Ferrari’s weight-saving regime for the 488 Pista is one whose legacy is evident everywhere you look around the interior. There’s carbonfibre panelling on its sills and centre console as standard – and our test car’s optional specification added an instrument cluster, air vents, floor covers, lower door covers and more at extra cost – some of which very likely added weight to the car as dressing.
Be that as it may, the car certainly ‘looked light’ from the driver’s seat. The seat itself was broader and harder in the cushion than some testers would have preferred, but it made all acceptably comfortable, even allowing for the slightly offset pedal box.
The audio and navigation system, usually relayed by a right-sided display screen of the car’s instrument binnacle and controlled by a console to the right of the steering wheel, has been stripped out; so, too, have the Pista’s audio speakers.
Where storage is concerned, Ferrari has dispensed with the standard GTB’s glovebox but has left the smaller cubbies of the centre console in situ. Among them is a smallish cupholder up front, while a couple of trays further aft are big enough to house wallets or sunglasses and provide a USB jack and a 12V power outlet for charging wired devices. Elastic storage nets in each door and behind both seats are also handy for swallowing exiled pocket cargo.
All up, then, the 488 Pista looks sparse and stripped out at first glance, and yet it has the practical features you’ll want when you go looking for them. The perfect compromise? Well, if not, then it’s very close.
The 488 GTB’s binnacle-integrated infotainment and navigation system is one of the items that Ferrari dispenses with for the Pista in the name of weight saving. You can have it put back in at an extra cost of £1920, but our test car left it out.
Experience of the 488 GTB and Spider teaches that the navigation set-up is a respectable system that’s not as slick or technically impressive as those you’ll find on the very latest sports cars, and it is slightly fiddly to interact with via the rotary controller, but it certainly does its job; and, as part of a mid-life update to the 488, it offers Apple CarPlay smartphone mirroring, but at an extra cost of £2400.
That the car retains its trip computer, to be found on the left-hand console of the binnacle, means you can keep tabs on things as varied as oil temperature, tyre pressure, lap time and fuel range, but not fuel economy (and in a Ferrari built with the track in mind, why would you be interested?).
