Fast & Furious

We Take the Most Powerful V8 Ferrari Ever for a Test Drive, Which Is Part Thrilling and Part Terrifying. The 488 Pista Is an Absolute Must for V8 Lovers.

- Andrew Chesterton

That our motoring future will be electrified is pretty much guaranteed at this point. The two-punch combination of soaring petrol prices and ever-stricter global emissions regulations ensures the roads of tomorrow will be jam-packed with vehicles that produce naught but the gentle chirping of a car from The Jetsons, and will tug at your emotions with all the conviction of a kitten gently batting yarn. Ferrari owners, of course, care little about petrol prices, and the concept of overt regulation remains a hilariously foreign one in Italy. Because when you strap into the new 488 Pista (and you literally do strap in; overseas models are equipped with a race-ready four-point harness that secures you to the seat with such enthusiasm they could be used as props in the next Fifty Shades of Grey movie), tomorrow suddenly seems an awfully long way away.

This car is to electric vehicles what a Texas barbecue joint is to vegans – a snapping, snarling, perennially loud and always angry supercar that doesn’t so much ignite the senses as set off a bomb in the part of your brain used to measure speed. It’s electrifying, sure, just in a different way.

This Pista is the fourth of the Ferrari Special Series vehicles (it follows the Challenge Stradale from 2003, the 430 Scuderia from 2007 and the 458 Speciale from 2013). And the fabled Italian brand has saved the very best for last.

Because the Pista – it’s Italian for ‘track’, not a pasta sauce – isn’t just another powerful Ferrari. It’s the most powerful V8 Ferrari of all time. And under that racing-striped bonnet (the stripe is an option, by the way, and one that will set you back a wallet-aching US$14,000) lurks a twin-turbocharged 3.9-litre powerhouse that produces a staggering 530kW and 770Nm.