The Ferrari SF90 Stradale’s specs alone are staggering: 986 combined horsepower, maximum torque of 590 lb-ft. Zero to 62 mph in just 2.5 seconds. A claimed top speed of 211 mph. It is Ferrari’s most powerful car so far.
The SF90 Stradale is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. It uses a turbocharged, 90-degree, 4.0-liter dry sump V8 that alone is good for 769 HP. Three electric motors (one powering the back wheels, two powering the front) provide the additional 217 HP, according to the press release. Everything is mated to an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission.
So, yes, the car is now all-wheel drive, which is fine with me because I don’t even want to think about a mid-engined anything with that much power only going to the rear wheels. The chassis and body are all-new.
Interestingly, the front axle is fully electric. In addition to powering the car, the two motors in the front also independently control the torque delivered to the wheels. Ferrari says that this method of torque vectoring makes driving the car hard a lot easier.
The two electric motors give you the ability to drive about 16 miles on the battery alone, using just the front axle. They can allegedly get the car up to speeds of 84 mph and you can only reverse in electric mode.
From the back, you can see that the tailpipes are located pretty high up. This is because the SF90 has a lowered turbocharger and a raised exhaust line. You know me, the higher up the exhaust tips are, the happier I’ll be.
Ferrari says that the hybrid system weighs an additional 595 pounds, so extra measures were taken to keep the weight down. There’s an all carbon-fiber bulkhead between the cabin and the engine and new aluminum alloys were used in the chassis construction. There’s also something called “quiet aluminum” in the floor pan for improved NVH. I assume this is aluminum that’s been mined from a strict library. In total, the SF90 weighs 3,461 pounds.
And there’s a 16-inch screen in the central instrument cluster. I guess not even a Ferrari can outrun the onslaught of the screens.
The name SF90 Stradale comes as a nod to the 90th anniversary of Scuderia Ferrari’s founding.
I thought the LaFerrari, with its 949 HP, was impressive. But that’s old news now. The SF90 is more powerful and sounds far more advanced. Where would it sit on the Ferrari ladder, though? It’s not one of the front-engined GT cars and it doesn’t seem like the halo model because it has a V8. But it’s definitely higher up than the F8 Tributo, a car that I totally forgot about until just now.
No pricing accompanied this announcement, but a Ferrari rep told Road & Track that “the SF90 Stradale will be more expensive than the current F8 Tributo, but less than the LaFerrari.” Deliveries are said to start at the beginning of next year.
