The Thrill of Driving a Ferrari: A Personal Experience

As I got behind the wheel of this incredible car, I could feel its eagerness to go forward, but also its desire to go sideways and squirm while trying to put that power down. It was an exhilarating experience, like nothing I've ever felt before. The engine developed peak horsepower between 6750 and 8000 RPM, which meant that it felt like a naturally aspirated engine, at least that's what they tried to emulate with this car.

Launch control was another cool feature of this car. I mean, you need really hot tires to be able to do that, but when you can, it's just incredibly fast. The car took off like a shot, and I couldn't believe my eyes. 2.9 claimed is the top speed, but with the right tires, you could get even closer.

To give this car a very linear and progressive power delivery, the manufacturer limited the torque in each gear. This meant that when you went through the gears, you got more and more torque with each gear, ending up with peak torque only in seventh gear. It was like the car was getting faster and faster with each gear, which was just crazy.

The roof closure feature was another interesting aspect of this car. The roof closed pretty quickly, and then we could open up a little rear window by hitting a button right there. It definitely gave us more sound, and it made the experience even more immersive. When I opened the rear window, the wind rushing past me was like nothing I'd ever experienced before.

The turn-in of this car was honestly one of the most satisfying things I've ever driven. The steering was quick and responsive, and the car stuck to the road in a way that made me feel like it was glued to the asphalt. Go, we've got shift lights on the steering wheel, which added an extra level of excitement to the drive.

The stability of this car was impressive, especially when cornering at high speeds. It was so stable that I could keep my foot on the gas pedal without worrying about losing traction or control. Although, it did get a bit louder inside with all the wind rushing past, and those windows didn't quite want to open up beyond 290 km/h.

I have to say, this gearbox is one of the best I've ever driven. It was quick, smooth, and responded so quickly to my inputs. The sound of the gearshift was music to my ears, and it added a whole new level of engagement to the driving experience.

The track experience with this car was just incredible. We did 100 to 200 in five seconds flat, which is super quick. And when we hit fourth gear, catching up with everything was like magic. The cornering speeds were outrageous, and I couldn't believe how quickly this thing could turn.

One of the most impressive things about this car is its ability to handle both daily driving and track days with ease. It's comfortable enough for long journeys, but when you get to a track, it transforms into an absolute beast that demolishes everything on the track.

Finally, I have to thank Marcel for letting us take out his car for the day. He was very kind and accommodating, and it was a pleasure to drive such an incredible machine. If you're a fan of Ferraris or just want to experience the thrill of driving one of these amazing cars, then you should definitely check out Marcel's Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok channels.

As I finished my time with this car, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe and respect for its incredible abilities. It's truly one of the most exciting modern Ferraris I've ever driven, and it's definitely up there with some of the best cars I've ever had the pleasure of getting behind the wheel of.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this POV review by autotop now my name is Max and today today is a good day it is a Sunday afternoon and we've been given the keys to this Ferrari 488 Pista spider which I mean you know it's a good day when that happens so today I want to start by thanking Marcel melis who is the owner of the car and also CEO at the swan melis fund he is a hedge fund manager a broker and an investor he also has his own money invested in his own fund and he scours the world for the best hedge fund managers to basically invest his customers money as well as possible and he's been doing it for a long time he's got 16 years experience raised over a billion EUR it is very rare actually that someone from the hedge fund World shares information and tells you how it's done and how it works uh if you want to learn more about that you can follow Marcel melis on Instagram I will link all his information in the description and he shares stuff about hedge funds but also about investing and real estate entrepreneurship big thanks to Marcel for allowing us to take out this amazing Pista today we're going to talk about the 488 Pista I'm going to show you around it and then we'll take it for a drive towards the utan for an autan blast the Pista of course is the fourth in line of the hardcore special version of the V8 Supercar by Ferrari started out with the 360 challenge Str uh then came the 430 scooteria the 458 spal and then the 488 Pizza uh this is the spider so the convertible version of the Pista but it is only 50 kilos heavier than the coupe and it basically shares everything else with the coupe so the difference you'd have to drive them back to back really to feel the difference in torsional rigidity and uh the weight but you do gain a lot of drama with that roof down now the pizza is like basically a track focused car uh it's really good on road as well but they did take some stuff from the 488 challenge car so the race car one of which is this sdct at the front so air is taken in through here comes out there uh adding downforce to that nose downforce has been increased by 20% compared to a 488 without really an Associated penalty in uh drag so that is actually very very impressive the entire front end from like the front axle uh is new for the Pista so you've got this super intricate front bumper with this flowing grating even here around the uh tow hitch mounting point you've got carbon fiber Splitters here in the front bumper as well little winglets down the side very very aggressive so basically uh only the headlights are the same on a regular 488 the bonnet and the bumper are different compared to uh the regular car we've got these black wheels kind of in that retro star shape I would say with a little Ferrari cap here with carbon fiber we've got red brake calipers for the carbon ceramic brakes around that we've got Mitchell and Pilot Sport cup two tires which are very very good nice and sticky once you get them hot and this is a 245 Tire on this 20in wheel suspension wise the adap dampers have been reworked for the Pista and the Springs are 10% stiffer than on the regular 488 lovely carbon here around the air intake on the hip you can see the radiator in there as well and then at the rear we've got these 305 section rear tires so nice wide rubber there to put the power down rear wheeel drive car of course has to cope with all the power on those rear wheels and then look at that you've got this super fat rear with this carbon diffuser that is absolutely massive you've got a reversing light there as well and an Inc canel exhaust for the Pista which saves weight of course the diffuser is also active so there are flaps underneath that move like these ones and then they also changed part of the underbody aerodynamics for the car uh also taking away some things from the 488 challenge car so from the race car so let's turn those lights on you can see them beautiful round thin lights absolutely love the rear of this car I think it looks so cool we've got a bit of a duct tail here as well for the Pista to give you a bit more down force and then let's take a look at the engine which is a heavily reworked version of the 3.9 L V8 which you would find in the 488 a b turbocharged engine it's got a lighter flat plane crankshaft you've got that Inc canel uh exhaust manifold and exhaust it's got a lighter flywheel different valves different valve springs and lightweight cylinder Linings uh so it's 18 kilos lighter than the V8 in the 488 so that is quite a bit actually and it's basically like a street version of the 488 challenge car develops 720 horsepower and 770 newm of torque which is a lot it weighs around 1,500 kilos and as I said it's about 50 kilos heavier than the coupe but it is 90 kilos lighter than a regular 488 because you have a lot of carbon fiber because that engine is 18 kilos lighter uh we've got these beautiful carbon fiber door inserts here with Alcantara absolutely lovely carbon door seals here as well these carbon bucket seats this thing has been specked well I would say so special such a special interior with all that carbon we've got a carbon steering wheel with the Italian flag there uh painted on there I think with a clear coat we've got carbon pedals column mounted carbon here on the dash absolutely lovely place to be and the spider definitely adds a lot of drama to it which even like a regular 488 kind of Misses out on a bit of drama but if you start this this car up it sounds really good and the fact that you have a convertible just gives you a bit more access to that great sound got a little holder there for the key as well and Italian flag rings around the buttons there super cool seven-speed dual clutch transmission and I have to say we've driven a lot of cars with this transmission but linked to this particular engine in this particular car the Pista version absolutely insane but I'm going to show that to you right now so we've got the Mantino on the steering wheel of course sport race CT off and ESC off uh I usually Drive everything in CT off unless I really know the car then I go to ESC off which you can see you don't have control you don't have ESC and the diff is in the most aggressive setting if you go to CT off you basically have everything apart from that eedi so you have maximum freedom for the traction control uh and then you also have something called fde which is Ferrari Dynamic enhancer which is new for the Pista and it basically uh allows you to play and to drive hard and to extract the most from this car car without crashing it so it works together with the torque vectoring diff to basically break and keep you on the line uh when you go to track oh that little pop on the downshift oh it sounds so good it's been you know it's not the most charismatic engine in the 488 soundwise but that's how it's pretty good to me and holy moly this car is so aggressive it is so pointy it is so agile it just wants to go it wants to move it doesn't really matter in which direction I mean it wants to go forward but it also wants to go sideways and just squirm while trying to put that power down it is such an exhilarating car it is so exciting oh and it is so fast it just takes off another really cool thing they did is this engine develops Peak horsepower between 6750 and 8,000 RPM 8,000 as you can see on the ref counter there is the red line so it basically develops Peak power at Peak RPM which means that it feels like a naturally aspirated engine at least that's what they they try to emulate launch control oh that's quick 2.9 claimed I mean you need really hot tires to be able to do that but another cool thing that I did to try and give this car a very linear and Progressive power delivery they limit the torque in each gear so that means that when you go through the gears you get more and more torque with each gear ending up with Peak torque only in seventh gear so that means that it feels like it's getting faster and faster with each gear it is so crazy oh man my heart is racing it is such an exciting car to drive it's a really big difference compared to a 488 which is an amazingly impressive car but it it kind of lacks a bit of excitement which this has more than enough of okay so close the roof for the alound should be able to do that while driving yeah so roof closes pretty quickly and then we can actually open up that little rear window by hitting this button right here oh and that definitely gives you some more sound it is such an incredible car this and that turn in oh it is honestly one of the most satisfying things I've ever driven it is so good and that that quick steering you have in Ferraris nowadays it works in this car because the car is so aggressive and you actually want it to be this quick and this pointy look at it Go we've got shift lights on the steering wheel that's the windows popping out at 290 can't do anything about that car is a bit too close together here but there we go but it is so quick so you to keep that rear window open look at it go oh it's so loud in here that is so stable 339 it won't go any quicker than that holy moly wow wow wow what a car what a car I don't know what's up with those windows they just don't really like to go faster than 290 but it doesn't really matter it's just super loud in here but it might hurt our top speed a bit because you do have a bit more drag of course oh it's insane the way this thing sticks to the road jeez Louise oh oh my God these cars but that gearbox I mean it is so quick and it sounds so good and you get this nice little flick through the driv train through your seat and then oh it shifts up and down so quickly this has to be one of the best Ferraris ever made honestly it just takes off we did 100 to 200 in uh five .48 which is super quick you can look at the list I mean that that is properly fast I'm not sure why this guy is on the left leg but so there we go again Full Throttle fourth gear and the way you just catch up with everything is so crazy and you get so many thumbs up look at it go just eating it up the way this thing does 300 is Cra Crazy oh it's so loud you need ear plugs for this thing with these windows oh the cornering speeds are outrageous jeez Louise this thing is so crazy wow wow wow it is exhilarating and the beautiful thing is when we were driving here I was driving here with Marcel and we were just having a a chat and having a conversation at Motorway speeds it's so comfortable it's quiet it just it quiets right down and the suspension is amazingly comfortable especially if you have it in that bu Road mode so the the broadness of abilities of this car is so impressive because you can just you know daily drive it basically uh it's it's more than comfortable enough to to do longer Journeys but then when you get to a track it just turns into this absolute Beast demolishing most of what will be at that track on that particular day probably uh so yeah it is such a complete car and one of the most exciting modern Ferraris I've driven this really is able to compete with say an F12 uh when it comes to just involvement and excitement really really impressive so Marcel thank you so much for letting us take out your car for the day don't forget go check out Marcel on Instagram YouTube Tik Tok to you guys thanks for watching hope you enjoyed it you can subscribe by clicking the big button in the middle you can also check out this video this playlist and I'll see you at the next one byewhat's up ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this POV review by autotop now my name is Max and today today is a good day it is a Sunday afternoon and we've been given the keys to this Ferrari 488 Pista spider which I mean you know it's a good day when that happens so today I want to start by thanking Marcel melis who is the owner of the car and also CEO at the swan melis fund he is a hedge fund manager a broker and an investor he also has his own money invested in his own fund and he scours the world for the best hedge fund managers to basically invest his customers money as well as possible and he's been doing it for a long time he's got 16 years experience raised over a billion EUR it is very rare actually that someone from the hedge fund World shares information and tells you how it's done and how it works uh if you want to learn more about that you can follow Marcel melis on Instagram I will link all his information in the description and he shares stuff about hedge funds but also about investing and real estate entrepreneurship big thanks to Marcel for allowing us to take out this amazing Pista today we're going to talk about the 488 Pista I'm going to show you around it and then we'll take it for a drive towards the utan for an autan blast the Pista of course is the fourth in line of the hardcore special version of the V8 Supercar by Ferrari started out with the 360 challenge Str uh then came the 430 scooteria the 458 spal and then the 488 Pizza uh this is the spider so the convertible version of the Pista but it is only 50 kilos heavier than the coupe and it basically shares everything else with the coupe so the difference you'd have to drive them back to back really to feel the difference in torsional rigidity and uh the weight but you do gain a lot of drama with that roof down now the pizza is like basically a track focused car uh it's really good on road as well but they did take some stuff from the 488 challenge car so the race car one of which is this sdct at the front so air is taken in through here comes out there uh adding downforce to that nose downforce has been increased by 20% compared to a 488 without really an Associated penalty in uh drag so that is actually very very impressive the entire front end from like the front axle uh is new for the Pista so you've got this super intricate front bumper with this flowing grating even here around the uh tow hitch mounting point you've got carbon fiber Splitters here in the front bumper as well little winglets down the side very very aggressive so basically uh only the headlights are the same on a regular 488 the bonnet and the bumper are different compared to uh the regular car we've got these black wheels kind of in that retro star shape I would say with a little Ferrari cap here with carbon fiber we've got red brake calipers for the carbon ceramic brakes around that we've got Mitchell and Pilot Sport cup two tires which are very very good nice and sticky once you get them hot and this is a 245 Tire on this 20in wheel suspension wise the adap dampers have been reworked for the Pista and the Springs are 10% stiffer than on the regular 488 lovely carbon here around the air intake on the hip you can see the radiator in there as well and then at the rear we've got these 305 section rear tires so nice wide rubber there to put the power down rear wheeel drive car of course has to cope with all the power on those rear wheels and then look at that you've got this super fat rear with this carbon diffuser that is absolutely massive you've got a reversing light there as well and an Inc canel exhaust for the Pista which saves weight of course the diffuser is also active so there are flaps underneath that move like these ones and then they also changed part of the underbody aerodynamics for the car uh also taking away some things from the 488 challenge car so from the race car so let's turn those lights on you can see them beautiful round thin lights absolutely love the rear of this car I think it looks so cool we've got a bit of a duct tail here as well for the Pista to give you a bit more down force and then let's take a look at the engine which is a heavily reworked version of the 3.9 L V8 which you would find in the 488 a b turbocharged engine it's got a lighter flat plane crankshaft you've got that Inc canel uh exhaust manifold and exhaust it's got a lighter flywheel different valves different valve springs and lightweight cylinder Linings uh so it's 18 kilos lighter than the V8 in the 488 so that is quite a bit actually and it's basically like a street version of the 488 challenge car develops 720 horsepower and 770 newm of torque which is a lot it weighs around 1,500 kilos and as I said it's about 50 kilos heavier than the coupe but it is 90 kilos lighter than a regular 488 because you have a lot of carbon fiber because that engine is 18 kilos lighter uh we've got these beautiful carbon fiber door inserts here with Alcantara absolutely lovely carbon door seals here as well these carbon bucket seats this thing has been specked well I would say so special such a special interior with all that carbon we've got a carbon steering wheel with the Italian flag there uh painted on there I think with a clear coat we've got carbon pedals column mounted carbon here on the dash absolutely lovely place to be and the spider definitely adds a lot of drama to it which even like a regular 488 kind of Misses out on a bit of drama but if you start this this car up it sounds really good and the fact that you have a convertible just gives you a bit more access to that great sound got a little holder there for the key as well and Italian flag rings around the buttons there super cool seven-speed dual clutch transmission and I have to say we've driven a lot of cars with this transmission but linked to this particular engine in this particular car the Pista version absolutely insane but I'm going to show that to you right now so we've got the Mantino on the steering wheel of course sport race CT off and ESC off uh I usually Drive everything in CT off unless I really know the car then I go to ESC off which you can see you don't have control you don't have ESC and the diff is in the most aggressive setting if you go to CT off you basically have everything apart from that eedi so you have maximum freedom for the traction control uh and then you also have something called fde which is Ferrari Dynamic enhancer which is new for the Pista and it basically uh allows you to play and to drive hard and to extract the most from this car car without crashing it so it works together with the torque vectoring diff to basically break and keep you on the line uh when you go to track oh that little pop on the downshift oh it sounds so good it's been you know it's not the most charismatic engine in the 488 soundwise but that's how it's pretty good to me and holy moly this car is so aggressive it is so pointy it is so agile it just wants to go it wants to move it doesn't really matter in which direction I mean it wants to go forward but it also wants to go sideways and just squirm while trying to put that power down it is such an exhilarating car it is so exciting oh and it is so fast it just takes off another really cool thing they did is this engine develops Peak horsepower between 6750 and 8,000 RPM 8,000 as you can see on the ref counter there is the red line so it basically develops Peak power at Peak RPM which means that it feels like a naturally aspirated engine at least that's what they they try to emulate launch control oh that's quick 2.9 claimed I mean you need really hot tires to be able to do that but another cool thing that I did to try and give this car a very linear and Progressive power delivery they limit the torque in each gear so that means that when you go through the gears you get more and more torque with each gear ending up with Peak torque only in seventh gear so that means that it feels like it's getting faster and faster with each gear it is so crazy oh man my heart is racing it is such an exciting car to drive it's a really big difference compared to a 488 which is an amazingly impressive car but it it kind of lacks a bit of excitement which this has more than enough of okay so close the roof for the alound should be able to do that while driving yeah so roof closes pretty quickly and then we can actually open up that little rear window by hitting this button right here oh and that definitely gives you some more sound it is such an incredible car this and that turn in oh it is honestly one of the most satisfying things I've ever driven it is so good and that that quick steering you have in Ferraris nowadays it works in this car because the car is so aggressive and you actually want it to be this quick and this pointy look at it Go we've got shift lights on the steering wheel that's the windows popping out at 290 can't do anything about that car is a bit too close together here but there we go but it is so quick so you to keep that rear window open look at it go oh it's so loud in here that is so stable 339 it won't go any quicker than that holy moly wow wow wow what a car what a car I don't know what's up with those windows they just don't really like to go faster than 290 but it doesn't really matter it's just super loud in here but it might hurt our top speed a bit because you do have a bit more drag of course oh it's insane the way this thing sticks to the road jeez Louise oh oh my God these cars but that gearbox I mean it is so quick and it sounds so good and you get this nice little flick through the driv train through your seat and then oh it shifts up and down so quickly this has to be one of the best Ferraris ever made honestly it just takes off we did 100 to 200 in uh five .48 which is super quick you can look at the list I mean that that is properly fast I'm not sure why this guy is on the left leg but so there we go again Full Throttle fourth gear and the way you just catch up with everything is so crazy and you get so many thumbs up look at it go just eating it up the way this thing does 300 is Cra Crazy oh it's so loud you need ear plugs for this thing with these windows oh the cornering speeds are outrageous jeez Louise this thing is so crazy wow wow wow it is exhilarating and the beautiful thing is when we were driving here I was driving here with Marcel and we were just having a a chat and having a conversation at Motorway speeds it's so comfortable it's quiet it just it quiets right down and the suspension is amazingly comfortable especially if you have it in that bu Road mode so the the broadness of abilities of this car is so impressive because you can just you know daily drive it basically uh it's it's more than comfortable enough to to do longer Journeys but then when you get to a track it just turns into this absolute Beast demolishing most of what will be at that track on that particular day probably uh so yeah it is such a complete car and one of the most exciting modern Ferraris I've driven this really is able to compete with say an F12 uh when it comes to just involvement and excitement really really impressive so Marcel thank you so much for letting us take out your car for the day don't forget go check out Marcel on Instagram YouTube Tik Tok to you guys thanks for watching hope you enjoyed it you can subscribe by clicking the big button in the middle you can also check out this video this playlist and I'll see you at the next one bye\n"