You sexy fin
The Roma shuns
downforce-making
bodywork in favour
of stylistic purity, but
has a pop-up spoiler
in the rear screen.God is enhancer
The latest evolution
of the Ferrari
Dynamic Enhancer
and Side Slip Control
make for a thrilling
but controllable ride.QFERRARI ROMA £170,984 / stuff.tv/Roma
ecent Ferraris have
been all about focus
and aggression, with
the romance of the post-war
era much missed. The Roma is
a reminder of Federico Fellini’s
Italy: of Vespas and negronis
and throwing coins in the Trevi
fountain. Design chief Flavio
Manzoni describes this as “a
Formula 1 car in evening dress”,
and it’s the most handsome
Ferrari in decades.
From the driver’s seat, you
see the front wings sweep
evocatively either side of the
V8 engine at your feet; but this
is a thoroughly modern design,
with a clean digital twin-cockpit
cabin, LED lights that are thin at
the front and look like gems on
the rear, and a body-coloured
grille likely to become a design
cue for the next decade.
Ferrari hopes this less shouty
machine will appeal to Porsche
and Bentley owners – they
expect 70% of customers to
be new to the brand. But it’s still
a bruiser – a muscle car that’s
been to finishing school.GEARS IN HEAVEN
Most of the components are
new, including the re-worked
twin-turbo V8, and there’s
absolutely zero turbo lag.
Nobody builds better engines
than Maranello. There’s a
new eight-speed gearbox
too, derived from that of the
SF90 Stradale hybrid hypercar,which switches gears in just
0.5 milliseconds.
This is the first Ferrari GT
to feature five settings on the
wheel-mounted ‘Manettino’
dial: Wet, Comfort, Sport, Race
and ESC-off. We had it in Race
mode for most of our driving
time – this is where Ferrari’s
clever Dynamic Enhancer tech
adjusts the brake pressure on
whichever wheel needs it.TURNING LOVE
The Roma is a docile cruiser,
but chuck it through the turns
and it’s a demon. This car is
completely wild to drive. It’s
tail-happy, as we learned very
quickly on the slippery B-roads
of Italy’s Piedmont region, butget the power down cleanly and
you’ll be catapulted from corner
to corner with savage thrust,
the car rotating on apexes with
the kind of balance normally
reserved for mid-engined
machines. Fortunately, the
steering is sharp.
For this performance and
packaging, the Roma is kind of
a bargain at £171k; but anyone
treating it as a ‘starter Ferrari’
might be caught out. Prepare
for some big holes in hedges
around Cheshire.Key specs
Engine 3.9L twin-turbo V8
Power 612bhp
0-62mph 3.4 secs
Top speed 199mphSTUFF SAYS Looks like an elegant Aston, drives like a red-blooded Ferrari +++++
R
GROUP TEST SUPERCARS