Pinnacle Of The Motor Car?

Is a ‘regular’ Ferrari too tame for you? Do you normally get out of a 488 GTB yawning? If so, say hello to the Pista…

- Dhruv Behl

The car that you see here is the most powerful V8 in Ferrari’s history. And that’s saying something, considering that they’ve had their fair share of powerful V8s in the past. Arguably the first hypercar, the F40 of 1987 – the last Ferrari developed under the watch of Enzo Ferrari (or il Commendatore, as he was known), before his death in 1988 – had a 2.9 litre twin-turbo V8 that produced 478bhp. At the time, it was thought that cars would never get any faster. They thought wrong!

The 2003 360 Challenge Stradale had 420bhp, the 2007 F430 Scuderia: 500bhp, the 2013 458 Speciale: 600bhp, and now the 488 Pista – its 3.9-litre, twin-turbo V8 produces (wait for it) 711bhp and 770Nm of torque. That’s 50 horses and 10Nm more than the 488 GTB. Clearly, this is a car for those of you who normally get out of a 488 GTB yawning.

100km/h comes up in just 2.85 seconds – versus a ‘leisurely’ 3 seconds in the GTB! 200km/h comes up in a staggering 7.6 seconds. Needless to say, this car is nothing if it isn’t fast. Fitting, I suppose, since it does have the word ‘racetrack’ in its name. Pista means track in Italian in case you haven’t figured that out already.

So, how did they do it?

Well, they started by shaving a full 90 kilogrammes off the GTB. 18kgs of that comes from the engine alone. Incredible amounts of inspiration have been taken from the 488 GTE and Ferrari Challenge race car – that’s the WEC (World Endurance Championship) racer and the Ferrari one make series contender respectively.