If you’re looking for something that’s jam-packed with tech, and is astoundingly powerful on the speed front, then the Ferrari 488 Pista is the car for you.

It may look easy on the eyes with that glossy finish, but once you take it out on the streets, it’s a speed demon personified.

That’s not a joke, it’s a fact – this car is really damn fast.

Top Gear has the receipts to prove it:

This car has 711bhp, the small matter of 568lb ft of torque, and will hit 125mph [201km/h] from rest in 7,6sec. It will destroy a McLaren F1 to 170mph [273km/h].

You hear that? “Destroy.” McLaren F1s better beware.

It’s the engine that’s earned the Pista its F1-shattering speed:

The engine has lighter internals, a new intake with shorter runners and titanium rods. It is more closely related to the Challenge race car than the GTB. Crucially, it also runs a little higher compression and does away with the base car’s soft rev limiter that tapered power away well before hitting the 8k limiter.

Combined with what must be the fiercest up and down shifts ever felt in a dual-clutch transmission, the result is an engine which goes a long way to appeasing those who felt that turbocharging was the wrong solution for this car. It’s a staggering powertrain, immensely powerful and flexible and now much better sounding in the car and offering real incentive for the driver to use that 6k-8k rev window.

Well, that explains the speed.

Now about the chassis:

Sidede Slip Control now uses an additional channel of braking information to make taking the Psta to its limits even more accessible. And it is the easiest hilariously fast car to drive fast that has ever been made. The electronic interventions are so smooth and helpful that it’s only when you switch them all off you realise how much of the heavy-lifting they’ve been charged with.

And the interior? Well … let’s just say that style has been sacrificed a little for pure power here:

The cabin is looking old and littered with too many materials and textures.

The noise is still at times average and the controls work with that frustrating numbness we’ve come to simply accept from this generation of Ferrari road cars.

It’s barely any less comfortable on the road than a GTB, and the bucket seats are, at best 6/10.

Not perfect, then, but it packs a punch. Read the full specs here.

If you are thinking of buying a new car, or a second-hand vehicle like us mere mortals, it never hurts to talk to someone who is an expert in the field.

Maybe motoring journo and expert Juliet McGuire? She knows what she is talking about, and for R50 you can have a six-minute, quick WhatsApp-style instant chat on Timon.

Download the Timon app, select from a massive range of ‘gurus’ (experts) to chat with, and fire off the questions you need answers to right now.

You’ll find the Android and iOS downloads here.

[source:topgear]