Ferrari 488 vs F8 vs 296: Where the 488 Sits, and Where the V8 Line Ends
Ferrari built three mid-engine two-seaters in the space of seven years, kept them looking broadly alike, and changed almost everything underneath. The 488 GTB is the car that turned the corner — the first turbocharged mid-engine V8 since the F40, 661 horsepower, three seconds flat to sixty. The F8 is the same engine in the 488 Pista’s tune, 710 horsepower, and a smaller upgrade than its spec sheet implies. The 296 is not a V8 at all: a twin-turbo V6 with an electric motor, 819 horsepower together, and a different noise. Ours is the 488 GTB, in Rosso.
| Car | Figure | What kind of number that is |
|---|---|---|
| 488 GTB, 2015–19 | 661 hp, 3.0 s | 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8. Torque at 3,000 rpm rather than 7,000. The one in this garage. |
| F8 Tributo, 2019–23 | 710 hp, 2.9 s | The same V8 in the Pista’s tune. Four tail lamps, louvred engine cover. Not ours. |
| 296 GTB, 2022– | 819 hp, 2.9 s | 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 plus a 165-hp motor. About 16 miles on electricity. Not ours. |
| Top speed | 205 / 211 / 205 mph | Numbers no road in Los Angeles County will ever show you. |
| GTB or Spider | GTB | Fixed roof. The Spider’s folding hardtop adds fifty kilograms; ours does not fold. |
The 488 is the car that turned the corner
Every mid-engine Ferrari since is a footnote to what happened in 2015. The 458’s naturally aspirated V8 was the sound the internet had agreed a Ferrari makes, and Ferrari replaced it with twin turbochargers.
3,902 cubic centimetres, the first turbocharged mid-engine Ferrari V8 since the F40, 661 horsepower at 8,000 rpm and 561 lb-ft at 3,000. Purists mourned in public for about a year and then noticed the car was faster everywhere. Every mid-engine car we rent sits on one page of sports car rental in Los Angeles. Two details tell you more about how it drives than the power figure does. The torque arrives at three thousand revolutions rather than seven, so the 488 is savage from anywhere in the rev range and does not need to be wrung out to feel fast — a genuinely different experience from the car it replaced. And the seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox shifts faster than you can decide to shift it, so the paddles are theatre as much as control.
The 488’s turbos trade the 458’s top-end shriek for something deeper, harder and more violent low down: the shove arrives the moment you touch the throttle. Standing still it is the shape people mean, and the first thing every guest does is discover the door has to be opened outward and upward at the same time.
488 vs 458: what the turbo changed
The 458 Italia is the car the 488 replaced, and the one every argument about the 488 is really about. Its 4.5-litre V8 breathed on its own: 562 bhp at 9,000 rpm, 398 lb ft at 6,000, 0–62 mph in 3.4 seconds and 202 mph, built from 2009 to 2015. The 488 GTB that followed kept the layout and the gearbox and changed the engine’s whole character: 3,902 cc, twin-turbocharged, 661 bhp at 8,000 rpm, 560 lb ft at 3,000, 0–62 in 3.0 seconds, built from 2015 to 2019.
| 488 vs 458 | 458 Italia | 488 GTB |
|---|---|---|
| Engine | 4.5-litre V8, naturally aspirated | 3.9-litre V8, twin-turbo |
| Power | 562 bhp at 9,000 rpm | 661 bhp at 8,000 rpm |
| Torque | 398 lb ft at 6,000 rpm | 560 lb ft at 3,000 rpm |
| 0–62 mph | 3.4 s | 3.0 s |
| Built | 2009–2015 | 2015–2019 |
Read the torque row and the revs beside it, because that is the whole change. The 458 made its torque at six thousand revolutions and its power at nine, so it had to be driven to the top of the tachometer to give you anything, and the reward was the shriek the internet still means by “Ferrari”. The 488 makes more torque at three thousand than the 458 made at six, so the shove arrives the moment you touch the throttle, in any gear, and the sound is deeper and harder rather than higher. Ferrari metered the boost by gear so the car still builds towards the redline instead of arriving all at once; it is a different thrill, not a lesser one. The 458 is the car people say they miss. The 488 is the one they are quicker in, and it is the red car on this page, at $1,999 a day.
What the F8 changed, and whether you would notice
Ferrari replaced the 488 in 2019 with the F8 Tributo: the same 3.9-litre V8 carrying the tune from the 488 Pista, 710 horsepower at 8,000 rpm, 568 lb-ft, a tenth quicker to sixty and six miles an hour faster flat out, with fifteen per cent more downforce. Now the useful part. Forty-nine horsepower on a car that already had six hundred and sixty-one is invisible on a public road.
What is visible is the back of the car: four round tail lamps instead of two, a homage to the F430, and a clear louvred engine cover in place of the 488’s glass. That is how people at a valet stand tell them apart, and most of what a passenger will perceive.
So the F8 is the newer car and a smaller upgrade than its own spec sheet implies, which is the shape of most facelifts. The same engine family, the same layout and the same shape are in the 488, with a calendar attached.
The 296 is not a V8 at all, and that is the whole story
Here is where the lineage stops being a lineage. The 296 GTB puts a 2,992 cc twin-turbocharged V6 behind the seats, 654 horsepower on its own, and adds a 165-horsepower electric motor between the engine and the gearbox, for 819 together. A 7.45 kWh battery under the floor gives about sixteen miles of electric-only running, which exists so the car can cross a zero-emission zone in a European city and, incidentally, means it can leave a residential street at six in the morning without waking anybody on it. Car and Driver’s testing makes the case in one line: the quickest rear-wheel-drive car they have tested, because the hybrid fills the gaps a turbocharger leaves.
What it does not do is sound like the cars above it, because it is not one of them. Six cylinders in a 120-degree vee make a noise Ferrari has spent four years teaching people to like. If you want the flat, hard V8 bark that most people mean when they say “Ferrari”, the 296 is the wrong direction and the 488 is the right one, which is why the V8 cars have held value the way they have.
The one with a calendar
Our Ferrari is the 488 GTB in Rosso, the car that turned the corner. Read the 0–60 row once and then stop reading it: a tenth of a second covers all three, and what separates them is the engine’s character and the noise at eight thousand revolutions.
GTB or Spider: ours is the GTB
These two get mixed up constantly, including by people who have already paid for one somewhere. Ferrari built the 488 in two bodies on identical running gear: the GTB is the fixed-roof berlinetta; the Spider carries a folding hardtop, about fifty kilograms of roof mechanism, and a top speed three miles an hour lower for the trouble. Same V8, same 661 horsepower, same three seconds.
Ours is the GTB, and the badge on the dashboard says so. If the roof coming down was the actual point of the day, say so early: the Huracán Spider, the Rolls-Royce Dawn and the Porsche Boxster all fold their roofs, and they sit under convertible rental in Los Angeles with live dates. If the question is Ferrari against the other Italian, 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.
The short version
The 488 turned the corner: the first turbocharged mid-engine V8 since the F40, savage from three thousand revs, the shape people mean. The F8 is the same engine with forty-nine more horsepower you will not feel and four tail lamps you will. The 296 is a hybrid V6 that is quicker still and does not make the noise.
One of the three is in a garage on Robertson Boulevard, it is the 488 GTB in Rosso. To rent a Ferrari in Los Angeles, its calendar is on the marque page; the date decides more than the specification does.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between the Ferrari 488 and the F8?
Nizo Luxury rents the 488 in Los Angeles — +1 (424) 303-6496 — at $1,999 a day. The F8 is the 488's replacement with the same 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 in the 488 Pista's tune: 710 horsepower against 661, a tenth quicker to sixty, six miles an hour faster flat out. On a public road the forty-nine horsepower is invisible; what you see is the back of the car — four round tail lamps instead of two and a louvred engine cover where the 488 has glass. Ours is the 488 GTB.
Is the Ferrari 296 a V8?
No. The 296 GTB has a 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 with a 165-horsepower electric motor between engine and gearbox, 819 horsepower together, and about sixteen miles of electric-only running. It is the quickest rear-wheel-drive car Car and Driver has tested, and it does not make the flat, hard V8 noise most people mean when they say Ferrari. That is the 488.
488 vs F8 vs 296: which is fastest?
On paper the F8 and the 296 reach sixty in 2.9 seconds and the 488 in 3.0; the F8 tops out at 211 mph, the other two at 205. A tenth of a second covers all three and no road in Los Angeles County will show you the difference. What separates them is the engine's character and the noise at eight thousand revolutions.
What is the difference between a 488 GTB and a 488 Spider?
The roof. Both run identical mechanicals — the same V8, 661 horsepower, three seconds to sixty. The GTB is the fixed-roof berlinetta; the Spider carries a folding hardtop, about fifty kilograms of mechanism, and a top speed three miles an hour lower. Ours is the GTB, and the badge on the dashboard says so.
Does the 488's turbo engine sound like the 458's?
No: the 458's naturally aspirated V8 shrieked at the top of the range, and the 488's turbos trade that for something deeper, harder and more violent low down, with the torque arriving at three thousand revs rather than seven. It is its own thrill, and it arrives the moment you touch the throttle.
Which Ferrari do you have in Los Angeles?
The 488 GTB in Rosso with a black-and-red cabin, in the top deposit band. If an open roof was the point, the Huracán Spider, the Rolls-Royce Dawn and the Boxster are the roofs here that fold.