[DeTomaso] NPC: Dan Neil on the Ferrari 488GTB

[Charles Engles]

Dear Forum,

   

           No Pantera content, but excerpts from the incisive Dan Neil
regarding the new Ferrari 488GTB.   The full article is in the WSJ June
27-28 paper and should be available on line later this week.

 

 

           " Red. Fast. Expensive. Attention-seeking. Believe me, I get that
as a consumer choice Ferrari is a bit unironic.  Like very tight pants,
these cars don't always tell the story owner think they tel.  Ferrari isn't
the least bit sentimental about its customer base, either.  It looks at the
current abundance of global 1-percenters like the Alberta tar sands, a crude
resource to be mined.

 

            But bored post-consumerism can't survive first contact with the
488GTB, due to its morally difficult status as both a pointless plaything
for the rich and a work of technical art.  Now with a pair of astonishing
turbochargers, Ferrari's entry-level car makes 661 hp, hits 60 mph in under
3 seconds (including the automated second-gear up-shift) and reaches 124 mph
in 8.3 seconds on the way up to a 205 mph top speed.  Helping hold it to
Planet Earth are fully concerted vehicle dynamic systems evolved from the
458  Speciale, governing the adaptive magnetic suspension, powertrain
(variable torque management, E-diff and steering), active aero and brakes,
including the stupendous carbon-ceramic stoppers from LaFerrari.  The 488
GTB is the 458 Italia with an Octa-core upgrade hooked up to Google fiber.

 

          Pursuant to Ferrari's philosophy of keeping its evermore powerful
cars accessible to drivers of average talent (though average age and income
is more like it), the 488 GTB is a strange combination of blindingly fast
and utterly benign. -----Confidence and familiarity come quickly, even
hubris.  I walked into the place a slow footed American journalist.  Now I'm
Senna?

 

         -----The net is a strangely synthetic, but intensely physical
sports car, a leather-lined washing machine of agreeable G-forces, set on
the delicates cycle.  The 488 GTB is fully 2 seconds quicker around Fiorano
than a well-handled Enzo.  

 

 

       _____  The maximum torque is a little trickier to cite, since the
488's computers will not give you the full bolus until the higher gears
(variable-torque management), lest you overwhelm the 20-inch rear tires.  At
3,000 rpm, in seventh gear, the figure is an ample 560 pound-feet.  That's
just adorbs.  

 

 

 

                 Ferrari has been obliged to switch from naturally aspirated
engines to ones using turbochargers to comply with carbon-emission targets,
but turbocharging represents a special burden to Ferrari since so much of
the cars' character, their somatosensory essence, is from three qualities
that turbochargers don't offer: sharp, lag-free engine response; screaming
revs; and that celestial chain-saw sound that comes from a naturally
aspirated Ferrari V8 or V12.  "

 

 

                           Warmest regards,  Chuck Engles

 

-------------- next part --------------
   Dear Forum,


              No Pantera content, but excerpts from the incisive Dan Neil
   regarding the new Ferrari 488GTB.   The full article is in the WSJ June
   27-28 paper and should be available on line later this week.



              " Red. Fast. Expensive. Attention-seeking. Believe me, I get
   that as a consumer choice Ferrari is a bit unironic.  Like very tight
   pants, these cars don't always tell the story owner think they tel.
   Ferrari isn't the least bit sentimental about its customer base,
   either.  It looks at the current abundance of global 1-percenters like
   the Alberta tar sands, a crude resource to be mined.


               But bored post-consumerism can't survive first contact with
   the 488GTB, due to its morally difficult status as both a pointless
   plaything for the rich and a work of technical art.  Now with a pair of
   astonishing turbochargers, Ferrari's entry-level car makes 661 hp, hits
   60 mph in under 3 seconds (including the automated second-gear
   up-shift) and reaches 124 mph in 8.3 seconds on the way up to a 205 mph
   top speed.  Helping hold it to Planet Earth are fully concerted vehicle
   dynamic systems evolved from the 458  Speciale, governing the adaptive
   magnetic suspension, powertrain (variable torque management, E-diff and
   steering), active aero and brakes, including the stupendous
   carbon-ceramic stoppers from LaFerrari.  The 488 GTB is the 458 Italia
   with an Octa-core upgrade hooked up to Google fiber.


             Pursuant to Ferrari's philosophy of keeping its evermore
   powerful cars accessible to drivers of average talent (though average
   age and income is more like it), the 488 GTB is a strange combination
   of blindingly fast and utterly benign. -----Confidence and familiarity
   come quickly, even hubris.  I walked into the place a slow footed
   American journalist.  Now I'm Senna?


            -----The net is a strangely synthetic, but intensely physical
   sports car, a leather-lined washing machine of agreeable G-forces, set
   on the delicates cycle.  The 488 GTB is fully 2 seconds quicker around
   Fiorano than a well-handled Enzo.



          _____  The maximum torque is a little trickier to cite, since
   the 488's computers will not give you the full bolus until the higher
   gears (variable-torque management), lest you overwhelm the 20-inch rear
   tires.  At 3,000 rpm, in seventh gear, the figure is an ample 560
   pound-feet.  That's just adorbs.




                    Ferrari has been obliged to switch from naturally
   aspirated engines to ones using turbochargers to comply with
   carbon-emission targets, but turbocharging represents a special burden
   to Ferrari since so much of the cars' character, their somatosensory
   essence, is from three qualities that turbochargers don't offer: sharp,
   lag-free engine response; screaming revs; and that celestial chain-saw
   sound that comes from a naturally aspirated Ferrari V8 or V12.  "



                              Warmest regards,  Chuck Engles