The Ferrari 488 Spider Is A 660bhp Monster With Infinite Headroom

The Ferrari 488 GTB is undoubtedly a jolly good car. It has almost 100bhp more poke than the 458 Italia it replaces, for flip’s sake. But what’s that? You want a little more headroom? You’ll be wanting the newly-revealed convertible 488, then.

It’s a car we’ve been expecting and have seen in speculative render form, but now the real deal is here for us to oggle and analyse.

Interestingly, while the coupe version revived the old GTB (Gran Turismo Berlinetta) nameplate, the cab hasn’t been dubbed ‘GTS’ as some had been anticipating; it’s simply called the 488 Spider.

As you’d expect, much of it is as per the coupe, which means a 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 kicking out a monstrous 660bhp and 560lb ft of torque. The coupe’s astonishing 0-62mph and 0-124mph times of 3 and 8.7 seconds respectively remain unchanged, while the top speed has dropped from 208mph to 203mph. But we suspect most buyers will be able to cope with the ‘lost’ 5mph.

The reason why it’s just as quick is that it’s only put on around 50kg of weight compared to the coupe. Part of that is because of the folding hardtop roof, which Ferrari says is 25kg lighter than if it were a retractable fabric item.

It should be just as good to drive as the coupe, too, as it enjoys the same torsional rigidity and beam stiffness as its tin top brother. This is apparently down to the 488 Spider’s spaceframe being ‘made of 11 different aluminium alloys combined with other noble metals, such as magnesium, each one used in a highly specific way’. The more you know…

Fancy seeing it in the metal? It’ll be on display at September’s Frankfurt motor show. Have lots of money and want one? Prices haven’t been revealed just yet, but expect a reasonable premium over the £178,851 charged for the GTB.