Driving the Ferrari 488 GTB

[Deb]

I was up in NYC this weekend and @Bedo and I continued our ritual of trolling NYC high-end car dealerships I thought since we spent so much time in the Ferrari 488 GT3 and GTE on iRacing, we really needed to see what the real street car was like. So I set up an appointment first to drive the AMG GTC, likely the leading contender when I have to turn the GTS in, and second to drive the Ferrari 488 GTB. So here is the car that was waiting for us when we got there:

What an amazing car!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of all of the street cars I have driven, I think this is my favorite Incredible throttle response, awesome brakes, precise steering!!!!! Of course, not practical for daily driver, rather raw and very expensive, so although I would love to see one in my garage, I don't think that will happen, so the AMG GTC or GTR remains at the top of the list. But totally fun experience driving this car

 

[little P]

Very nice! This particular Ferrari isn't my cup of tea in the looks department but I bet it felt fantastic to drive! How long did you have it for? Were you able to give it the beans at any point? I need details

How was the GTC drive? Was it everything you hoped for?

 

[Bedo]

About 10 min. The deal was to not go over 80. The nice thing was that the dealer was located along the highway and the route was along the service road which was empty and mostly free of lights.

It was enough to give it the beans but I ran out of beans as soon as I got wheelspin at 60mph at half throttle.

The car is so insane it actually scared me. It's easy to see why alot of people wrap these cars around telephone poles. It's easy to do even if you're careful.

The car is very good looking in person. Proportionally it makes a lot of sense once you see it. Pictures don't do it justice.

Also this car comes with a mode that's one notch higher than race mode, wet mode!

 

[Deb]

The car is really amazing, more power than you would expect. We were limited to 80 mph, so honestly, I felt like I was holding the car back the whole time and couldn't really experience fully what all the car could do. I did accidentally get it up to 85, but seriously, I so wanted to open it up, but didn't want to get the dealership in trouble. It even had a "wet mode", which we could not stop laughing about but I can see the reason, if you gave full on throttle, you'd totally spin the car, even at 60 mph, I could only imagine what the car would do if you gave it even half throttle in the rain. Test drive was probably only about 15 minutes. I was playing it quite conservative, because as soon as I got in the car and got on the street, you could tell just how responsive and how much power the car has. So it was fun to manage the throttle. What an experience it would be to take this car on the track, OMG!!!!! And if that is the street car, you can only imagine what the race car is like. It made us both think how much cars are dummied down, because that was only a 3.9L engine but still over 600 HP.

The sales lady told me the average length of ownership is only 18 months and you can't buy a new one off the showroom floor, it has to be ordered, spec'd to you and then you have to wait. So they do lease a lot of used ones. My preference is generally to buy, although a leased the GTS due to folks complaining about reliability on the AMG Forum. But honestly, should have bought it, it has been incredibly reliable and just the most awesome car to drive. So the next one I will likely buy.

I can't see owning the Ferrari, I like to drive my cars and it seems like that is a car you can only drive occasionally, given the maintenance factor, although they do provide maintenance for 7 years. But I would not be able to deal with a car that is in the shop a fair amount of the time and you would be limited to taking it to the dealer and Ferrari maintenance locations are few and far between. So given the car as a whole, although it is truly incredible, it is just too expensive based on cost per miles driven.

The GTC was awesome!!!! Of course, I am very comfortable in that car since it is very similar to mine. It had about 38 more hp than mine, so not a huge difference but was even louder I did get it up to 107 when I had a break in traffic, but the sales person didn't like it when he realized how fast we were going in a 45 mph speed limit zone. He told @Bedo he couldn't drive it as fast as I did

It is still the top contender, that or the GTR, need to drive them back to back and see. We may have the opportunity to drive the GTC at Nurburgring this summer if all the details work out so that will give me a great opportunity . . . . the world's most awesome test drive

 

[Kinger]

Average length of ownership is 18 months......wow. You’d think with such an investment one would want to hold onto it longer.

 

[Deb]

My guess is many people lease them and get another when the lease is up, although given how long it takes to get a new one, you'd think you'd keep it for awhile, particularly with 7 years of maintenance. But perhaps some really wealthy people have standing orders for new ones every year or something.

I also asked about the customer ownership events. They have track driver training like AMG although does not appear to be as many options with respect to tracks or events. Most of the tracks they listed were private tracks like Monticello, not the famous tracks that you really want to experience. So I would put their ownership program behind AMG's. And honestly, that has been one of the surprisingly awesome things about owning an AMG, access to all the events. And you can get that buying a used AMG for whatever amount you want to spend. Seriously, you could go buy an old C63 for like $5000 or whatever and get access to all the AMG events.

We still have the Audi R8 on the list and a Lambo, both of which I'm not that interested in, but, hey, all of this is really fun to experience and compare . . . . hhhmmmm, what about Bugatti So many cars, so little time

 

[little P]

Love hearing about your test driving shenanigans, make sure you let us know how the Audi and Lambo compare!

I think it's time I put my suit and shades on and visit some Lamborghini dealerships

 

[Slider]

While it must be nice trying to having these, it really depends on where you live. I see a car like this on the road all the time and I'm thinking...it's a waste of a nice car to kill it by driving on garbage roads covered in layers of salt 6 or more months of the year here...now if I were in California or something like that, well, that'd be a great daily driver.

 

[Brainling]

The 488 has always been my "if I had 300k to spend on a car" car. I think it's the best looking of the super cars in that range, and the least...dumb? Not really sure how to explain it, because practical isn't the right word. I've always felt that Ferrari is one of the best companies at designing super cars that can be driven daily, in more practical ways. Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes and Audi all do a good job at that.

 

[Bedo]

While it must be nice trying to having these, it really depends on where you live. I see a car like this on the road all the time and I'm thinking...it's a waste of a nice car to kill it by driving on garbage roads covered in layers of salt 6 or more months of the year here...now if I were in California or something like that, well, that'd be a great daily driver.

That's pretty much the reality of all fantasies. If you lived in CA, you'd be saying the same thing about the traffic. If you lived in FL, you'd be saying the same thing about the cops on the side of the road. If you lived in Germany, you'd be saying the same thing about all the idiots who pull into the left lane and stay there. If you actually took it to the track, you'd be saying that the car overheats too much.

Isn't simracing great?