Timepieces: James Bond Omega Seamaster Diver
22 October 2024Around the UK with Ferrari (pt1): Dartmoor, Devon
24 October 2024Modern masterpiece
The latest in a legendary line, the Ferrari 488 Spider stands comparison with its most illustrious of forebears
W e live in an age of #fakenews as promulgated by a certain former reality TV personality who now sits behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. This age is one of hyper-partisanship where we carefully construct our own echo chambers, ignoring or arguing with those who happen to have differing opinions to our own and dismissing out of hand entirely those ‘facts’ which don’t fall conveniently into our carefully constructed bubbles.
So it will come as no real surprise that when it comes to defining what the ‘best’ cars are, everyone has their own opinions and beliefs, very few of which are actually based on facts. For sure, price and performance will be thrown into the melting pot of decision-making, but opinions are primarily based on that untranslatable Welsh word hywl. The nearest definition that I can come up with is ‘soul’.
For this particular road test I find myself astride the prancing horse. I’ve driven and written about more powerful and more expensive cars all of whose badges you would recognise. However, somehow, I’ve never driven a Ferrari. Not once, neither for review nor pleasure. I’ve read about them, listened to others speak about them and seen them in the congested roads around Harrods. But I’ve never so much as turned the key in one. So here's my opinion – a veritable blend of both facts and feelings.
Ferrari, the brand, comes with an aura. My first sight of the 488 Spider that was presented to me for a few days only affirmed that notion; that despite my cynicism at the prevailing image I would be wowed by the beauty.
And thus, gleaming through the greyness of a British summer afternoon, the Race Blue paintwork (Blu Corsa in Ferrari-speak – see the images accompanying this article) immediately saved me from feeling too much like a cliché.
This potential provides you with trackside aural performance at British B-road speeds. For while the Sturm und Drang of a naturally aspirated engine may be a little lost at the highest revs, the pay-off is in the mid-range. Never have I felt simultaneously so near the edge of a precipice and yet in such control.
Thus, gleaming through the greyness of a British summer afternoon, the Race Blue paintwork immediately saved me from feeling too much like a cliché
Taking the roof off a car requires industrial levels of strengthening in the bodywork, but the extra weight that the 488 Spider carries doesn’t hinder its performance. The car will still scream from 0-62mph in a flat three seconds and top out at 202mph. Creeping round country lanes is no easy feat, given the 2-metre width but that’s not the Spider’s natural habitat.
Get out onto the open road and the ferocious acceleration paired with Ferrari’s Side Slip Control (SSC2) system helping you to navigate the bends results in a car that flatters the driver far beyond his or her talents. Put the Spider into ‘Bumpy Road’ mode – a setting that should be the default for British roads – and, if you close your eyes (obviously not recommended!), you would be forgiven for thinking you were in an executive saloon car.
To sit inside this masterpiece of modern art is to be reminded that everything is about the driver. For sure any passenger will have a wonderful time as well, but all the internal architecture revolves around the pilot. It’s not as instinctively easy to navigate the controls as you might imagine but by no means is it difficult. A full lock turn may have you searching for the indicator switch as it’s mounted on the wheel itself and reversing out of a parking bay does provide you with an unexpected visual challenge over your shoulder, but these are to be considered minor hindrances.
It is also impressively commodious for the normal-sized human being. Two six-footers can make themselves comfortable for extended periods of time within the cabin and there is plenty of internal storage space for all the paraphernalia of motoring. In fact, between the storage well in the nose and the shelf behind the seats you can carry more than merely an overnight bag as might have been expected.
‘Bumpy Road’ mode is a setting that should be the default for Britain
With the roof up or down the 488 Spider tingles the senses. The roof itself comes off in only 14 seconds and will operate at speeds of up to 30mph, which is very handy if you happen to run into one of Blighty’s unexpected rain squalls.
In fact, there is something of an overlapping position with a three-stage rear window between the B pillars that allows you to shut out the elements while still getting the roof-down experience of the engine immediately behind your left ear.
As it rained a lot while I pretended the car was mine, this turned out to be my favourite option. So much so that, on one occasion, I passed through a tunnel, took the subsequent exit, circumnavigated the roundabout and returned solely to feel the shiver up my backbone once again.
It just so happened that during the period when I had the Spider, I was scheduled to meet with my accountants in Cheltenham. This was surely the first time I’ve looked forward to transversing the country for a meeting with the dry old suits who look after my taxes.
However, once I had persuaded them that I hadn’t had a financial moment of madness and laid out £282,728 (for this iteration; models start at £204,411), the suits metaphorically came off to reveal previously unsuspected petrol-head T-shirts. This Ferrari really is a car to paint colour on the greyest of canvasses.
I do feel that, unless you have teenager-taut skin and a lustrous, Lion King-mane of hair you shouldn’t be seen in a car with the roof off. The 488 Spider, however, is a car in which you won’t mind folks pointing and staring even if you have a relatively low embarrassment threshold.
A passage from Lawrence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey comes to mind: ‘There are all kinds of travellers – inquisitive travelers, idle travelers, vain travelers – but the true value of travel is not in strenuous sightseeing. It is in opening one’s heart to feeling.’
Could there be anything more apropos for this rather wonderful means of getting from A to B? More than anything else, the outstanding Ferrari 488 Spider really does engender feeling.