What can go wrong?
Let me tell you a story about my weekend.
Thursdays in the Middle East signify the weekend. Friday and Saturday is the official weekend. At 10:30 pm on a Thursday night, I am in the midst of my first malt beverage, and I get a call from a buddy. He says, ‘Mate, what are you doing tomorrow morning?’ I respond by saying nothing. He then goes onto say, ‘I was supposed to be driving the new F8 Tributo on track tomorrow morning, and I have been rear-ended by some idiot. My license is with the cops. Would you mind filling in me for me?’ Now, which fool is going to say no to such an opportunity? He says, ‘okay, I am going to ask the PR head from Ferrari to call you. He needs to vet you.’
It is 11:30 pm. I am on my way home after abandoning a night out with my friends and my malt beverages waiting with bated breath for a call from Ferrari. I have half given in and message Amit ‘no call yet’. The second I type this, my phone rings. After a quick interview, I have been instructed to report at 8:30 am sharp tomorrow morning at the Dubai Autodrome.
Now I am all hyped. I am thinking to myself. I will be driving the new Ferrari on track tomorrow morning! This is a new first for me. I get home and prepare my camera gear and wait until the morning.
6:15: I am wide awake and alert. I could barely sleep all night due to my excitement. I get to the track on time. It takes me a second to realize that “Yes, I am actually here. I will be driving one of these beautiful cars on track today!”
All the above changes have only one goal that is to make the car as light and aerodynamic as possible. The F8 Tributo is now 40kgs lighter than and 10% more aerodynamically efficient than the 488 GTB.
It goes. It does! And I get the silver F8 with beautiful tan brown suede leather interiors. Everything feels sublimely well put together. The entire car feels high quality, and it does feel pretty solid.
The steering wheel is smaller and thinner. Making it easier to grip and turn. This helps in making your response times faster.
What Ferrari has done in this car has taken all the data it could from the 488 GTB, Pista, and Challenge series and applied that information to make the F8 more dynamic, faster, and better overall performer.
From changing the way air flows into the engine to redesigning specific components, 50% of the parts have been altered in this engine over its previous version.
It is time for me to unleash those 720 horses. This car does 0-100 in 2.9 seconds. It comes equipped with Ferrari’s new launch control system.
While all of this information is there in my head, I actually cannot process it because as soon I floor the throttle, the car is off the line like a cheetah on a chase. All my attention is now on trying to remember the course, the turns, the breaking points, and the turn in angles.
This car is so quick that every time I leave one turn, I am at the next one, still trying to figure out the previous one.
At the back straight of the Dubai Autodrome, I was trying to achieve a straight line top speed. I look down at the speedometer, and I am at 268 KPH. I look, and I realize I have overshot the braking marker by 50 feet. Now I am terrified and stomp the brakes as hard as possible. At this moment, all I can think about is slowing down enough to make the turn. Everything worked as advertised at this moment. The F8 came down to a 50kph speed with no drama at all. I could turn in easily and continue flooring the pedal to the floor.
It handles so sublimely. Taking this car around bends is effortless, and the brilliant Ferrari traction control helps you make sure of that. The steering is light in a typical Ferrari manner and extremely accurate. The traction control 6.1 lets you play around, but at the same time, it has your back. You know it is working around your inputs so that you can have fun while driving this car.
It also sounds much more civilized. The sound of the car is deep and resonant but a bit more muffled to meet the new noise pollution norms which are getting implemented the world over.
This is a car you can fall in love with over and over again. You desire it and at the same time, love it. You can never get enough of it. The fact that it is so useable every day makes it even more appealing to me. I cannot wait to drive this thing on the road!