During the 2016 Finali Mondiali, Ferrari?s season-ending race for its Ferrari Challenge, XX, and customer-raced F1 cars, the company pulled the wraps from the latest iteration of its turbocharged, mid-engined 488: the 488 Challenge. Celebrating the upcoming 25th anniversary of its single-marque, gentleman-racer series, the 488 Challenge builds on the previous Challenge car, the 458, by adopting lessons learned from Maranello?s GTE program.
Side by side with its 458 predecessor, the new Challenge unveiled at Daytona International Speedway looks more like one of Ferrari?s top-rank, 2016 World Endurance Championship?winning racers than the previous car, which more closely resembled a roadgoing 458, albeit one with a stonking wing bolted to its tail. While the Challenge retains a stock 488 powerplant?the 3.9-liter turbo V-8 spinning Ferrari?s customary flat-plane crank is plenty healthy at 670 horsepower and 561 lb-ft of torque?it features a gutted and race-prepped interior, plexiglass side glazing with sliding windows, and a host of other deletions of parts deemed nonessential for on-track performance. What was deemed essential" Improved aero. To that end, the 488?s schnoz has been significantly rejiggered, its front-mounted radiators tilted rearward to route warm air in a boundary layer across the car?s fender wells, using the hot gases as a skirt to direct cooler air around the wheels. In short, they’re using hot air to make invisible fender spats. Ferrari claim...