It’s been two years since Ferrari released the 488 GTB. In the time since, it’s followed up with a Spider and various racing versions of the same. But the one we’ve all been waiting for is the heir to the 458 Speciale, and that’s reportedly just around the corner.
According to Autocar, the hardcore version of Maranello’s core mid-engined supercar is set to be called the 488 GTO. If that name sounds familiar, it comes remarkably close to that of the 288 GTO, which was similarly based on the 308 GTB and also packed a twin-turbocharged V8 to propel it into new performance territory.
Of course the Gran Turismo Omologato name has also been used on the 599 GTO (itself only one place up on each of the 488’s digits) and the legendary 250 GTO, to say nothing of the Pontiacs that “borrowed” it as well.
More to the point, though, it will follow in a distinguished line of “more power, less weight” Ferraris – from the 360 Challenge Stradale, through the 430 Scuderia, and the aforementioned 458 Speciale.
Nomenclature aside, word has it that the stripped-out 488 could also boast some 700 horsepower, leaving the Lamborghini Huracan 640-4 Performante in the dust and catching up to the McLaren 720S.
A stripped-out cockpit, thinner glass, and the like would help cut down on excess weight, with a beefed-up suspension and brakes to drive the message home even more emphatically and cut the 0-62 time down from three seconds flat in the GTB to about 2.7 in the GTO.
It’d be just the thing, in short, to fend off the advances from Porsche’s forthcoming 911 GT2 RS, and is expected to arrive sometime next year.
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