The Ferrari F80 continues the corporate’s custom of utilizing supercars to showcase tech

That is the a lot anticipated Ferrari F80, the seasonal reveal of the Italian producer’s lengthy lineage of flagship, limited-edition sports activities vehicles that heralds new design and know-how earlier than it cascades down into the remainder of the vary. Identical to the latest McLaren W1, the F80 isn’t just a technical tour-de-force, however an instantaneous collectible and fast-appreciating asset.

As we famous when the McLaren was revealed earlier this month, the world of supercars is one in all superlatives, the place being lighter, quicker, and extra highly effective is a prerequisite for any new debut. Ferrari will construct 799 examples of the F80 and possession is reserved for a really unique membership, often those that have dug deep and spent freely with the model up to now.

It’s a world of strictly restricted editions, serving to stimulate demand and hold worth up. This situation was initially ruled by racing guidelines – the legendary Ferrari GTO from 1984 started life because the road-going model of a automobile designed for a particular race sequence, with the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Car) requiring 200 examples be constructed for homologation functions. Within the occasion, just a few extra had been constructed to accommodate demand, however the thought of fixing a manufacturing quantity helped burnish the picture.

Simply three years later, the Ferrari F40 was introduced. Initially 400 examples had been deliberate; practically triple that had been finally constructed. Once more, the 2002 Ferrari Enzo was introduced as a run of 399 vehicles, with one other hundred constructed by the point manufacturing led to 2004.

You possibly can hardly blame Ferrari for desirous to accommodate so many keen consumers, particularly when the automobile begins at round £3.1m. Offering you’ve handed the potential possession take a look at and have entry to the funds, what’s going to F80 possession have in retailer for 799 fortunate fans?

On the coronary heart of the brand new automobile is a V6 mated to a hybrid system. The overall energy output of 1200hp makes this probably the most highly effective road-going Ferrari ever made (that all-important superlative), with efficiency figures to again it up. The F80 will get to 100km/h (62mph) in 2.15 seconds, and double that 5.75 seconds. It would then cease from 200km/h in lower than 100 metres. Most velocity is 350km/h (217mph). To realize all this, and provides the machine ‘uncompromising ranges of usability on the street, the place it may be pushed with ease,’ the know-how deployed is fearsome.

To accommodate all this inside the low-slung, mid-engine structure, the F80 has needed to tackle a really technical aesthetic, with squared-off, vertical aero parts, fearsome grilles and splitters and an enormous energetic rear wing. Inside, the structure is totally driver-centric, accentuated by the completely different colored seat materials. Ferrari admits this provides the automobile a ‘single-seater really feel’, including that the F80 is an ‘structure that we’d name “1+”’.

There are visible echoes of the just lately launched Ferrari 12Cilindri, though the F80 has a really completely different technical arrange, with the identical blacked-out headlight band and notched vents and ducts. That’s about so far as the connection goes, as a result of the remainder of the F80’s DNA comes straight from the observe. Specifically, there are straight lifts from Ferrari’s 499P Le Mans automobile, significantly with the engine and powertrain parts, in addition to loads of learnings from Method 1.

Whereas McLaren’s newest foray into the supercar enviornment is powered by a hybrid V8, Ferrari reckons it may possibly cost one other million quid whereas taking away two cylinders, such is the facility of the model. Flavio Manzoni and his design crew have gone all out to make the F80 look as futuristic as doable, from its butterfly doorways and blacked out physique panels to the race-inspired steering wheel.

The F80 manages to set itself other than the pack with out sacrificing elegant proportions and visible drama. It’s not a classically stunning form like a few of its forebears, however that’s unlikely to hamper its declare to supercar supremacy, no less than in the interim.

Ferrari F80, Ferrari.com, @Ferrari