PISTA is Italian for ‘Racetrack’ which meant Ferrari put the most powerful V8 in the Pista. The V8 is a twin turbo 3.9 litre with 720hp and 770 Nm of torque, that is backed with a seven-speed dual clutch automatic transmission sending power to the rear wheels. 0-100 km/h comes in 2.8 seconds, the engine has been used from a 488 Challenge race car and is made up of 50% newer and lightweight parts. This includes a new exhaust system, new intakes, and a new cooling system. The car has had 90kgs stripped out of it, aerodynamically tuned, and made lighter in every possible way, the lightweight components also include the carbon fibre spoiler, bumpers & bonnet. Carbon fibre wheels are also an option from Ferrari, carbon ceramic brakes are standard. The differential is an active unit that is electronically controlled to help with direction changes at speed. The suspension is electronic controlled dampers with a bumpy road mode for the street applications.
The Pista is basically a track car, the seats are firm, but you can drive it on the streets, but you might not want to drive it across the country on a road trip. Having said that the Pista comes with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres which are a more road orientated tyre, but if you can afford this car, you can afford to have some other tyres for your track days if you desire. Supercars of today are outperforming the tyres, the tyre companies like Michelin are creating tyres to address these massive power increases we are seeing from cars like the Pista.

The interior remains the same from the 488 which is showing its age now, Ferrari still use a wide variety of materials for the inside. We are looking forward to seeing the new generation of interiors from Ferrari as the 488 is almost ten years old now. The Pista also now comes in a Spyder if you want the wind in your hair sensation.

The question I ask myself is which would I have out of the outgoing naturally aspirated V8 Ferrari 458 Speciale, or the new twin turbo charged V8 488 Pista?