The World Loves Melbourne at Exclusive Ferrari 488 Spider Launch
The World Loves Melbourne imbibed the exclusive spectacular Ferrari 488 Spider launch in Melbourne. This was very first appearance in Australia following the premiere at the Frankfurt International Motor Show in October. Sexy in the extreme, we succumbed to the allure of the Ferrari 488 Spider.
The Ferrari 488 Spider is the latest chapter in Maranello’s ongoing history of open-top V8 sports cars, a story that started with the targa-top version of the 308 GTB - the immortal 308 GTS - and which ultimately resulted in the full convertible Spider architecture.
We love the Red colour Ferrari but the model exclusive Blue-Corsa colour is also stunning.
This is the most high performance Spider ever built by the Prancing Horse and is powered by the 488 coupé’s 3902cc turbo-charged V8 which punches out a maximum of 670 CV with the Variable Torque Management system guaranteeing smooth, progressive torque delivery in the higher gears up to a maximum of 760 Nm at 3,000 rpm.
The CEO of Ferrari in Australasia Herbert Appleroth spoke about the never ending style and features of this car. No-one really spoke about price but we discovered you can secure this car for $526,888; although you may need to wait 1 or 2 years and there's a 3 month period of customised build. Worth every cent, we would have thought.
Herbert then unveiled the Ferrari 488 Spider and climbed in to the car to show us the astonishing retractable hard top.
This is an astonishingly sporty car with blistering acceleration (0 to 100 km/h in 3 seconds and 0 to 200 km/h in 8.7) and, even more significantly, a razor-sharp throttle response time of just 0.8 seconds which essentially eliminates the turbo lag typical of this kind of engine.
The Scaglietti centre of excellence’s aluminium crafting skills have also produced a light, high performance spaceframe chassis made of 11 different 6000 series aluminium alloys containing varying percentages of magnesium and with specific characteristics to meet the demands of the different areas of application. Extraordinarily, this yields the same torsional rigidity and beam stiffness figures as the coupé, in which the roof is a structural element, improving the chassis’ performance by 23 per cent over that of the 458 Spider.
The 488 Spider uses the RHT (Retractable Hard Top) which debuted on the 458 Spider as world-first for such a solution on a mid-rear engined car. The RHT has rendered traditional soft-tops obsolete as it is not only lighter (- 25 kg) but also provides better protection from noise and elements even when lowered courtesy of a glass wind-stop adjustable to three different positions. Equally significant is the fact that the RHT can be raised or lowered in 14 seconds even when the car is moving.
The car’s mechanical set-up and dynamic vehicle controls make a pivotal contribution to its powerfully sporty behaviour on the road with Manettino settings chosen for its mission. Specifically, the technicians worked on themagnetorheological dampers to guarantee maximum sportiness without compromising on comfort. The new SSC2 Side Slip Angle Control system also makes it easier for non-professional drivers to reach the limit. Additionally, to ensure superb fun behind the wheel on more challenging routes, the 488 Spider responds virtually instantaneously to steering wheel inputs (0.06 seconds – 9 per cent faster than the previous Spider).
The hard-working Ferrari Design Centre has also brought a sculptural beauty to the modifications made to accommodate the RHT and meet the aerodynamic demands of the car. Cases in point are the flying buttresses which optimally channel air flows to the engine cover, the ribbing on the engine cover and the air intakes with sculpted mesh grilles which lend that area of the car a sense of incredible dynamism.
In line with Ferrari tradition and drawing on the harmonics typical of Prancing Horse cars with this kind of architecture, this 8-cylinder has its own absolutely distinctive soundtrack, thanks to exhaust headers with longer, equal-length piping and the flat-plane crankshaft. The sound was crafted to be seductive but never invasive when the top is dropped, with both volume and clarity increasing in signature Ferrari fashion as the engine instantly responds to the accelerator pedal and revs rise, underscoring the car’s performance.