Ferrari F80: the most powerful road Ferrari of all time

This is the highly anticipated Ferrari F80, the seasonal reveal of the Italian manufacturer’s long line of limited edition flagship sports cars, announcing new design and technology before spreading to the rest of the model range. Just like the recent McLaren W1, the F80 is not just an engineering masterpiece, but an instant collector’s item and a rapidly appreciating item.

As we discovered when we launched the McLaren earlier this month, the world of supercars is a world of superlatives, where being lighter, faster and more powerful is a prerequisite for any new debut. Ferrari will build 799 examples of the F80 and ownership will be reserved for a very exclusive club, usually those who have invested and spent heavily on the brand in the past.

It’s a world of strictly limited editions that help drive demand and keep value high. This condition was originally regulated in the racing rules – the legendary 1984 Ferrari GTO began as a road version of a car developed for a specific racing series, for which the FIA ​​(Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) required 200 examples to be built for homologation purposes . A few more were built later to meet demand, but the idea of ​​setting a production number helped polish the image.

Just three years later, the Ferrari F40 was announced. Originally 400 copies were planned; almost triple what was eventually built. A production run of 399 examples was also announced for the 2002 Ferrari Enzo, with another hundred units built until production ended in 2004.

It’s hard to blame Ferrari for wanting to accommodate so many eager buyers, especially when the car starts at around £3.1 million. Assuming you’ve passed the potential ownership test and have access to the funds, what will F80 ownership have in store for 799 lucky enthusiasts?

The heart of the new car is a V6 engine coupled to a hybrid system. The total output of 1200 hp makes it the most powerful road-going Ferrari ever built (that all-important superlative), and the performance figures prove it. The F80 accelerates to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 2.15 seconds and doubles that time in 5.75 seconds. From 200 km/h it comes to a standstill in less than 100 meters. The top speed is 350 km/h (217 mph). To achieve all of this and give the machine “an uncompromising level of usability on the road where it can be driven without any problem,” the technology used is fearsome.

To fit all this into the low mid-engine layout, the F80 had to adopt a very technical aesthetic, with angular, vertical aero elements, fearsome grilles and splitters, and a massive active rear wing. In the interior, the layout is completely focused on the driver, which is further emphasized by the different colored seat covers. Ferrari admits that this gives the car a “single-seater feel”, adding that the F80 is an “architecture that we would call ‘A+'”.

There are visual echoes of the recently released Ferrari 12Cilindri, although the F80 is technically very different, with the same blacked out headlight band and notched vents and ducts. That’s pretty much the connection, because the rest of the F80’s DNA comes straight from the racetrack. In particular, there are direct improvements to Ferrari’s 499P Le Mans car, particularly in the engine and drivetrain components, as well as numerous lessons learned from Formula 1.

While McLaren’s latest foray into the supercar arena is powered by a V8 hybrid, Ferrari expects to charge another million pounds by eliminating two cylinders, the brand’s powerhouse. Flavio Manzoni and his design team went above and beyond to make the F80 look as futuristic as possible, from the butterfly doors and blacked-out body panels to the racing-inspired steering wheel.

The F80 manages to stand out from the crowd without sacrificing elegant proportions and visual drama. It doesn’t have a classically beautiful shape like some of its predecessors, but that’s unlikely to dent its claim to supercar supremacy, at least for now.

Ferrari F80, Ferrari.com, @Ferrari