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All-Ferrari Drag Race Offers Answer for Eternal "Road Vs Track" Debate

Ferrari may not be the first name that pops into mind when thinking about track cars, but that's only because the Italian manufacturer's creations tend to maintain a certain level of luxury not normally associated with this type of vehicles.
Ferrari 488 Pista Vs Ferrari SF90 Stradale drag race 10 photos
Photo: DragTimes / YouTube screenshot
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You might be more inclined to conjure up images of something more barebones such as a Shelby Cobra or a classic track-oriented nameplate like the Ford Mustang Mach-1 or the Porsche 911 GT2 RS, and that's fine. However, Ferrari would be doing little more than wasting its time by participating in Formula One if it didn't bring some of the tech developed for that competition on its series-production models.

On the one hand, you have the quite extreme example of the FXX and FXX-K, the kind of cars you can't drive on the road at all without earning a trip to the local jail. On the other, however, you have models like the 488 Pista, a more extreme version of the now defunct 488 that is still 100 percent road-legal - even if heavily tuned for track use.

"Track-focused" usually translates into a lower weight, a stiffer suspension, more downforce, and, if you're lucky, more power squeezed out of the engine. Well, the Pista makes no exception from the rule, most notably bringing the power output up from the 661 hp (670 ps) of the standard GTB version all the way to 710 hp (720 ps).

Impressive, yes, but the red-wearing avatar of track cars ("Pista" is literally Italian for "track") still falls way short of its road-going opponent on the power spectrum. Like with the 488 Pista, all you need is an Italian-English dictionary to know the type of use the SF90 Stradale was conceived for: your regular roads.

Well, if you're wondering exactly for what kind of roads would someone make a 1,000 hp two-seater hybrid super GT, you're not alone, but it is what it is, and we're not complaining. Especially not since it gives us the opportunity to watch this "road versus track" drag race featuring two of Ferrari's finest.

We already mentioned the nearly 300 horsepower gap, so what hidden weapons does the 488 Pista have to balance the duel? Well, it isn't its RWD architecture, that's for sure, not when the SF90 has an AWD configuration featuring three electric motors. The only thing the Pista has going for it is its lower weight - about 500 lbs (226 kg), officially, though Brooks, the owner of the Stradale, says (and has the proof to back it) Ferrari tends to lie about it.

A quick test run for the 488 Pista reveals what we all feared. Off the line, the RWD car isn't that impressive, though the prepped track and the driver's skill certainly help to make the most of the situation. On regular asphalt, though, the discrepancy in how these two launch would be even greater. But the scary part is the SF90 keeps pulling away throughout the entire length of the quarter mile run, so it's not just a matter of all-wheel-drive versus rear-wheel-drive.

With similar reaction times (marginally better for the Pista driver), the 488 completes the pass in 10.474 seconds, which was dangerously close to a whole second slower than the SF90 Stradale's 9.622 seconds. The trap speed readings (133.90 mph for the Pista compared to 144.63 mph for its hybrid opponent) confirm the eye test impressions: the track-focused car was far from staging any sort of comeback even on a longer track. In fact, given the two cars have the same official top speed of 211 mph (340 km/h), it's safe to assume the only way the 488 could get in front was if the Stradale ran out of fuel first.

The sensation of complete superiority is confirmed yet again in the second race, where the 488 Pista is allowed a considerable (by drag racing standards) head start.

"Yeah, whatever, but put them on a twisty track and you'll get a complete reverse of the situation. How cool is your SF90 Stradale now, huh?" Pretty cool, thank you very much, but since the clip below shows the two cars drag racing, why talk about something else? If time wasting is what you're after, we might as well start a conversation about colonizing Mars.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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