SUBSCRIBE TO THE
MAGAZINE NOW
Facebook-f Instagram
Search
Close this search box.

Ferrari 488 GTB: celebrating the 308 GTB’s 40th in style

7 February, 2015

It’s been 40 years since Ferrari came out with the legendary 308 GTB, the marque’s first mid-engined V8 model, and now we have this — the Ferrari 488 GTB. It looks a little like a 458, doesn’t it? Don’t go thinking that this is just a normal 458 with some garnish, though — the most notable change is not aesthetic, but mechanical.

The 458’s brilliant 4.5-litre V8 is out of the picture here, replaced with an all-new turbocharged 3.9-litre V8 developed by Ferrari’s Formula 1 and World Endurance Championship engineers. How does 661hp and 560lb·ft sound? That’s said to make the 458 GTB good for the 0–100kph dash in three seconds, and 0–200kph in just over eight seconds. Fiorano is dispatched in one minute and 23 seconds, a full two seconds quicker than the 458.

Power isn’t everything, and you can bet Ferrari weren’t going to leave it at slapping a pair of turbos onto the engine. Aerodynamically, the 488 GTB is reported to produce 50 per cent more downforce and a reduced coefficient of drag, thanks to the double front spoiler, base-bleed side intakes, and active rear diffuser and spoiler. The F1-Trac and E-Diff work in conjunction with a revised Side Slip Control 2 (SSC2) system, keeping the 488 GTB stable around corners.

Inside, it’s all modern Ferrari, with the steering wheel the main business hub, and the rest of the cockpit tastefully finished. The 488 GTB is set to make its debut at the International Geneva Motor Show in March this year.

Almost mythical pony

25 July, 2024

The Shelby came to our shores in 2003. It went from the original New Zealand owner to an owner in Auckland. Malcolm just happened to be in the right place with the right amount of money in 2018 and a deal was done. Since then, plenty of people have tried to buy it off him. The odometer reads 92,300 miles. From the condition of the car that seems to be correct and only the first time around.
Malcolm’s car is an automatic. It has the 1966 dashboard, the back seat, the rear quarter windows and the scoops funnelling air to the rear brakes.
He even has the original bill of sale from October 1965 in California.

Becoming fond of Fords part two – happy times with Escorts

17 July, 2024

In part one of this Ford-flavoured trip down memory lane I recalled a sad and instructive episode when I learned my shortcomings as a car tuner, something that tainted my appreciation of Mk2 Ford Escort vans in particular. Prior to that I had a couple of other Ford entanglements of slightly more redeeming merit. There were two Mk1 Escorts I had got my hands on: a 1972 1300 XL belonging to my father and a later, end-of-line, English-assembled 1974 1100, which my partner and I bought from Panmure Motors Ford in Auckland in 1980. Both those cars were the high water mark of my relationship with the Ford Motor Co. I liked the Mk1 Escorts. They were nice, nippy, small cars, particularly the 1300, which handled really well, and had a very precise gearbox for the time.
Images of Jim Richards in the Carney Racing Williment-built Twin Cam Escort and Paul Fahey in the Alan Mann–built Escort FVA often loomed in my imagination when I was driving these Mk1 Escorts — not that I was under any illusion of comparable driving skills, but they had to be having just as much fun as I was steering the basic versions of these projectiles.