Super-Quick Drop Top

THE 2024 FERRARI SF90 IS THE QUICKEST-ACCELERATING ROAD-GOING
Ferrari ever produced. Let that sink in for a moment. It is Ferrari’s first full-production hybrid plug-in ever. Ferraris are known for performance, of course, and some are known for really prodigious… pricing. The 2002 V12 Ferrari Enzo, for example, had a list price of about $660,000 (good luck finding a clean one today for under $3.5 million). The successor to the Enzo, the 2013 LaFerrari, had a list price of about $1.5 million. The SF90 list price is “only” about $575,000, and unlike the aforementioned models, there is not a limited run of a few hundred vehicles. Yet it is quicker than its stablemates and predecessors costing multiples of that amount. In fact, the SF9 XX Stradale, the track-only sibling of our featured car, bested the amazing LaFerrari’s performance on the Ferrari test track by over 2.4 seconds, a huge jump in the racing world.

A brief side note about the naming of this car. If you are detail-oriented when it comes to cars – as I am – you may have noticed that many Ferraris have a yellow shield embedded on the top side of the front fenders with a very stylized “SF” written in expansive cursive below an elegant rearing horse profile. Did you, as I did, ever wonder what it stood for?

In the 1980s, it may have meant that the owner spent several thousand dollars to have a shield added to the car (not sure what the option-list price is today) but as to what the actual meaning was, it is quite simple:
“Scuderia Ferrari,” which translates from Italian to “Stable Ferrari,” the company’s racing division. Its name was chosen to honor the company’s performance-oriented focus and their use of the stallion as their logo. Not surprisingly, the SF9 honors the Scuderia Ferrari’s 90th year of creating some of the most desirable cars on the planet.

The shape of this terrific machine is a departure from the Ferraris of yore, with a sculptural yet edgy sloping hood and short rear overhang. But under the hood is… space for luggage. The SF90s (Stradale hardtop and Spider convertible) are mid-rear-engine cars – the engine is behind the driver and in front of the rear wheels, which allows for terrific handling and balance. The car is motivated by a combination of an amazingly powerful V8 and some electric wizardry.

Contrary to its well-known historic love of prodigious V12 power, Ferrari has utilized V8 motors for many decades – Tom Selleck famously drove one in Magnum, PI. Today’s eight-pot version has little in common with those earlier engines. With a twin-turbo boosting the performance, the gas engine alone pumps out some 769 horsepower. However, when one adds the additional 217 HP of the three (yes, three!) electric motors, the total propulsion zooms to 986 HP. Ferrari claims a 0 to 60 MPH dash is ripped out at 2.5 seconds, but it felt a lot faster to me and other journalists have agreed, claiming that the sprint time actually is closer to 2.0 seconds, faster than any other production vehicle). Honestly, whether a car can do that blast in three or even two seconds is not particularly important to most of us but it sure does add to the thrill of those who get to experience it. And of course, it does add to the bragging rights at cars and coffee events everywhere.

Handling? I am glad that you asked. Two of the electric motors are dedicated to what Ferrari calls the “Cornering Angle Regulator, Electric (or “RACe”, in Ferrari-speak). A simple example of how that works: when going through a corner, the inside tire has a shorter distance to go than the outside tire, so having the ability for a motor to speed up one wheel and / or slow down the other makes the car much nimbler. It’s a noticeable improvement over the “steer-and-hope” mode of the past, which allows for amazing cornering ability. In the canyons, the SF90 felt like it was on rails.

The interior of Maranello’s latest also does not disappoint: fine Italian leather abounds, most of which is tooled into beautiful designs. “My” SF90 Spider was very well appointed, thank you, so the “Blu Fletrico” exterior was nicely set-off by the ‘Nero 8500″ black interior (the press photos here show a special color, “Giallo Montecarlo’). The underside of the retractable roof was leather-clad, and there were colored leather inserts in several places. The carbon fiber accoutrements (dashboard inserts, upper tunnel trim, driver-zone LEDs and more) were gorgeous. Those additions and others helped explain why the total price of the one I tested was $659,000 and change.

Try as I might, I had to give it back way too soon as another salivating journalist was undoubtedly waiting. I loved my time with the SF90 Spider; especially as I only had a few hours with its hardtop Stradale sibling, but like all good entertainers, it left me wanting more
– much more.