Ferrari 458 vs 488: What the Turbos Changed, and the One You Can Drive in Los Angeles

Ferrari 458 vs 488	458 Italia / 488 GTB	What kind of number that is
Launched	2009 / 2015	The 488 replaced the 458 in 2015; the F8 Tributo replaced the 488 in 2019.
Engine	4.5 V8 / 3.9 twin-turbo V8	Naturally aspirated against turbocharged, and 595 cc smaller. Every other row follows from this one.
Power	562 / 661 bhp	At 9,000 and 8,000 rpm. Ninety-nine more, from a smaller engine.
Torque	398 / 560 lb ft	At 6,000 and 3,000 rpm. The row that explains how differently they drive.
0–62 mph	3.4 / 3.0 s	Four tenths off the line; the gap grows once the 488’s low-rev torque is working.
Top speed	202 / 205+ mph	A difference no road in California will show you.
Weight	1,485 / 1,475 kg	evo’s figures. The turbo car is the lighter, by ten kilograms.
Gearbox	7-speed dual-clutch	Both cars. The 458’s, built by Getrag, was that firm’s first dual-clutch.

The one of the two you can drive Ferrari 488 GTB, Rosso The twin-turbo V8, the fixed roof, the car that turned the corner. On its own calendar. Dates and rate →

Ferrari 458 vs 488 specs, side by side

The two cars look like relatives and are. Underneath, Ferrari replaced the one part people loved most about the 458, and made the car faster by doing it.

The 458 Italia arrived in 2009 as the successor to the F430, with a Pininfarina body and a 4.5-litre V8 that breathed on its own. evo’s figures are 562 bhp at 9,000 rpm and 398 lb ft at 6,000 rpm, 3.4 seconds to 62 mph and 202 mph. Its seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, built by Getrag, was that supplier’s first, and the car lapped Ferrari’s Fiorano test track quicker than the track-focused 430 Scuderia.

The 488 GTB came in 2015 with a downsized, direct-injection 3,902 cc twin-turbocharged V8 with a flat-plane crank. evo lists 661 bhp at 8,000 rpm and 560 lb ft at 3,000 rpm, three seconds to 62 mph and more than 205 mph. It reaches 200 km/h in 8.3 seconds, and its body was designed to give 50% more downforce than the 458. It was the first mid-engined Ferrari with a turbocharged V8 since the F40.

Read the torque row twice. The 458 made its peak at 6,000 rpm; evo found it pulling convincingly from 2,000 rpm and building strongly through the mid-range, but it gives its best near the top of the tachometer and rewards you for going there. The 488 makes 40% more at half the revs. That one row is the whole comparison; the sound, the delivery and the way each car feels on a public road all follow from it.

Which is faster, the 458 or the 488?

The 488, and by more than the 0–62 figure suggests. Four tenths of a second to 62 mph is the smallest gap between them; the larger one opens up in the gears, where the 458 is still building revs and the 488 is already deep into its torque. Both cars weigh nearly the same, 1,485 kg against 1,475 by evo’s figures, so the turbo engine’s extra power and torque go straight into acceleration.

On a public road in Los Angeles the difference mostly turns into a feeling: the 488 merges, overtakes and climbs a canyon road without asking for a downshift. If the question is which one is quicker in the real world, it is not close.

How the 458 and 488 sound and deliver their power

This is the half of the comparison where the 458 wins its arguments. A naturally aspirated V8 that revs to 9,000 rpm is a different instrument from a turbocharged one. evo calls the 458 “Ferrari’s final naturally aspirated mid-engined V8 model” and its engine “sensational”. Its best noise lives in the last two thousand revolutions, and the car asks you to go and get it.

The 488 sounds deeper and harder rather than higher, because two turbochargers sit in the exhaust path. What Ferrari did with the boost is the clever part. evo describes the 488 suffering “little to no latency” and metering its torque by gear, delivering the full amount only in seventh, “for a more fluid, almost naturally-aspirated crescendo”. The car still builds towards its redline; it simply does so with far more in hand. The engine won the overall International Engine of the Year award four years running, from 2016 to 2019.

So the fair summary is short: the 458 is the car people say they miss, and the 488 is the one they are quicker in. The 488 offers a different thrill rather than a lesser one.

458 vs 488: design, versions and rarity

The 488 kept the 458’s proportions and changed the details that air needed. The obvious one is the side intake, a deep scallop behind each door. The 458’s flank has no such cut, and its nose carries the small winglets in the front intakes that evo credits with part of its 360 kg of downforce.

Each car came in a family. The 458 Italia had an open 458 Spider from 2011, the lighter 458 Speciale from 2013 with 605 PS, and the open Speciale A from 2014; all of them ended in 2015. The 488 GTB had the 488 Spider, and then the 488 Pista of 2018 with 720 PS, and the Pista Spider, which evo calls the true Speciale successors. Then the F8 Tributo took over in 2019, built on much of the Pista.

Rarity favours the 458, simply because nothing replaced what made it special. evo reports that asking prices for 458s have climbed sharply in 2026, and the Speciale above all. The 488, meanwhile, is the more modern and more usable car, and the one with a fixed date on a calendar in this city. Where the 488 sits against the F8 and the 296 that followed is set out in 488 vs F8 vs 296.

The 488 GTB you can drive in Los Angeles

Ours is the 488 GTB in Rosso, the fixed-roof berlinetta, and the badge on the dashboard says so. It is the 488 in every row of the table above: 661 bhp, 560 lb ft from 3,000 rpm, three seconds to 62 mph, and the yellow-and-black horse in the middle of the wheel. It is $1,999 a day, collected free from Robertson Boulevard or delivered to the partner hotels in Beverly Hills.

It suits the drive the specification table describes. Take it up Angeles Crest or along Mulholland early in the morning and the low-rev pull is the whole point: one continuous surge out of every corner, in whatever gear you happen to be in. If the question is the Ferrari against the Lamborghini down the road, that argument is settled in this same garage.

What it costs, and how it reaches you

The 488 sits in the top deposit band: a $2,000 refundable hold, back 5–7 business days after the car returns, with the Protection plan priced per day off that band and the higher young-driver fee for a driver under twenty-five. It prices by the day at every length; there is no block on this shelf. Collection from our lot on Robertson Boulevard is free and delivery to the partner hotels in Beverly Hills is complimentary.

Airport delivery is $150 both ways standard, where the car waits in the airport parking structure and you take the shuttle out to it, or $300 both ways VIP, where it is at the terminal, half that for one direction — and on a two-seat car with a shallow front boot the terminal tier earns its money. The rest is in the terms, and the car’s calendar is on the marque page, Ferrari rental in Los Angeles.