Meet the Twin Turbo, 660 hp Ferrari 488 GTB

Ferrari just upped the ante against McLaren and Lamborghini. Take a good look here, and realize that the 488 GTB is the first turbocharged V8 that Ferrari has thrown behind a driver since the F40. And yes, this will annihilate the F40 in any performance category.

Ferrari actually had the classic 308 GTB in mind when styling the body, with the large intake scoop carved out of the side standing as the most obvious nod.

Look carefully at the bottom part of the rear end, and you'll see a clue to how much work was done on the aerodynamics underneath the car. Basically, the entire underside of the car's shaped to create a vacuum, literally sucking the car to the ground at high speed. That's a big reason this car produces over 50 percent more downforce than the 458 Italia.

All of the aerodynamics pieces are essentially tied together, which is why there's two front spoilers, and why the car's exhaust actually ties into the airflow in back, so that the car provides its own downforce under braking. It's a direct application of some really insane "blown diffuser" tech that the team learned from its F1 operations.

To emphasize just how much of a driver's car the 488 is, everything on the interior's pointed directly at the driver. That essentially includes the electronic control systems, which are an evolution of the systems Ferrari has been developing in its FXX track cars.

Those systems combine with the torque-vectoring transmission to help the car get around Ferrari's Fiorano test track in a hurry: as of this morning, the only Ferrari to ever turn a faster lap is the LaFerrari. Not bad, that.

Of course, the engine had a little something to do with that. Two turbos force air into eight cylinders—it's the first mid-engined turbo V8 that Ferrari's put on the road since the F40—and 660 creaming Italian horsepower is the result. That means 60 mph happens in just 3.0 seconds.


Aaron Miller is the Rides editor for Supercompressor, and can be found on Twitter. He loves that there's a car with a blown diffuser for the street now.