Ferrari 488 Pista’s staggering performance figures revealed

FERRARI has finally uncovered its eagerly anticipated performance-enhanced 488 special edition confirming that the manic road-racer will wear the Pista moniker.

The news puts to bed speculation that the car would recycle one of the company’s numerous rare-breed nameplates that have previously included GTO, Competizione, Speciale, Stradale and Scuderia, instead opting for a name that translates into English as ‘track’.

Like its enhanced mid-engined V8 ancestors, the Ferrari 488 Pista arrives with a comprehensive selection of boiler-stoking and weight-slashing mods that should put the willies up Porsche and its arsenal of track-dominating hardware as well as Lamborghini’s Huracan Performante.

Drawing directly from 488 GTE and 488 Challenge homologated race car engineering, Ferrari says the Pista offers the closest thing to a road-registrable racing 488 but does not require the deft touch of an experienced professional driver to make the most of it.

Thanks to its racing pedigree, the 488 Pista was put on a crash diet, which dropped 90kg from the not-exactly portly 488 GTB kerb weight, to tip the weighbridge at a bantam dry weight of 1280kg with all weight-saving options bolted on.

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Shedding pounds is just the start of the Pista party, with the 488’s 3.9-litre turbo V8 also fettled by the Maranello mechanics to turn out an extra 38kW for a vicious peak power output of 530kW. Torque is also up 10Nm to 770Nm.

The combination of heft minimisation and muscle maximisation has whittled the zero to 100km/h acceleration to a staggering 2.85 seconds, standstill to 200km/h takes just 7.6s and the top speed has blasted out to ragged fringes in excess of 340km/h.

For comparison, Porsche’s 911 GT2 RS makes the benchmark dash in 2.8s while the feistiest Huracan does it in 2.9s.

As you might expect from a car hell bent on obliterating bends, the 488 Pista has been upgraded with a full complement of racing aerodynamics lifted from the GTE including more aggressively angled front diffusers, redesigned underbody vortex generators and a bigger rear spoiler. The result? 20 percent more downforce.

Not only have its Michelin tyres been specifically formulated for the 488 Pista, but the suspension set up has been completely re-tuned for the bespoke rubber. Other adjustments have been made to the various electronic stability systems to optimise the extra power and potential, including a new Ferrari Dynamic Enhancer (FDE) which can adjust the brake pressure at individual calipers for handling that’s “even more effortless, intuitive and predictable”, says its maker.

If you’re after your own Pista you might be disappointed. While Ferrari Australasia president and CEO Herbert Appleroth told Wheels a similar number of Pistas to its 458 Speciale predecessor would be coming, the company had already received more than twice the demand for the Pista and all examples have already been assigned to only Ferrari’s most loyal customers.