The first front-engined Ferrari soft top in more than 50 years
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For the first time in more than 50 years, you can, if you are sufficiently wealthy of course, buy a front engine grand touring Ferrari with a soft-top. A particularly fast soft-top, in fact, because one of the new Roma Spider’s prime specifications — it’s right there in bold at the top of Ferrari’s latest news missive — is that the top can be dropped in just 13.5 seconds. Yes, amongst supercar owners it appears that there’s bragging rights to be had even for the disposing of your convertible’s top.
Of course, the numbers we should be paying attention to are 612-horsepower — that’s the peak output of Ferrari’s venerable 3.9-litre Twin Turbo V8 in this guise — and the 3.4 second sprint to 100 kilometres all that power engenders. Or, if you live somewhere where you can “exercise” all that power — Italy is a fine place to let loose — enough to propel the slippery 1,556 kilogram cabriolet to more than 320 kilometres an hour.
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The Roma, being the gentleman’s Ferrari, though is about more than just raw power. To imbue a little civility in the delivery of all that torque, for instance, those twin turbochargers are controlled by something Ferrari calls “Variable Boost Management.” That’s just a fancy way of saying that the 3.9L’s boost is limited in the lower gears lest all that power melt the rear 285/35ZR20 gumballs. In fact, the Roma’s maximum torque of 561 pound-feet is only available in 7th and 8th gear, those pound-feet diminished in the lower gears. Ferrari says this is in a quest for “smooth, consistent pickup.” I say let’s break out the computers and reflash those ECUs for WFO response at all speeds!
Said eight-speed is based on the same gearbox as the top-of-the-line SF90 Stradale, albeit with the addition of a reverse gear — the hybridized SF90 uses electric motors to back up — and while Ferrari boasts quicker shift times, it also boasts the gearbox’s taller gear ratios that improve fuel economy. Ferrari also claims the clutch module has been made smaller and more robust. You know, just in case you take my advice and reflash that Variable Boost Management traction nannie for more urge.
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Like the Roma hardtop, the Spider’s Manettino has five positions to customize its handling and traction-control settings including a “Race” mode. That said, this is Maranello’s boulevardier and, while there have been aerodynamic enhancements — a pair of vortex generators in front and a rejigging of the computer-controlled rear spoiler — that garner the soft-top the same high-speed downforce as the coupe version, this is one Ferrari not aimed at the track. If the Roma coupe is anything to judge by, the Spider will offer superior road manners but won’t compromise suspension compliance for the unlikelihood that someone is going to “track” a cabrio. That said, the Spider is only 84 kilograms heavier than the coupe and boasts the same 3.4s sprint to 100 km/h and, since much of that weight went into reinforcing its roofless chassis, we shouldn’t expect much downgrading of its handling either.
Driving expects to test those performance bona fides sometime in the early fall with Spider deliveries to start near the end of 2023. Ferrari is releasing no pricing, but one shouldn’t expect any chances from CAD$300,000 if you’re serious about shopping the new ragtop from Maranello.
David Booth
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