Several weeks ago I received a 2019 Ferrari 488 Pista to store for client. He purchased it with about 50 miles on the odometer, and asked if he could store it at my shop for a few months. I drove it when it first arrived to make sure it was working properly, and put some fresh fuel in the tank. The plan this month is to ship the car overseas so the customer can drive the car in Europe this Spring, but the car has to shipped with very little fuel in the tank. My job was to run the fuel out of the car, and the easiest way to do this was to drive the car!

I calculated that I would have to drive the car for about 120 miles to burn the appropriate amount of fuel, so I waited for a nice dry day in the Northeast for my drive. With such a capable car, it was difficult not to break all the speed limits, but I managed to make it back to my shop without the police in my rear view mirror!

I’m always scared of modern cars, and this Pista was no different. On the day of my drive, I had two warning lights, one for the tire pressure monitors, and the second one was the maintenance light. I checked tire pressures, and everything was in spec, and the I found out later, the maintenance light comes on automatically after 12 months, despite only 271 miles of driving.

Although I’m still more comfortable with the older Ferraris, I marvel at the beauty of details on this car. The engine is a delight just to look at, and I can honestly say after a couple hundred miles behind the wheel, it doesn’t perform badly either!