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The SF90 Stradale is Ferrari's Fastest Ever Production Car
Ferrari has pulled the wraps off its newest flagship hypercar, which is being billed as marking the beginning of a new chapter for the Iconic Italian car marquee.
Called the SF90 Stradale, the new hybrid model is Ferrari’s first ever Plug-in Hybrid car in its history, indicating the brand’s move towards electrification and future-proofing its products. It is also said to be the fastest road-legal production car ever built by Ferrari.
“Design should be functional to the technology, but should still be something that is called a piece of art,” says Enrico Galliera, Ferrari’s Chief Marketing Officer.
On the exterior, the SF90 Stradale is radically different than anything seen from the Maranello-based company in the past, resembling a hypercar from the future.
Despite the dramatic styling, the Stradale’s design is clean and free of creases and curves. Ferrari says aerodynamics played a major role through the design process.
While elements like the low engine cover and rear diffuser play their part in boosting downforce, the active element at the rear helps to control airflow over the car like the DRS system in F1 cars.
It adjusts for low drag at high speeds and high downforce through corners, under braking and during changes of direction.
Inside the cabin, the Stradale is even more radical than the exterior, boasting Ferrari’s most high-tech and futuristic cabin to date. A large 16-inch curved display situated behind the steering wheel is the most eye-catching element, augmented by a new head-up display (HUD) that will reconfigure based on your driving mode.
The steering wheel also features multiple capacitive-touch interfaces that increase the number of functions the driver can operate while decreasing the number of physical buttons.
As for performance, the hybrid powertrain is built around the familiar 4.0-litre, turbocharged V8 engine, also found in the 488 GTB. However, Ferrari claims that it has been completely changed for this application, with the V8 engine producing 769 horsepower, making it the most powerful eight-cylinder engine Ferrari has ever built.
The V8 engine is paired with a trio of electric motors, two in the front and one in the middle attached directly to the transmission, which together produces a maximum of 217 horsepower.
This takes the cumulative power of the hypercar to 986 horsepower, thanks to which the hypercar can accelerate from zero to 62mph in just 2.5 seconds and hit a top speed of 211mph. This makes it the fastest production, road-legal car ever built by the Italian automaker.
Ferrari says the hypercar has a range of 15 miles in the completely silent all-electric eDrive mode. The electric motors not only give the hypercar all-wheel-drive capability but also helps act as the reverse gear for the car. This has helped Ferrari use much lighter, revised, eight-speed, dual-clutch transmission, which doesn’t have a cog for reverse gear.
Ferrari is yet to reveal details on the SF90 Stradale’s pricing and availability, but it is expcted to cost between half a million and a million dollars.