Watch: A Ferrari Driver Crashes a One-Day-Old 488 Pista While Trying to Show Off

Bryan Hood
·2 min read
12

Part of the thrill of driving a supercar is getting behind the wheel of one of the most powerful vehicles on the planet. But it’s important to know your limits: The last thing you want to do is put yourself and others at risk.

The driver of a $330,000 Ferrari 488 Pista in the Netherlands seems to have learned this lesson earlier this week. In a video posted to YouTube on Thursday, the daring driver can be seen flaunting a day-old supercar for the cameraman moments before losing control and crashing into a ditch. (Thankfully, nothing but pride was hurt in the collision.)

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The short clip, which was shared by @mrexumas, shows the 488 Pista speeding along a freeway. Halfway through, the driver apparently decides to start showing off for the cameraman in the trailing car. The 710-horsepower speed machine can be heard downshifting as it prepares for a rolling launch. Rather than rocket forward, though, it immediately starts to slide to the left before overcorrecting and crashing into a chain-link fence lining the roadside ditch. In terms of driving fails, it’s about as embarrassing as they come.

So, what caused the crash? While we don’t know for certain, the general consensus in enthusiast circles is that the driver didn’t know their limits. As The Drive points out, the way the car violently swerves moments before shooting off the roadway suggests that the driver turned off the car’s traction control. While supercars were once notoriously hard to handle, high-tech driver’s assistance features have made them significantly easier to pilot. Some owners like to turn these aids off—something which can be done with a simple turn of a dial in the 488 Pista—to prove their driving acumen, though. As this video shows, just because you can do that doesn’t make it a good idea.

The driver of the 488 Pista can at least take solace in the fact that they’re not the only one to bang up their supercar within a day of buying it. Last June, a British man wrecked his brand-new Lamborghini Huracán 20 minutes after driving it off the lot because of a “mechanical failure,” and the year before that Tracy Morgan’s pre-owned 2012 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport was side-swiped by another motorist moments after he left the dealership. In both cases, though, the driver wasn’t to blame.

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