The Ferrari 488 Pista Is Almost Too Fast To Drive But Too Good Not To

"You can't make something this good to drive and then treat it like an inanimate object," Chris Harris intone for Top Gear, driving the new trackday special Ferrari 488 Pista. "I think they should make that a crime in Italy." But there's a problem with that, as he quickly discovers.

The thing is this car, with 710 horsepower available from an engine taken out of the 488 Challenge competition car, is so powerful that it drives almost "like a late '50s sports racer," as Harris puts it. Like a Jaguar D Type or E Type.

With the electronic controls off, "half throttle will break traction. A third sometimes, maybe less."

Harris loves it, but wonders if it's just straight up too much for the street, if not simply too much for a six-figure automobile.

The 488 Pista is brilliant to drive, but it's almost too expensive to really thrash on track, too powerful for the street. It's amazing, but it might just be too good, is the impression I'm getting.

Of course, the cars that are "just right" are always still available. If you have $345,000 to spend on a car, certainly you can afford to buy a BMW E36 to smash on. That's not moving the game forward in any way. That's, I guess, what the 488 Pista is for.