What on earth is a Ferrari F142M M3? F142 is the internal code for the Ferrari 488, according to YouTube supercar superfan Marchettino. So, what kind of franken-test-car did Marchettino find hiding under a bunch of trashed 458 body panels and enough duct tape to put my ChumpCar to shame?
It’s got two bulbous but curious side air intakes that suggest possible twin-turbos at work. Speaking of air intakes, there seem to be two more on the front bumper. It has no rear bumper, but it’s sporting the ultra-light wheels form the 458 Speciale. Plus, it sounds like a V8.
Most curiously of all, a technician who came out to work on the car said, “Don’t turn on the KERS system.” KERS, of course, stands for “kinetic energy recovery system”—a form of hybrid technology straight out of Formula One that recovers energy under braking.
If this test car is what he thinks it is, this franken-488 could pack just the kind of turbo-hybrid-lunatic punch to the nuts that would be befitting of a new hyper-fast or track-focused variant of the 488. They’re going to have to work a bit on the looks, though.
This backlot appears to be the stuff of car-snoop dreams, with what appears to be Ferrari California test mules even further from the fence and who knows what else hidden back in there. Sometimes I wish Ferrari didn’t have its own test track and wanted to test things out in, say, 100-degree August heat in Texas.