The 488 has been a staple car our in our tuning roster for a number of years, we’ve had tonnes of them through the door and they’ve all been stunning.
This one, however, is one of only a handful of “christmas tree spec” cars we’ve dealt with. A really strongly optioned car from factory, which the customer has then gone and thrown pretty much everything we offer at it.
I can say with a high degree of certainty that this was one of the nicest starting points we’ve seen, and I can say with an even higher level of certainty that after our fettling it’s easily one of the nicest 488 Spiders in the UK.
So what did we do?
Exhaust
First things first, we had to free up the lungs on the car a little bit. We’ve done enough of these now to know that you either decat the car or leave it as it is.
A halfway house, catback solution simply isn’t sufficient to elicit an exciting exhaust note from the relatively small displacement, heavily turbocharged 488 power unit.
As standard the 488 sounds muddy, indistinct and blares like no tomorrow. After we’ve finished with I it sounds crisp, considered and ultimately results in a really lovely high pitched howl which one expects from a Ferrari flat plane crank engine
There are 4 items we need to install:
- Cat replacement pipes: remove the 800-cell OEM cats and replace them with decat pipes
- Rear silencer: We swap out the bulky OEM unit and replace it with Novitec’s stunning valved unit, which features an x pipe in the loud channel
- Valve remote control kit: Here we install a remote control system which allows you to swap between OEM valve control and having the valves permanently open
- OBD unit: This is a small device which we place into the OBD port, it scans for cat inefficiency errors and clears the errors down
The beauty of this system is that it is fully reversible, doesn’t necessitate a remap and is without exception the most transformative exhaust products we offer for any vehicle
Wheels / Spacers
The next thing to do is sort out the car’s stance. We all know that the Ferrari marketing images show these amazing, low slung cars…but when they turn up to dealers they look like a crossover SUV because they ride so high.
No problem! We have a solution for that – Novitec’s lowering springs.
We lower the car by 20-25mm which closes up the wheel arches significantly, without sacrificing any of the ride quality in any way, shape or form.
Bumpy road mode still works, front lift still works – and the final trick is that the springs are variable rate which means the firmness changes depending on how much load your put through them.
When you’re driving in a reserved manner you’ll find that the springs are supple and compliant, but when you load up the suspension you’ll find that body roll/pitching and diving of the nose is all but eliminated.
To really accentuate the car’s stance, we’ve installed a set of Novitec x Vossen NF10 wheels, which are the centre lock “look” variant of the NF9, symmetrical 10 spoke wheels.
You get a star shaped cover which goes over the 5 bolts, and a centre lock style cover for the middle of the wheel. All in, you get the aesthetics of a centre lock wheel without the headache of an actual centre lock wheel.
Carbon Fibre
What really set this car apart was the level of carbon fibre that the customer specced with us – all courtesy of Capristo!
The beauty of Capristo’s carbon fibre is that the weave matches the OEM factory carbon perfectly, which helps to maintain the OEM + look which we strive for.
He ordered the following:
- Carbon fibre mirrors
- Engine compartment side covers
- Airbox cover
- Lock cover
Ferrari’s mid engined cars are famous for the fact that the engine is viewable through the rear window…or rather, the coupe versions are…
The 458 spider and 488 Spider have their engine’s hidden…so why did this customer bother buying so much engine bay carbon, I hear you ask?
Well I’ve saved the best for last, Capristo have designed an absolutely STUNNING glass and carbon engine cover which allows Spider owners to see the beating heart of their pride and joy.
The aperture is MASSIVE, allowing for really easy viewing of the engine, and the quality of craftsmanship is second to none.
As you can, this customer threw the kitchen sink at this car…and the rest, and it’s resulted in a very heavily modified 488 Spider, which does so without being overboard.
This car is the prime example of our aim…OEM +
Awesome, what was the total cost?
May need to save up for this on my 488.