First Drive: Ferrari 488 Pista

Out of the box, this 488 Pista is valuable. It costs £252,765 (the standard 488 GTB costs £196,418), which includes the £2,070 first year VED, but not the £14,208 carbon-fibre wheels, the £2,112 seat harnesses and the £8,640 body stripes. There’s also a £20,460 personalisation pack though no one appears to know what's in it apart from your personal name on the invoice. That said, they've sold out the first two years of production, so they must be doing something right.

Fast? You betcha. Top speed is quoted at 211mph and 0-62mph is achievable in 2.85 seconds. This is reputedly the fastest-ever production car around Ferrari's Fiorano test track. Raffaele De Simone, Ferrari's test driver wrestled it around in 1minute 21.5seconds, two seconds faster than an 812 Superfast and only 1.8 sec slower than a La Ferrari limited-edition hybrid supercar.

The base for this bolide is the 2015 488 GTB, which is due for replacement in a couple of years. Pista basically consists of a rework on the engine and aerodynamics and a 90kg diet, although the subsequent body changes give it a distinctive mien (at least as eye-catching as those eight-grand body stripes).

The engine is basically the same all-aluminium, four-cam, 3.9-litre, flat-plane-crank, bi-turbo V8 as used in the 488 and in the California T. Old fashioned tuning has increased the high-rev volumetric efficiency and clever software and careful management of the twin-scroll IHI turbos fills the bottom end. They still restrict the torque in the lower gears to keep a progressive naturally aspirated throttle feel and the strengthening precautions consist of reinforced cylinder heads and pistons, with slippery coatings for the gudgeon pins, nickel-chrome inconel exhaust headers, titanium rods, thinner cylinder walls and a lightweight valve train. The transmission is the same seven-speed, twin-clutch gearbox as in the 458 and 488, and the suspension is pretty much the same with heavier-duty springs all round.

They've saved weight in the engine and in the body, with carbon fibre used for the bonnet, bumpers, intake plenum and rear spoiler. There's a lithium-ion battery and optional 20-inch carbon-fibre wheels. The car's aerodynamics have been reworked to exploit the advantages of the flat floor and give genuine downforce (as much as 240kg at 124mph), the engine breathes through the rear of the car now and the wing ducts flow air through the repositioned inlet-charge coolers.

In the cabin, there's not much difference between a standard 488 and the Pista. Carbon fibre predominates, with lots of Alcantara on the facia and dash, and weird chequer-plate aluminium floors. The driver's binnacle is unchanged and has the same switchable displays, there's a modest display for the sat-nav instructions and the centre console contains the transmission selection buttons, with the steering wheel carrying the biggest weight of responsibility for driver mode selection, engine start/stop, indicators and a load of other stuff. It's sombre black or grey and there's not a lot of spare room, with door nets and just six inches of space behind each seat; even the boot, at 170 litres, is 50 litres smaller than the standard 488. Seats are unyielding carbon-fibre buckets, barely trimmed with wings which push your shoulders forward uncomfortably. And those fantastically expensive harness seat belts quickly ride up under your rib cage unless you tighten them so hard it feels as though you've been taken prisoner by bondage pirates.

The engine starts with a droning boom and idles so loudly that you wonder about whether the exhaust has blown. The right-hand steering-wheel paddle selects first gear and the clutch grumpily takes up the drive. Around town, the ride is harsh to the point of being laughable, even with 'bumpy-road' damper setting engaged. Your shoulders fret against the belts and your head bobs around like a balloon on a stick. Those especially sticky Michelins throw squalls of stones and debris at the wheel arches and it all feels mightily portentous but also a bit ridiculous. The engine snorts and paws the ground and the driveline shunt rattles in your chest; this isn't really a car you'll take out for a quiet relaxing drive, no sir. 

Find a quieter bit of road, drop down a couple of gears and you'll wonder if you haven't accidentally been wired into the mains. The acceleration is so shockingly fast it's all you can do to hold on the wheel frantically trying to keep the car on the road. Even in a higher gear, the Ferrari takes no prisoners, feeling faster than anything with four wheels and actually at the limits of what is feasible and safe on a public road. It wasn't that long ago that a Formula One car could barely muster 700bhp and at 4,605mm long and 1,975mm wide, this car is too big to exploit on winding country roads sharing space with other cars, pedestrians and animals. Driving becomes an exercise in self-control and responsibility rather than fun.

Even travelling briskly, you can feel the wheels working like crazy in the wheel arches and the electronic systems beavering away to keep the car stable and on the road (particularly the electronic limited-slip differential), but the steering feels calm and measured in spite of the fact that it's a fast-ratio system and the nose turns into corners with remarkable alacrity.

We probably used full throttle three times on the entire two-hour route through the Apennines and each application was exhausting and left the passenger's tummy behind. It's the type of car that, as we used to say; makes you feel as though you should really walk into your local police station and rip up your driving licence in front of the desk sergeant. In fact, most owners would probably be faster (as well as a great deal more comfortable and richer) in a standard 488 GTB.

So then we go to Fiorano and De Simone gives a virtuoso piece of taut, aggressive driving talking all the while. "The systems came from the race program, not the road car," he says. "You can drive it a bit more on the edge than the rear-drive cars, but you know if you drive badly, it's not the fastest way, so be aggressive, but clean."

Even in a lot less expert hands, it feels super quick and for a 1.38-tonne car, extraordinarily agile. It turns in brilliantly quickly, but when times comes to balance power against the unwinding of the steering lock, there's a docility, born out of the car's electronic traction, stability and electronic differential that feels like the hand of a giant deity. It's almost, but not quite, too much, too disembodied and, well, weird, but when those special Michelins do give up the ghost and you steer into the slide, it's nice to know the systems come off the slide with better manners than almost any previous Ferrari.

It doesn't rewrite the rules of what a mid-engined car can do, but with more power, more grip and less weight, the Pista makes the 488 an even more formidable automobile. Whether such a car can or should be exploited on a public road is another question and one also wonders about the abilities and sense of responsibility of its owners. That said, 488 Pista should be celebrated as an extraordinary piece of engineering, even if those eight-grand body stripes are simply ludicrous.

The Numbers

Engine: 3.9-litre, twin-turbocharged 90-degree V8

Transmission: seven-speed, twin-clutch, semi-automatic, rear-wheel drive 

Power/Torque: 710bhp @ 8,000rpm, 568lb ft @ 3,000rpm (720PS @ 8,000rpm, 770Nm @ 3,000rpm)

0-62mph: 2.85sec

Top speed: 211mph

Price £252,765