Petrolheads are a strange lot. Every new car, especially a sports car that comes from a manufacturer with a reputation for automotive “purity” usually comes accompanied with a torrent of verbal abuse. Case in point: the new Ferrari 488 GTB.
While it certainly looks the business (honestly, which Ferrari doesn’t?), there was a great wailing and gnashing of teeth from some Ferrari fans, because, like the California T, the 488 GTB has a turbocharged engine.
Some corners of the internet proclaimed this to be a herald of the end times. If Ferrari, arguably the last bastion of purity, could succumb to the scourge of turbocharging (ostensibly to meet increasingly stringent emissions regulations), there’s no telling what it might do next. A diesel-powered SUV, perhaps?
Of course, they’re forgetting one of the most iconic Ferraris of all time, the F40 and its predecessor, the 288 GTO, had turbocharged engines as well, but anyway.
These tifosi might have a point, but the question should be how many of them actually can afford to buy one? I don’t think very many potential 488 GTB owners are concerned with the fact that Maranello’s newest son has a forced-induction engine or not. Like how almost all Porsche Cayenne (and Macan owners, too, for that matter) don’t care about heritage or other nonsensical stuff. The only thing that matters is that it’s a Porsche.
The fact I’m trying to make is this: purists don’t make a car company money, buyers do. And very many purists aren’t buyers.
