"Entry-Level Exotic" seems like an oxymoron, but that's the job that the mid-engine V-8 powered cars from Ferrari have served since the days when Tom Selleck was zooming around Hawaii in a 308 GTS on television in the early Eighties.
A late '70s 308 GTB would have set an American buyer back at least $28,850, which is something like $140k in today's dough, but by the time they'd federalized a grey market BB512, they'd be close to double that amount out of pocket. (Just federalizing the Boxer cost something like fourteen grand, or the price of a '78 Corvette and a Camaro Z28 to drive while the 'Vette was in the shop.)
Anyway, the mid-engine V-8 cars continued to be the "affordable" Ferraris through several generations, with the 488 being the most-recent-but-one. It succeeded the 458 and marked a return to more traditional Ferrari nomenclature: Whereas the 458 had been called that for its 4.5 liter 8 cylinder motor, the 488 designation refers to the displacement of one cylinder in cubic centimeters.
The 458 had faced pressure from increasingly potent Lambos and McLarens in its weight class and so the decision was made to drop the normally-aspirated 4.5L F136 F V-8 and go to a twin-turbo 3.9L motor. The F154 CB V-8 is a gnarlier version of the motor found under the hood of the front-engined California T. In the 488 the F154 was rated at 661 horsepower at an ear-splitting 8,000 rpm, over a hundred horses more than the version in the front-engine car. Ferrari pilots hadn't heard turbo whine coming from over their shoulder since the days of the F40 in the early Nineties.
With that much motor, the 2016 488 GTB put up some impressive numbers when tested by Motor Trend. Sixty miles per hour went past in a 2.7 second eye blink and the quarter mile was dispatched in 10.6 seconds at 135 mph. The car braked from sixty in a retina-detaching 94 feet and circled the skidpad at 1.02g. Manufacturer's claimed top speed is 202mph. All this for a base price of $249,150 in 2016 dollars.
This one was photographed in April of 2025 using an Olympus E-510 and a Zuiko Digital 12-60mm f/2.8-4 zoom lens.
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