Quiet hands. A race instructor friend of mine harps on them all the time.

If you want to go fast around a track, you need smooth, steady steering inputs to keep the suspension settled and keep the car on its intended path. Saw at the wheel and you are losing precious time.

If you are driving the Ferrari 488 GTB, you need quiet hands.

As part of Monterey Car Week, I have the opportunity to drive Ferrari's rear-mid-engine, V-8-powered super sports car. I've driven supercars before, but nothing like this.

Starting out at the Casa Ferrari outpost on Highway 1 in Carmel Highlands, I have two hours to play with this exquisite machine, and I'm already tense because I wasted a few minutes standing in the wrong line when I arrived.

2016 Ferrari 488 GTB

2016 Ferrari 488 GTB

2016 Ferrari 488 GTB

2016 Ferrari 488 GTB

2016 Ferrari 488 GTB

2016 Ferrari 488 GTB

After a quick introduction to the car, I hop in and immediately realize this car is different. There is no center stack, much of the interior trim is carbon fiber, the seats are sculpted, but large enough for bigger backsides, and the suede-covered, flat-bottom steering wheel is like no other. 

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The steering wheel is the control center for this car. It has buttons and switches for the turn signals, ignition, headlights, windshield wipers, and a setting that loosens up the shocks for rough roads. There is also a drive mode selector that is highlighted by wet, sport, and race modes. Basically, all of the controls you need are within a thumb's reach. Along the top of the steering wheel is a row of LED shift lights that blink in sequence from left to right. These lights couldn't be any more obvious, so if you miss a shift of the 7-speed dual-clutch gearbox, it's on you.

2016 Ferrari 488 GTB

2016 Ferrari 488 GTB

Familiarized with the layout, I head out south on Highway 1. It's time to find out what this car can do. Well, maybe not yet.

Within a quarter mile, an onlooker urges me to goose it as I approach the first tight turn. I'm not ready for that yet. I can already feel that this steering is razor sharp and the suspension translates every steering input into immediate response. I'm also not quite sure about how the twin-turbocharged 3.9-liter V-8 is going to deliver its 661 horsepower. It would not be a good idea to wreck this car a couple minutes after picking it up.

I want to start pushing this thing, but I soon get stuck behind a Mitsubishi Eclipse slathered in that godawful Mystichrome paint that's supposed to change colors but usually looks green or purple. His cheap tack-on rear spoiler wobbles with each bump he hits as he toddles along on this beautiful coastal road. I'm annoyed, but I realize that his dawdling is giving me a chance to get comfortable with this car.

I've been on the road for a few miles now and I realize that I have no idea how fast I'm going. There's one gauge in this car. It's a big, off-yellow tach front and center, its 8, 9, and 10 readings letting me know this car revs to ridiculously high rpm. To the right of the tach is actually some semblance of an infotainment screen, complete with a navigation system. To the right is the basic trip computer information, and along the bottom of this screen, right next to the miles driven, is a small digital speed readout. If you have to ask how fast you are going in this car, you can't afford the ticket, or, for that matter, the car.

By the time the Eclipse finally pulls off to the side, I'm more comfortable in this $353,838 piece of automotive art. Now it's time to open it up on the straights and charge into the corners to experience Ferrari at its best. First, I mash the throttle on a stretch of open road. The engine's low growl becomes an Italian concerto of freely revving, horizontally opposed pistons that is only slightly muted by the whistling turbos, and, holy mother of all that is good and pure, this thing moves!

Ferrari pegs the 0-to-60-mph time at 3.0 seconds and boasts about how immediately the engine responds. Ferrari isn't kidding. The steering wheel LEDs run quickly through their sequences, pulling the big carbon fiber paddles brings about right-now shifts, the turbos act like they've already spooled up, and the car takes off like a bat out of Maranello. I quickly reach extra-legal speeds, let off the throttle, and the 3.9-liter V-8 huffs off its final bit of excess intake pressure then goes back to docile suburban duty.

Upon arriving in Big Sur, I turn the car around and head back north with the aim of tackling the twists and turns of Carmel Valley Road. It takes a while to get there, and I'm amazed at how relaxed this car when driving it like a commuter. Supercars have a reputation for being high-strung and overly stiff. This car, along with others like the Audi R8 and McLaren 650S, is changing that stigma.

2016 Ferrari 488 GTB

2016 Ferrari 488 GTB

2016 Ferrari 488 GTB

2016 Ferrari 488 GTB

2016 Ferrari 488 GTB

2016 Ferrari 488 GTB

Once I get to Carmel Valley Road, however, it becomes apparent that this thoroughbred isn't entirely tame. Tight, twisty, and rough, this road is a challenge for sports cars and drivers alike. As I dive into the corners, the 488 GTB bites into them with ease. The steering and the bumps are my challenges, though. The steering is so quick and so responsive that I have trouble keeping the car on the right path as I return the steering wheel to neutral when exiting corners. Overshoot it just a bit and 488 dutifully goes off in that ill-advised direction. There is no slop here—in either the steering or the suspension.

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Despite the fairly forgiving ride, this road is just too bumpy for comfort in the 488. I feel as I'm being tossed around inside the car and that keeps me from going as hard as I might in a smoother riding car like a Porsche 718 Boxster or a VW GTI. Thankfully, there is enough compliance here to keep the tires on the pavement when I encounter a bump mid-corner. However, if Carmel Valley Road were glass smooth, I'd be in automotive heaven driving this car through these esses.

After a few minutes in the twisties, I realize it's time to return the car to Casa Ferrari.

My time in this car, sadly, is done. I have learned a few things in my 90 miles behind the wheel, though. Drive the 488 GTB in a relaxed manner and it responds in kind, though with a sex appeal that is seldom seen on American roads. Drive it hard, and you had better be on point. The 488 GTB makes you a better driver because it demands it of you. It responds directly to your inputs, so you had better have quiet hands and a smooth driving style if you want to get the most out of Ferrari's fantastic mid-engine super sports car.