Lamborghini Huracán Peformante & Ferrari 488 Pista review/feedback

Since this car was one of the most requested ones for many months I decided to give it a closer look. For people who know me it should be no surprise I mostly focussed on the performance.

As far as I can tell the visual and acoustic presentation of the car seems pretty accurate and well made. Enjoyed the look and sound while cruising in free-roam.

Now on to the performance part - and it’s not good.

The car starts at a PI of 912. To estimate how accurate this stock PI is I ran it stock-tuned (tire pressure, brakes, diff) on my test track on which I have tested every single S2,S1 & A-class car tuned to the maximum of the respective class.

The stock Pista achieved a 5:54.866.
To provide some perspective. The fastest S900 RWD cars achieved following times:

Shelby Monaco KC 5:36.xxx (out of competition because horrendously broken)
'09 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 5:47.xxx
McLaren F1 GT 5:48.xxx
Lotus Elise GT1 5:50.xxx
'05 Lotus Elise 5:50.xxx
TVR Speed 12 5:50.xxx
Lykan HyperSport 5:51.xxx

So, even with a PI of 912 it’s ~5 seconds slower than the best S900 RWD cars.

After this I tuned it to S2 998.
It achieved a 5:18.374
Over 13 seconds slower than the best S2 car. A complete write-off in S2 as predicted.

I detuned it to S900 through an AWD swap and off-road tires:

AWD stock engine 5:59.161
AWD stock engine rear-aero 6:00:768
AWD V12R 5:56.531
AWD V12R rear-aero 5:57.962

In comparison to the best off-road/snow tires S900 road cars (Porsche Cayman widebody, Maserati MC12 FE, BAC Mono, Ferrari 458 Speciale) the Pista is ~ 5 seconds slower on average.
Another interesting notice are the faster times without rear-aero. In most cases rear-aero on AWD results in a faster lap time because it decreases PI and gives cornering grip. The Pista seems different and the only other car I’ve encountered this so far is the McLaren 720 S PO.
I suspect it is related to how the stock rear-aero on these two cars is programmed.

Both cars have high drag values and thus low top end acceleration and top speed for the given engine power. A common theme among newly added modern Supercars. The 720S Spider, 600LT, ZeroUno all suffer from this. The 720S Spider on S900 achieves practically an identical time as the Pista, the 600LT and ZeroUno are ~5-6 seconds off the pace of comparable S900 cars.
The high drag values wouldn’t be a problem if the affected cars would either get their PI decreased or get superior handling. But they don’t.

As a summary: The Pista is overpriced (stock PI around 895 would be more accurate), suffers from too much drag and an overpriced stock engine (the high torgue at low rpm costs PI for barely any usage aside from launching). Awesome car, bad performance.
Please don’t follow this “high drag, no compensation” approach for the new, high-end aerodynamics Supercars Playground. They will all be useless from a racing perspective.

Edit for 24.01.2020: Will add my Performante Review.

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Thanks, Rayne. I’m gonna compare it to the 2018 GT2 RS later on to see how it fares against its main competition.

Unfortunately, the 2019 Corvette ZR1 suffers from similar issues, it’s largely inferior to the Camaro ZL1 1LE at S1900, let alone other “Track Toys”. Furthermore, Race suspension seems to have negative effect on its performance and it might be even more penalized by its huge torque than the 488 Pista.

Yep I quickly realised it wasn’t very good and sold it.

2 Likes

Excellent analysis! My impression from the simcade racers that I’ve played so far is that Lamborghini cars seem to receive pretty favorable treatment from game publishers in general than either Ferrari or Porsche. So it’ll be interesting to see what we get with the Diablo GTR.

I suppose there’s no stronger way to express your disappointment of it than to do that! :joy:

Really nice review rayne “thumps up”

Funny that is was actual faster without rear aero, i have so use to rear aero that i didint even tested Pista without it other than what i drive it stock. But i totally agree awesome car to cruising in freeroam but not good car for racing. I tested S1 version on snow hoping that it could be nice choose to pick S1 winter adventures but no it’s not except if wants to give handicap for opponents there is just other cars that are mutch faster in winter.

Looks nice and easy to drive but not competitive at all in S1 so far as I can tell. Haven’t tried S2 but based on the above comments I don’t think I’ll bother! Feels it will sit in my garage and may get used at some point in some form of single player Ferrari event.

Nice review.

I’d add it’s yet another prime example of why we need the 950 class restriction. Doesn’t really tune down to S1 well, and requires the ugly, same on every car forza areo to reach competitive S2 levels.

Splitting S2 up into two classes would be very helpful, indeed. Stuff like the Pista simply has no chance against proper race cars like a F50 GT, Koenigsegg CCGT or CLK GTR. Horizon 1 had something similar with R1 & R2 above S-class. A potential Huracán Performante, McLaren 675LT, Ferrari F8 Tributo, Corvette C8 or a new Porsche GT3 would all suffer from the same fate.
Especially since the performance cap for S2 998 seems to get raised with each title to fit in all those >1200bhp cars somehow.
Those are not competitive at all and the higher cap allows the high-handling cars to fit more power increasing their advantage even further.

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The Pista is outclassed by the 720S in S2 and the regular 488 in S1. The car literally has nothing going for it.

All the wait to have it dumped into RU along with Ninetales and Gligar. :frowning:

Though, to my knowledge, this is unrealistic. The 488 Pista is faster than the 720S around a track. For the record, the GT2 RS is faster as well. It’s the 720S that’s a tad overrated in the game, although it’ll probably win in straight line performance against either of them.

Come to think of it, the Huracán Performante, when/if it ever comes out (word on the street says it’s likely to come) should be close to S1900 in the game and will have similar problems… But it’s worth mentioning that the metagame is but a small part of the Horizon experience.

IMO the fix is simple: have an R class above S2, then you move S2 down to what is currently 950. If PG wants to add race cars, then R class is the place for them. On the other hand, the PI revision in FH4 has made S1 itself suffer from similar issues. There’s cars that absolutely require AWD and/or aero to reach top of S1. Which I consider a problem, because I don’t like Forza aero and AWD robs cars of their top gears whenever they originally have more than 6.

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This is actually a great idea!

When I tune my cars, I like to keep stock engine and drivetrain.

But there’re a lot of cars (Pista, GT2 RS, Aventador '16, 720S + many more), that even after buying all upgrades, still don’t reach PI 998, unless you engine swap, AWD swap, add turbo or forza aero. This means that in their stock form they’re not that competitive in multiplayer…

Downgrading S2 to PI 950 would actually make them more sensible in online races, cause all of them can reach 950 without any swaps or adding aero.

PG, we need this (at least I need)! :slight_smile:

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No comment.

All these suggestions are a waste of time. PGG won’t make any changes to FH4. Especially changes based on user comments on a forum.

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I find it strange that PG doesn’t want to manually change the PI of cars that clearly aren’t categorized correctly at the moment. Especially if a car is not competitive in any class.

It is a pity that players now classify the Pista as being ‘not very good’ as a car, only because the flawed PI system doesn’t allow it to be competitive.

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It’s pretty sad since this car was so high on the ‘most wanted’ list for many people.

Cars of equal PI ought to be able to compete with each other, so if cars of equal PI cannot compete with each other, some examination of the PI system seems to be in order.

well said rayne! and with backup analysis… spot on :slight_smile:

the pista is not good enough for S1 or S2.

new car baselines are too often off leading to a noncompetitive car or, worse, creating an OP car. the devs should quickly address these and adjust base PI accordingly

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When you get to max speed the sound of Pista is so high, that it hurts my ears. In short the car does not sound as good as in reality. Some changes are needed.

The look though is amazing. I really love it. Driving is not that great. I could get a better car by tuning the 2018 Porsche GT2 RS. But its still a good car more or less.

Thanks for the review. It is a nice car, but it lacks speed. Fun cruiser, great sound and looks, but that’s it.
But I am happy with it for what it is.

I got me a drift pb on that mountain on Storm isand with it…320plus. Wicked. My viper did 310.

One of the most requested cars and they mess up the paddle shifters and tach in cockpit view…