There is always something slightly intimidating and emotional about a Ferrari. Not just because they are blistering fast and atrociously expensive (in Singapore, at least), but also because they are so devastatingly effective that it often feels like the cars are doing all the hard work while the driver simply hangs on for the ride.
And the successor to the Ferrari SF90 that you see here on this page – the Ferrari 849 Testarossa Spider — is no exception.
Here, the ‘8’ in 849 is for eight cylinders, and the ’49’ is for 499 cubic centimetres of displacement per cylinder, adding up to 3,992cc or, well, a 4.0-litre engine.
Drawing on the famous Testarossa name is a bold move, methinks. For many, depending on your age, that name conjures images of a red poster car from the 80s, complete with side strakes, 12-cylinder power and enough visual drama to make any supercar in any era blush.
Yet Ferrari hasn’t attempted a retro remake. Instead, it has taken the spirit of the Testarossa and transplanted it into a very modern machine.
Looking timeless
As such, one can argue that the 849 Testarossa is a “Testarossa” in name but not in appearance and you won’t be wrong. Whatever the case, you cannot deny that the car looks absolutely amazing and magically magnificent regardless of which angle you stare at it.
While many will lament that the black strip running across the front fascia spoils the car’s looks, we beg to differ.
Staring at the car in real life, the black strip works very well on the car, especially on one that’s silver in colour. Whether it’s on the Ferrari F80 or the 12Cilindri Spider, that black strip may well become the supercar maker’s signature in time to come.
Round the back, the 849 Testarossa looks more hyper than super, thanks to the twin tails that are inspired by the Ferrari 512S and 512M race cars from the early 70s and the twin tailpipes that decidedly peer out from the centre looking like they’re ready to fire live rounds.
A calmer but focused cabin
The cabin, on the other hand, is calmer but no less driver-centric and sporty, as you’d come to expect from a brand like Ferrari. You open the doors, drop inside, and the first thing you notice is the floating binnacle that houses the transmission selector. It’s an undoubtedly nice touch that cocoons you (and the passenger), giving both of you the “personal space” needed as you drive the drop-top.
Also a nice touch is a cushion by the bottom right side to hold your leg in place should you decide to man-handle the Spider round the countless twisties around sunny Spain.
Elsewhere, Ferrari has amended the 849 Testarossa’s cabin interface with a new Human-Machine Interface (HMI) and physical switches around (and on the steering wheel), which makes operation much easier and navigate on the move — an improvement over the SF90’s haptic feedback buttons.
Needless to say, the red anodised Manettino is still there on the steering, remaining to be the perfect “killer” switch for your driving modes.
Corrective order for the right reasons
Speaking of Manettino, the 849 Testarossa Spider features an eManettino dial on the steering that offers four driving modes — Qualify, Performance, Hybrid and eDrive (pure electric).
You press the start button on the steering wheel, allowing the powertrain to come to life in Hybrid mode, as what I experienced in my test car.
In this mode, the car starts up with absolute silence, requiring you to depress the Performance mode to turn on the V8 engine. When that happens, the car immediately becomes vocal, voluptuous and vehement.
Just like the SF90, there is very little to fault the 849 Testarossa — in fact, where the SF90 comes up short, the 849 alters and improves. Well, sort of.
The new spider is still powered by a plug-in hybrid drivetrain and is still absurdly quick — capable of delivering enough thrust to rearrange your internal organs every time you decide to squeeze the throttle. But this time, Ferrari has added something the SF90 occasionally lacked — personality.
Now, underneath the sharply sculpted body sits a heavily revised version of Ferrari’s plug-in hybrid V8 platform. The familiar 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 remains, but it has been extensively reworked with everything new except the greenhouse area, which is similar to the SF90.
According to Ferrari, the 849 Testarossa sports the largest turbochargers ever fitted to a Ferrari production road car while it does continue with the firm’s three electric motor layout — two in front and one at the back that’s in between the rear axle and the gearbox.
Immense power and utter madness
The result is a staggering 1,035bhp and 842Nm of twisting force at 6,500rpm, allowing the car to cross the 100km/h line from nought in just 2.25 seconds. That’s about 50bhp and 40Nm of torque more than the SF90.
To put that into perspective, the naturally aspirated V12 LaFerrari produces about 936bhp and does the zero to 100km/h sprint in roughly 2.6 seconds.
So, in many respects, calling the 849 Testarossa a mere successor or, even worse, a facelift of the SF90 would be doing it a severe injustice.
Figures aside, it’s the way this Spider dances around the tarmac that really deserves praise. Sure, many other cars can be engaging, enticing and expeditious, but none can quite hold their own to this Ferrari.
The precise, well-weighted and talkative steering allows you to not just point and shoot as and where you want but also gives you the authority to know and feel what’s underneath and in front of you as you tackle bends with complete confidence.
And if confidence isn’t your forte, as is mine, and you don’t want to wake your neighbours up at night when you’re coming or leaving, the car has a 7.9kWh battery that will allow you to leave your home and offers up to 25km of silent pure electric range.
Man and machine as one
The 849 Testarossa isn’t merely a faster SF90. It’s a more mature, more emotional and ultimately a more complete Ferrari. And in a world increasingly obsessed with numbers, that’s perhaps the most impressive achievement of all.
From the feel to the emotion, the 849 Testarossa Spider that I experienced generates these in great big bucketloads. The mechanical thrum of the exhaust and magical timing of the eight-speed gearbox are nothing short of dramatic.
The precise and well-weighted steering is nothing short of spectacular. And the sense of car and driver as one has never been stronger.
Which is why I say that there is always something slightly intimidating and emotional about a Ferrari…
The car is slated to arrive on our shores in the fourth quarter of this year.
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This article was first published in sgCarMart.
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