12 http://www.evoIndia.com | July 2019
chief technical officer, says that the hybrid
powertrain will deliver the full 986bhp for a
lap of any racetrack in the world, including the
Nürburgring Nordschleife.
Ahead of the reveal, marketing boss Enrico
Galliera described the SF90, aka Project 173,
as a car for customers who want to drive
(implication: not for collectors), who want the
latest tech and who love beauty. The head of
design, Flavio Manzoni, then stepped up and
teased us further by live sketching the SP90 on
a blank piece of paper, describing the themes
and functions that the car encapsulates. The
circular theatre then darkened and an SF
entered and yowled tantalisingly across the
central space under strobing lights, before two
more examples growled on, parked, and the
lights came up.
And there it was, the new range-topping
Ferrari supercar. Like an F8 Tributo but different
in almost every detail. The figures show it’s
20mm lower and 100mm longer, but the
proportions have changed too, with the cockpit
further forward and the tail lower. Ahead of the
glass engine cover there’s a horizontal deck and
an upright rear window reminiscent of those on
a 250LM, while the narrow, horizontal headlights
and squashed round rear lights change the look.
The headlights are Ferrari’s first matrix LED
lights, with active beam control.
Peer into the engine bay and the 90-degree
V8 is so low and so far forward that it looks like
EVEN WITHOUT
ELECTRIC
POWER, THE
SF90 WOULD
HAVE BEEN A
SPECTACULARLY
QUICK CARit must have fallen through and be sitting on the
floor. Even though no combined engine-plus-
electric-motors torque figure is available, the V
alone now makes 769bhp and 800Nm (the F
Tributo’s numbers are 710bhp and 770Nm), so
even without the addition of electric power, the
SF90 would have been a spectacularly quick car.
Making it a hybrid adds 270kg-worth of
electric motors, controllers and battery, and
Ferrari has worked hard at saving weight to
offset this. It claims a dry kerb weight of 1570kg
with all the lightest options fitted, many of
which feature on the even sportier ‘Assetto
Fiorano’ (‘Fiorano set-up’) version, which will
be offered from launch. Thus, a realistic kerb
weight for the standard SF90 is 1700kg, but
with 986bhp available, that still adds up to
an incredible power-to-weight ratio (around
590bhp per ton with fluids). And, of course, theelectric motors are integral to the record-setting
acceleration and a Fiorano lap time of just
1min 19sec – 0.7sec quicker than the LaFerrari.
The SF90 is built around a new multi-material
monocoque that is still mostly aluminium but
features carbonfibre for the first time, chiefly
for the cockpit-to-engine bulkhead. Ferrari says
that compared to previous platforms, it is 20
per cent stiffer in bending and 40 per cent stiffer
torsionally for the same weight.
The Assetto Fiorano version has much more
carbonfibre trim. It’s used for the door skins
and underbody, and the Michelin Pilot Sport
Cup 2 tyres can be fitted to carbon wheels.
Meanwhile, titanium is used for the exhaust
and the road springs, and there are GT racer-
derived Multimatic dampers. There’s also a
fixed carbon rear spoiler that helps develop
390kg of downforce at 250kmph. The regular
SF90 features active aero; air flow over its rear
bodywork can be disrupted by what Ferrari
calls a ‘shut-off Gurney’. This device, which it is
seeking a patent for, drops from the rear wing
to disrupt the air flow and increase downforce
on the rear axle for greater stability in cornering,
during direction changes and under braking.
The SF90’s flat-plane-crank V8 has been
evolved from the F154 unit fitted to the 488 and
which was recently named International Engine
of the Year for the fourth year running. Ferrari
describes the SF90 V8 as all-new; capacity is
up from 3902 to 3990cc thanks to a wider bore,