At some extent the place many internal-combustion engines are at or nearing their rev restrict, the Ferrari F80’s twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 is simply getting limbered up for its manic scramble towards its 9000-rpm redline. The shift lights streak from the left throughout the highest of the squared-off steering wheel, crimson after which blue, and also you’d higher pull the paddle for an upshift as quickly as your mind registers the primary flash of the LED, as a result of the 888-hp peak arrives at 8750 rpm, and the rev limiter steps in at 9200.
Your ears—together with the elements assigned to the vestibular system—will not warn you of the upcoming rev minimize as a result of the V-6 sounds and feels prefer it’ll maintain pulling to fifteen,000 rpm, the restrict for a recent Method 1 automotive. That is not a coincidence, as a result of the F80, like its predecessors all the way in which again to the 288 GTO, deliberately evokes F1. However there’s a main distinction—with 1184 horsepower, the F80 is extra highly effective than a contemporary F1 automotive.
And that is why our first expertise behind the wheel is at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, close to Italy’s Adriatic coast, somewhat than Ferrari’s personal Fiorano check monitor. The F80 wants room to roam, and Misano, a 2.6-mile MotoGP monitor, provides the lengthy straights and quick corners to adequately train a automotive that generates 2315 kilos of downforce at 155 mph and employs real-deal racing brakes. Misano additionally has extensive gravel traps and tons of runoff, which assist tamp down the concerns of each driver and producer when the automotive in query is the newest within the line of elite-of-the-elite Ferraris and can doubtless value $4 million to $5 million, relying on one’s urge for food for choices on high of the $3,735,000 place to begin.
To set the temper, Ferrari has a 288 GTO and a 499P hypercar parked in pit lane, together with a handful of F80s—most of them painted in signature Rosso Supercar crimson, a deep shimmering crimson, however one seems completely menacing in shiny, darkish, bare carbon fiber. We’ll take one lap to heat up the tires, adopted by three scorching laps and a cool-down lap that is not actually obligatory for cooling—even with a European warmth wave sending monitor floor temperatures above 150 levels Fahrenheit—however for recharging the hybrid system’s battery.
About that: The F80’s 1184-hp complete output contains 296 horsepower contributed by a trio of electrical motors, with two on the entrance axle and one between the engine and the eight-speed dual-clutch automated transmission. However that four-digit web horsepower stat features a caveat, which is related solely within the very particular case of steady road-course lapping. We estimate the F80’s usable battery capability is roughly 1.5 kWh, which is not sufficient to make sure that the electrical motors may be fed below all circumstances, so on a monitor like Misano, it’s a must to determine whether or not to go all-out for one lap or select your spots to deploy the electrical thrust to greatest impact, lap after lap, with out draining the battery. Why not simply use a much bigger battery? For the straightforward cause that the added weight would make the automotive slower in each circumstance besides steady lapping. And the 799 fortunate people who will personal an F80 most likely will not be getting into their automobiles in endurance races.
However right here, with our repeated scorching laps, we’ll wish to use Enhance Optimization mode. To set it up, you drive the automotive on a lap of a given monitor, taking the correct strains, and it creates a map in its digital mind and identifies the place and for the way lengthy it ought to deploy full hybrid energy to greatest impact—assume rocketing out of corners somewhat than pulling arduous by way of fifth gear down a straight. Ferrari has already mapped Misano, so we merely cosy into the four-point harness, fireplace the engine, and head out.
One among Ferrari’s check drivers rides shotgun to name out monitor steering. Regardless of a cockpit 2.2 inches narrower than that of the LaFerrari, which was no Cadillac Brougham itself, we each match, due to the uneven seating association. Within the F80, the motive force will get an actual adjustable seat and the passenger sits on the padded carbon-fiber tub, barely decrease and rearward, so your shoulders do not line up with the motive force’s. Even the colour scheme is uneven, with a crimson driver’s seat and black upholstery on the passenger’s facet, a visible trick to indicate a single-seater—or a minimum of to highlight the motive force, who’s presumably the type of particular person accustomed to that type of standing. On the outside, the roof, A-pillars, and tops of the doorways put on darkish colours, highlighting the teardrop form of the cockpit in opposition to the extensive, angular shoulders of the bodywork. You’ll be able to order the entire thing body-color, however Ferrari would actually favor that you simply did not.
Out on the monitor, the primary impression is of immense limits, particularly below braking. This automotive is fitted with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2R tires developed particularly for the F80 (extra-strong shoulders, for example, to deal with the large downforce), and pure mechanical grip is bounce-your-helmet-off-the-window sturdy. Throw in a ton-plus of downforce, and put together to make a noise like faulty bagpipes as your breath is squeezed out of your chest by what Ferrari claims is greater than 2.0 g’s of deceleration off the entrance straight. The CCM-R Plus brakes, constructed by Brembo Racing and used on the 296 Problem race automobiles, use long-strand carbon within the rotors and are in a position to dissipate warmth 4 occasions as successfully as commonplace carbon brakes. Which signifies that, for all sensible functions, you’ll be able to punish the brakes as arduous as you want and you may run out of gas or tread earlier than they present the slightest signal of fatigue.
These indomitable brakes are enhanced by lively aero and an lively suspension that cooperate to maximise grip always. Some street-legal automobiles that make massive downforce are likely to go a bit catawampus when braking off a straight right into a hairpin as a result of dive on the entrance finish upsets the airflow below the automotive, which is essential to sustaining downforce. This isn’t an issue for the F80, due to its Multimatic lively dampers, which neatly zero out dive and maintain the automotive’s underbody sq. to the pavement even below ferocious masses. The trick dampers don’t fully smother bumps and physique roll, nevertheless—Ferrari intentionally tuned the automotive to not ship a “magic carpet” trip, within the identify of suggestions.
Whereas the dampers are doing their factor, mechanically adjusting trip peak and angle, the rear wing is consistently various its angle of assault from low drag to excessive downforce, and the powertrain is seamlessly managing hybrid energy deployment, torque vectoring, and the lag-free electrified turbochargers, amongst a lot else. The wild factor is that, from the motive force’s seat, the F80 feels easy and approachable. You are braking and steering and throttling out of corners at a preposterous tempo, unaware of all of the engineering magic that is optimizing the expertise a whole lot of occasions per second. It is simple to construct an advanced automotive however orders of magnitude tougher to make an advanced automotive really feel easy.
There are solely a few locations on Misano the place you are actually reminded of the F80’s explicit nuances. One among them is Flip 11, a sixth-gear right-hander that absolutely may be taken flat-out however was spooky even with a elevate, just because it is so quick. You simply should remind your self that this automotive can nook tougher in sixth gear than it could actually in second, and that is not the same old order of issues.
Additionally, on the corners main onto straights, you’ll be able to really feel Enhance Optimization kick in after which taper off, and there is positively a giant distinction when that further 296 horsepower goes away. However should you’re doing one lap for glory, that is not a problem. Nor, paradoxically, is it the place most F80s will undoubtedly report the majority of their miles: the road.
On the Street
Waze ought to have a particular “F80 in Italy” setting that avoids roads which are narrower than two automotive widths or extra generally utilized by tractors than vehicles. However should you do end up on such roads since you’ve screwed up Ferrari’s meticulously deliberate route, the F80 is a surprisingly forgiving companion. It feels large, sure—it is almost two toes longer than its 288 GTO progenitor and 81.1 inches extensive. However the steering is exact, and the view ahead is outlined by these massive entrance fenders. As for the view to the rear, a smart man as soon as mentioned, “What’s behind me shouldn’t be vital.” The place you’d count on a rear window, there’s as an alternative a fitted suitcase snugged up in opposition to the roof. The rearview-mirror picture is from a digital camera feed. If video from rearview cameras makes you queasy, flip it off and simply drive quicker.
On the road, you at all times have all 1184 horsepower on faucet since you’ll by no means discover a straightaway lengthy sufficient to exhaust the battery. Ferrari claims 0-to-124 mph in 5.8 seconds, and the F80 feels each bit that fast once you pull out to move a meandering Fiat Panda. The Multimatic dampers, set to their bumpy-road mode, do an excellent job of smothering lumpy pavement, and the front-axle-raise operate is a godsend every time you might want to pull onto the shoulder.
Furthermore, all these design and engineering choices made on the altar of pace—the towering rear wing that deploys at 50 mph, the carbon-fiber wheels, the S-duct on the entrance finish that funnels air from the underbody up over the windshield—contribute to supreme visible drama on the road. The F80 simply seems completely bonkers on the market on a public street, its underbody venturis vacuuming leaves off the pavement and taking pictures them out into the slipstream aft of the diffuser, the blacked-out masks throughout the entrance finish connoting an inhuman and probably malevolent intelligence.
Which, in a method, harks again to the glowering F40, a bedroom-poster automotive if ever there was one. However in terms of Ferrari’s halo automobiles, there isn’t any template. They’ve had turbo V-8s, naturally aspirated V-12s, hybrid methods, and now a V-6 with all-wheel drive. They’ve seemed sinuous and brutal and geometric, at all times of their period but additionally standing other than it, privileged with a view from above. The F80 suits into that lineage of automobiles beholden to no preconceptions. It is neither self-consciously futuristic nor retro, however one look and you realize precisely what it’s: the final word Ferrari.
Futureproof
What do you do when, 50 years from now, your F80 wants its high-voltage battery changed? Ferrari has a plan for that, and it is already in impact for the LaFerrari. Ferrari will construct you a brand new battery, sized for the F80’s case, however use no matter trendy chemistry is prevalent on the time. Given the progress in batteries, an F80 proprietor would possibly fairly count on their automotive to really enhance with age.