploring the great driving roads outside of almost every city in India (if you wake up early enough, that is).
Oh, the first time you put your foot down the Tributo will shock you. SHOCK you. The turn of speed is astonishing. The first time those blue shift lights flash atop the steering wheel your eyes go white and the passenger scrambles to grab onto whatever they can (quick nugget from the 101 slides: over 60 per cent of 488 GTB customers do drives with a passenger). If 710bhp feels like too much on track, on the road it is Oh My God. The raw figures — 0-100kmph is a tenth quicker at 2.9 seconds while 0-200kmph is half-a-second quicker at 7.8 seconds. These are figures to mash the brain but what they don’t describe is the inexhaustible energy of the engine. It revs as quickly as a nat-asp motor (though not yet all the way to 9000rpm as the last-of-the-line 458 Speciale); the torque curves alter through the gears so it gets progressively more aggressive as you go up the gears; it doesn’t plateau out as with other turbo motors at the peak, and the Wall-Effect makes for the crispest, tightest, most sophisticated rev-limiter I’ve encountered. Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa… it revs out so quickly your first half hour is spent hitting the limiter until your fingers get quick enough with the carbonfibre paddles and your ears get used to the sound.
This isn’t piped and enhanced through the speakers; the harmonics and waves from the exhaust are plumbed into the cabin, behind the driver’s ears, enhancing the natural engine noise to provide a harder, sportier, but still an evidently turbo’d sound. There’s the turbo whistling, there’s an authentic V8 bark, the decibels rise and fall with your right foot, the pulse quickens as you go through the rev range. And it doesn’t pop and bang on the overrun. There’s no nonsense. I do like a bit of nonsense, but Ferrari, again, do things differently. Do things better.
And there’s no turbo lag. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero. The F8 sounds turbocharged but it doesn’t feel turbocharged, save for the fact that while you need to work a nat-asp engine to get it to sing, a turbo’d motor has power everywhere and everytime you flex your right ankle.
SHORT ROAD LOOP DONE, AND HAVING successfully made my passenger sick, I’m now on the longer loop with dry roads to play with. Good god! It’s awfully cliched to term this the best drive of my life — I tend to say that after every Ferrari drive — but with absolutely no traffic in the Tuscan hills, and finally dry roads, I can let rippppp. Race mode. Left to its own devices the dual-clutch second guesses the gears better than I ever could, both up and down. Always in the meat of the 770Nm torque band, the F8 launches like a demented catapult out of every corner. Through corners, the front end nails itself to the prescribed arc; I found it impossible to nudge it into understeer. And as for the rear, there’s so much grip it’s nearly impossible to get it unstuck if you feed in the throttle as one should — smoothly, evenly, constantly. Stomp on it and through the sections under the trees that haven’t dried out completely and there’s so much torque in first that the tail snaps so quickly that an equally urgent intervention is required. It’s higher up the gears, in second, preferably third, that SSC and FDE+ come alive, letting you slide and catch with a precision that you never imagined you possessed. To be sure, you cannot say when or where the electronics are working, doing what it does unobtrusively and without the usual ESP curbing of the power and/or braking individual wheels; the sophistication of the electronics is freakish. And you always prescribe a smooth power oversteer arc with one clean catch of the ’wheel. The F8 lulls you into thinking you’re God but luckily I caught up with the photo and video team, the subsequent low-speed tracking letting my mind settle down and process what happened in the hills. I drive those corners again and realise I’m always applying just the right amount of lock. What the electronics fed by the yaw sensors do is apply a suggestive torque on the steering wheel, indicating in which direction and just how much corrective steering to apply, the added sophistication of SSC 6.1 and FDE+ smoothening out the intervention and adding more precision. Not once did I over correct or send the tail the other way — and I know I’m not that consistent a driver.
To be clear, this is not an autonomous system. The torque on the steering wheel is suggestive, it doesn’t physically turn the ’wheel and you have to apply the corrective lock and the right amount of it. But there is actually no sensation of intervention. It flatters the driver. The F8 Tributo is not just Ferrari doing things differently, this is Ferrari doing things better than anybody else. ⌧