2019-10-01_CAR_UK

(Marty) #1

170 MILES 300 MILES


First drives 300-mile test

Quick pitstop and we’re back
to Fiorano. What a car. Not
as sharp as a Pista but much
cheaper, faster than a GTB but
not much pricier. Deal.

Sudden downpour and I’m grateful
for the F8’s new thumb-wheel
switch on the steering wheel for the
wipers – it’s much easier to fathom
than the old button. Indicators have
better haptic feedback too. Yes!

with a GTB. You’ll probably note the pointier front end with
headlights slimmed down to leave space for extra brake cooling
slots, and the S-duct like a sticky-out tongue in the centre of the
bumper, helping channel air through a vented bonnet. The rear
remixes Ferrari’s back catalogue: the vented Lexan rear screen
echoes the F40, while design boss Flavio Manzoni cites 288
GTO and F355 as influences to the quad rear lights and overall
aesthetic of the rear. The cabin is refreshed with a new steering
wheel, revised dash and door cards.
We follow the A1, then the Panoramica highway south, as
flat plains rise to the mountains and forests of Parco Storico De
Monte Sole, with a sense that twists and turns and adventure lie
ahead and, for now, tunnels. Lots of tunnels.
Flatplane-crank V8s always have a gruff edge, but the advent
of turbos for the 488, and now a gasoline particulate filter to
meet new emissions regulations, has given the F8 a grittier edge
still. Under gentle acceleration, there’s also a whistle of turbo
and sucky noises easily mistaken for hard-working air-con. It’s
not unappealing, but compared to a GTB there’s a more work-
manlike quality to the F154 engine’s machinations at gentler
speeds, and you certainly need to get the F8 higher up the rev
range to hear a more full-blooded, higher-frequency bark.
Too busy chatting, we miss our turn and head miles south,
before looping back and cutting cross-country to Scarperia e
San Piero, startline of the old Mugello road race. It was a faster,
more mountainous kind of Targa Florio held until 1970, but
today Mugello is synonymous with the 3.3-mile circuit built in
1973, and the motorbikes we hear lapping hard make for an odd
disconnect to the near-deserted main drag baking in 31ºC heat.
The SP503 leads north to the Passo del Giogo. The F8 initially
feels dauntingly wide on fiddly hairpins, but the road strikes a
sweeter rhythm with altitude, before cresting at 882 metres to
reveal gorgeous vistas over Tuscan hillsides. We stop briefly to
chat with Italian bikers basting in full leathers, then chase the
road downhill as it runs wider and faster towards Rifredo.
It’s a challenging section that cost Günter Klass his life
driving for Ferrari, almost unbelievably the only race driver to
perish here given the unforgiving geography. Part of the chal-
lenge must have been to drive quickly without being bucked off
the road: the surface now is mostly smooth, but the landscape
beneath heaves like the Adriatic Sea.


It’s a few years since I’ve driven a GTB, but to me the F8 has a
firmer edge, despite suspension hardware carrying over (later,
back at the circuit, Toschi confirms they’ve played with the
dampers). And yet in ‘bumpy road’ mode, the F8 rides these
secondary undulations like a swan gliding over water while its
dampers work hard beneath the surface. The steering, simi-
larly, has an unflappable consistency, and never feels too edgy,
despite a super-fast ratio. Partly it’s because there’s a chunkiness
to the weight as you delicately nudge it left and right, but it’s also
because the chassis isn’t caught napping by the steering’s instruc-
tions. Together with the damping, linearity of performance and
supreme braking power, the F8 makes 710bhp feel manageable
and in balance on such a challenging road. Absurd, but true.
We thread round to Casanuova and Firenzuola, before
climbing the Futa Pass, squirting past occasional lumbering
motorhomes and through a series of mid-paced corners. It’s
here that the ‘CT off ’ manettino setting really comes into its
own, letting you power out of quicker corners with all the slip
you need to get the giddy thrill of oversteer, but always with a
safety net if you hit the brakes or look like you’ll spin. The F8
oversteers almost casually, and yet communicates so clearly


  • the feeling of the front tyres reaching their limits, the diff
    beginning to lock – that you’re unlikely to have it hanging at
    daft angles accidentally.
    This feels much the same as the Pista, but the front end
    can’t quite match its hardcore sibling, partly because of the
    mechanical grip of less aggressive P Zero tyres, but also the
    small amount of extra bodyroll – on downhill sections I’m
    hesitating just a little bit more, carrying a little less speed.
    Joining the SR65 above Monte di Fo’, we run south to ⊲


The F8 Tributo makes


710bhp feel in balance on


such a challenging road.


Absurd, but it does


Lovely Fiat 124
Sport Spider:
overtaken on
Passo del Giogo

OCTOBER 2019 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 41

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