You can now configure your Ferrari 488 GTB online

For a car lover, the torture devices of the Middle Ages are nothing compared with online configurators. Pouring petrol on a bonfire has consequences, and you will probably end up wanting to buy the model you have so carefully personalised to your taste, because it reflects your personality and preferences, your way of understanding the automobile.

Now there is a new configurator, with a model that was unveiled a few days before the start of the Geneva Motor Show, the Ferrari 488 GTB. With its minimalist look, the image quality is excellent, and in it you can see all the details you can choose to make the Ferrari a unique model. Starting with the body paint, which can be metallic, non-metallic, or a historic paint section.

The wheels and brake calipers will be your next step in this delicacy that is the Ferrari configurator. Six different wheel types in combination with nine specific colours for the brake calipers that embrace the carbon-ceramic brake discs. I must confess that I have a special fondness for the Giallo Modena colour on the Ferrari brake calipers.

Body components, most of them in carbon fibre, and optional equipment such as AFS headlights, parking sensors and a rear-view camera are just some of them. Fifteen different leather upholstery options for the interior, with normal, coloured or special stitching, as well as nine varied colours for the floor mats. Spend a little more time on this section because you will spend long hours listening to the roar of its 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 engine, which delivers 660 CV at 8,000 rpm.

But the interior doesn’t end there. Next you will need to select the seat type, from the most ergonomic to a bucket-style one, the seat belts and their colour, and how you want to adjust the seats, electric or manual. Finally, a long list of carbon-fibre inserts begins, ranging from the doors, through the dashboard, to the central tunnel.

With all this, and after a good few minutes spent in front of the computer screen, you will reach the summary section, where you can download your configuration, start again or, if you agree with all your choices, request the model over the Internet. In my case, the option was to close the page.