Speaker 1: Welcome to the cockpit of the Ferrari SF 90 Ferrari's current quickest production car and their first production hybrid ever. I'm just wrapping up an amazing day, lapping this thing around their private test track fi Iran at their headquarters in Marinello. And we're gonna go back in time and we're, we're gonna show you everything you need to know about this outrageous, outrageous plug-in hybrid.
Speaker 2: Now I know what you're thinking. [00:00:30] Wait, didn't Ferrari already make a hybrid. The answer is yes, that car was LA Ferrari. However, in the grand Pantheon of machines to bear the prince and horse LA Ferrari will is one of their special offerings built in limited numbers and offered only to those special, wealthy few already blessed to be among the Ferrari faithful. The SF nine is Truda on the other hand is a quote regular production car. No, that doesn't mean just anyone will be able to wander into a dealership and cruise out with one of these on a whim, [00:01:00] but neither will there be any blood oaths required here and ignoring that distinction. This is straight up no caveats. The first time Ferrari has produced a plugin hybrid. The eight kilowat hour battery pack is about one 10th. The size of the pack you might find in Anez model three, since it's so small, it sits down Lowy on the seats and offers about 16 miles or 25 kilometers of all of like to drive.
Speaker 1: So here we are in Ferrari's first plugin production hybrid car, [00:01:30] and I'm on track and well, things are very, blisfully quiet because I'm in full EV mode. I'm driving this thing without burning any gasoline, the first Ferrari ever that you can do that in. Obviously I'll go a little bit quick, a little later on, but right now this is really nice and pleasant to drive. There's a little bit more road noise than you might expect in your average pre yes or something like that. But I'll forgive that the steering is still sharp. The seating is reasonably comfortable and this feels like just a nice normal car to drive. The thro response is very good as you'd expect [00:02:00] from an EV of course. And while there isn't typical were already levels of power. It's plenty of power to get yourself to work or get yourself at least outta the driveway down from your big mansion, of course, in silence so that you don't wake any of your servants or your family or your mistres or anybody like that on your way out to the twisty roads. And then of course, when you are actually ready to engage in things, all you need us press a little touch control here on the steering wheel, hit the checkered flag [00:02:30] and on comes that V8. Now we're gonna go a little bit quicker. I think it's starting to enjoy the track, but before that, I gotta make a quick pit stop and get some heck here.
Speaker 2: And I'm not just swinging by anywhere to grab a helmet here. This is Furano a play where every great modern Ferrari has been tested. This is where a form of the one drivers do their shakedown laps in their new cars. And this is where lucky to foe get to come and play with their new toys. It's in this room that telemetry has been downloaded and handling discussed [00:03:00] by many Ferrari greats over the decades. And I have to tell you just being here was a real honor, never mind driving here, but drive is what I came there to do not stand around looking starstruck.
Speaker 1: Well, it's certainly a little bit louder with the engine turned on, as you would expect it to be. In fact, this might be the loudest hybrid I've ever had. The pleasure of driving with [00:03:30] the VA behind me. Now, speeding up in that full song. I've got just about a thousand horsepower and high disposal going through all four wheels. And it certainly feels like it. This car is viciously quick and really well balanced right now. I'm just letting the H B D CT, uh, new dual punch transmission do its own thing. Still [00:04:00] kind of figuring out where fi grows. And so I figure I let the car do the shifting for now, but I'll get the paddles in the action a little bit later on, but it's doing a great job of picking the right gears, really aggressively rev matching in the down shifts and then banging through the gears the way out loud. Uh, this feels really nice now helping this car feel this magical is a very, very complicated powertrain. Uh, that's so complicated in the [00:04:30] fact, I think I should probably throw a voiceover to explain it so that I can, uh, maybe, uh, keep myself focused on the task at hand here,
Speaker 2: The heart of the SF 90, is this a new four or liter V8 that has its origins in the 3.9 liter unit found in the FA trio, but has seen far more modifications than that poultry tent of a liter bump might imply that extra displacement comes from an increased bore, but the turbos have also seen extensive modifications, fuel injection, and ignition has been swapped in the [00:05:00] cylinder heads and the over all package is a whopping 55 pounds lighter despite producing about 60 more horsepower, 769 horsepower totaled to be precise. But the hallmark of the car is the electrification. The SF 90 carries not one, not two but three electric motors. The 150 kilowat motor at the back is pancake shaped slot in between in the engine and the new eight speed dual clutch transmission up front there's 1 99, kilowat electric motor per wheel giving the SF [00:05:30] 90 true all-wheel drive and an impressive regeneration system. If all that sounds a bit familiar it's perhaps because from an architectural standpoint, this system is very similar to the one. Honda has it in the NSX, which also uses electric motors front and rear to augment both power and handling. Of course, the NSX is running a turbocharge V six instead of a V8. And it has a total system power of 573 horses in a car that weighs about 3,900 pounds. The Ferrari [00:06:00] try 986 horsepower in a curb weight of just about 3,700 pounds.
Speaker 1: Now without much extra power over an NSX, you might think that they might feel a little bit similar, but no way. This thing feels like a completely D the NSX is an amazing car to drive because it is so smooth and so clean that it almost feels slow. It feels a lot slower than it is until you look down and look at how fast you're going. You realize that it is actually an incredibly quick car, but this [00:06:30] car, this car absolutely communicates in a much more direct and frankly, a much more brutal way. You've feel exactly how fast you were going. And trust me, you are going very fast, fast enough to go over the air over that bump. There, you can feel in everything suburban corner, cause you come out a tight airplane. Like the one that we're about to get into. It's very happy
Speaker 2: [00:07:00] Since it's always hard to really perceive speed in a video like this. Let me quote a few figures for you. Ferrari rates, the SF 90 S sprinting to 100 kilometers or 62 miles an hour from a standing start in just two and a half seconds that to put it mildly is remarkably quick, quicker than near anything. Short of a model, less plaid that's been given the requisite 15 minutes of prep time before taking a run top speed, 211 miles per hour. That's plenty fast, [00:07:30] but of course, big speed needs good breaks.
Speaker 1: Now another area where this car has a little bit of similarity to the NSX is in the breaking. Actually, this is Ferrari's first Greek by wire car, which means there's really no direct linkage between what's going on underneath my left foot and the CAERS that are squeezing the ceramic Raks at all four foreigners. Now I'm out here on a very hot Italian silver [00:08:00] hounding around here. Lap ups are lab, and every time I go into a big breaking zone, hell, this has an absolutely perfect rock solid feel. And that's because what I'm feeling has nothing to do with what's actually going on in the brakes, the car, the brake fluid could literally be boiling right now. And I would've idea because the car is just taken care of if there's any fade happening at all. And frankly, I doubt that there actually is any, the car will just modulate that and make sure that I get not [00:08:30] only the same feel every lap, but the same breaking performance in that performance. Pretty spectacular. Let me tell you
Speaker 2: To further help the brakes. The standard wheels on the SF 90 are designed to help pull air through and cool. The carbon ceramic stoppers that's matched by other aerodynamic tweaks, like a popup gurney flap to boost down force and massive underbody coverings with vortex generators. Step up to Theano package. As you see here, and [00:09:00] things get even more aggressive carbon fiber wheels now come fitted at every corner, along with titanium Springs and a sultry sounding titanium exhaust at the back.
Speaker 1: All right. I think it's trying to try out, uh, manual mode here and, uh, see if we can go any quick. If I wrote my own, well flat my own, let's say
Speaker 1: One more lively this way. The shifts are incredibly [00:09:30] quick. This H B D CT is lighter and optimized shift even quicker than the DCTs found in other earlier Ferrari. And oh, you can just feel a little bit of kick when you grab a gear, but it still handles the rev magic where you automatically, and he asks, you can see we'll let you go straight to the rib limit if you, uh, forget to grab that next pedal in tuck, by the way, I have to slow down here. I don't trip the, uh, noise regulations. [00:10:00] Yep. Okay. I gotta say as, as nice as it is to have a car shift for you sometimes when I'm doing this kind of thing, I want to do my own.
Speaker 1: Now this steering wheel will look a little bit familiar if seen my coverage of the Ferrari room and in that car, I absolutely hated the steering wheel. It's pretty similar to what we've seen in the four a and the four, five a before with all the integrated controls, like [00:10:30] the touch signals here and everything else, which I like, but this new version of the wheel takes some of the traditional controls and them to capacity touch buttons. Now, I don't know about you, but I probably wouldn't be Ferrari shopping. If I was the kind of person who wanted more capacity touch stuff. I understand why cars has so many features and functions that it's not really possible to give a dedicated button for everything. But I'm gonna ask you one question. If you get any, a new Ferrari and you wanna fire it up for the first [00:11:00] time, do you wanna stab at a big shiny red button? Or do you wanna touch your finger on a little sensitive area here that says engine starts stop?
Speaker 1: Yeah. Thought so. So I'm not a fan of the wheel, but I am a fan of this beautiful new did a little gauge cluster that sits behind the wheel. It's beautiful and sweeping. And it replaces the traditional analog rev counter that we see in the center of most Ferrari. In fact, all Ferrari. [00:11:30] You still have that analog display if you want. But now on the right, I've got tire pressure display. I can put gene meters. I can look at the status of my battery charge and everything else that I want to, but of course, out here on the track, that's maybe a little too much for when I'm going around corners like this. So behind that, I have even more information courtesy of a heads up display. Now, unlike a lot of sports cars that flash a lot of information at you in the heads of displays to make you feel like you're a race car driver. This one just has one very simple field of information, [00:12:00] how fast I'm going. And frankly, that's just fine. I mean, every now and again, I'd like to know when I track how quick I'm going, but I don't want take my eyes off the road. No, I don't have to know that I'm going eighty, ninety, a hundred one twenty. I, and I can't even keep of this thing, but it's just right there front of the center. And this is the first Ferrari ever. That's had a heads up display. In fact, there are a lot of firsts in this car.
Speaker 2: So first heads up in a Ferrari. And as I mentioned earlier, this is Ferrari's first series production hybrid and their first plugin hybrid [00:12:30] ever. It's also Ferrari's first production car with break by wire. And if that weren't enough Ferrari's first road car with no reverse gear to go backwards, the car just uses the electric motors to the front axle and spins them the wrong way. What's amazing. Isn't the number of Ferrari first here, but how well everything placed together with all these disparate systems. It'd be easy to see how things might feel a discordant, but that's not it at all. Everything just feels amazing.
Speaker 1: [00:13:00] So what would I change about the SF 90? Well, I've not had it on the road, so my opinions are a little bit focused to the track. At this point, I already said, I'm not a huge fan of the touch surface this wheel. I could frankly use a little bit more head room in here, but if it were for the helmet, actually, there's plenty of room here. And these seats are really nice. They look cool as hell. They are full carbon fiber with just basically some hated insert stuck on there. They look great and they are very supportive and very comfortable. And these extra belts that has come as part of the Fiona package are keeping [00:13:30] me nice and snuggly in place. The interior layout is overall gray. It's basically an evolution of what you see in the FA trio, which I think is, is very nice as well.
Speaker 1: We've got a little bit more dashboard here, thanks to the swept in screen, but overall everything's down low and you feel like you're just flying through the air when you're piloting this car hated by this incredibly sharp steering. Now I have driven and I have raced a lot of all-wheel drive car cars. And whenever you get on the track in an all wheel drive car, I expect [00:14:00] a very heavy steering. And frankly, I expect a lot of under fear. And that is just not the case in this car. This car pivots incredibly well. It's so sharp and it uses that torque factory across the front axle. And it can just go exactly where you want it to go. It is a very sweet thing. And sorry to say that my time in it has come to a close.
Speaker 2: And what about the look of the thing? Well, I must confess I'm not the biggest fan of the contrasting colors on the said of Theano package. It's almost like the designers put a [00:14:30] big arrow on the nose so that you know which way to go. But of course this being a Ferrari, you can spec it however you want the and carbon fiber beneath it. However, all looks fine to me. It very definitely shares a few lines and concepts with the F attributal, but is undoubtedly its own car pronounced nos pointing to the extra power that comes from the front while the rear looks every bit like the road going race car, that this is, yes, it is a bit busy, especially compared to the sultry new 2 96 [00:15:00] GTB, but given the intent of this car, I think it works. The whole thing works remarkably well. And it is a remarkable machine though. This may be for he's first regular series production plug-in hybrid. There is absolutely nothing regular about it.
