With four essential model lines and production decidedly limited, Ferrari is hardly what we'd call a “mass-market” automobile. Just the opposite, in fact.
But driven as it is to keep improving its six-figure supercars, Ferrari always has something in the works.
Take this 488, for example. Spotted undergoing testing at the Nürburgring, it clearly has something to hide. The million-dollar question is, what does it have going on underneath all that camo?
The possibilities are manifold, but hardly limitless. And the most likely explanation is a more hardcore model: the source of nearly endless speculation ever since the 488 GTB first surfaced, the latest in a long line of “more power, less weight,” mid-engined, eight-cylinder supercars would follow the lead of the 458 Speciale and the 430 Scuderia and 360 Challenge Stradale before it.
The prevailing wisdom has Ferrari reviving the GTO nameplate and taking the current model's specs to a further extreme. That'd mean a more potent version of the Prancing Horse marque's award-winning 3.9-liter twin-turbo V8, unburdened by any excess weight the engineers in Maranello could manage to jettison.
It'd also likely incorporate a stiffer suspension, fitted with larger rolling stock and packing beefier brakes to give the new McLaren 720S and Lamborghini Huracan Performate a run for their proverbial money.
The conspicuously covered engine compartment, however, has lead to another strain of speculation – one summed up by the letters KERS. Shorthand for Kinetic Energy Recovery System, it's the term that Ferrari has borrowed from the previous generation of F1 cars to refer to its hybrid powertrains, like the one demonstrated in the 599 HY-KERS concept and the production LaFerrari that followed.
If this prototype is indeed packing a hybrid propulsion system, it could still be slated for the more potent 488. But then it could also be preparing a different version altogether, or even the running gear for LaFerrari's eventual successor.
Then again, this could (as so many similar test mules have been speculated to) be preparing for a potential Dino revival – that being a lower-cost road car to sit underneath the California and 488 and take on the likes of the McLaren Sports Series and Audi R8.
Just which, if any of these theories will turn out to be the truth, we hope to find out in due course. Chew on the spy shot from CarPix and let us know what you think.
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