First revealed in September this year, the Ferrari 849 Testarossa has now made its ASEAN debut in Bangkok, Thailand. Like the SF90 Stradale it replaces, the 849 Testarossa is available as both a coupe or convertible, the latter marked with a ‘Spider’ moniker.
While the new mid-engined sports car sits on the same platform as its predecessor, the exterior has been thoroughly overhauled with a focus on improving aerodynamics and cooling. Compared to the SF90, the 849 Testarossa generates a total of 415 kg of downforce at 250 km/h, which is 25 kg more than the SF90 Stradale, while cooling power for the powertrain and brakes is up by 15%.
At first glance, the design cue that immediately attracts eyeballs is the visor-like treatment on the face – per the 12Cilindri and F80 – that connects the headlamps. This is paired with a front bumper that is less pointy than on the SF90 and has an 18% larger front air intake to maximise air flow to the radiators that have an increased surface area.
The front bumper also comes with body-coloured flicks and a black splitter, with the front brake air intake integrated into the upper part of the duct and dedicated fairing of the oil pipe fixing bracket guaranteeing a 15% higher flow rate towards the front brake callipers.
Out of sight is the deflector below the lower wishbone that contributes to the ventilation of the disc. Meanwhile, the front underfloor serves up 35% of the total downforce generated has been redesigned to feature three pairs of cascading vortex generators.
Ferrari also points out that the larger splitter is responsible for 10% of the front downforce and that the air vents on the wheel arches and underfloor have been repositioned and optimised. Down the sides, the doors have a more deeply sculpted upper section to increase airflow by 30% to the intercoolers, which themselves have a 19% larger surface area. These side inlets also feed air through the channel scooped out in the door to the rear brake ducts and engine intake.
Compared to the SF90, the main crease line is even sharper on the 849 Testarossa, and this leads to a twin tail design inspired by the 512 S race car from the 1970s. The two wing sections passively contribute 10% of the downforce at the rear, with an active rear spoiler – derived from the SF90 Stradale and 296 GTB – further helping the cause of taming the air.
Transitioning between High Downforce and Low Drag configurations takes less than a second, with the kinematic solution developed for the active spoiler now two kg lighter than before. In its High Downforce configuration, the spoiler provides as much as 100 kg of downforce at 250 km/h.
Measures have also been taken to extract air from the engine compartment, including the three slots on the side trim and a vent on the rear bumper. You’ll also notice the two slots on the rear deck near the active spoiler and three more on the rear bumper to provide ventilation for the engine compartment and cooling of the electronics.
The Purosangue served as an inspiration for the rear wheel arch, which helps to evacuate the high-pressure air in the wheel housing and reduce drag. This works with the side flank intakes that see a 70% increase in airflow to the rear brake callipers – Ferrari states a 2% increase in overall brake cooling at the front and 15% at the rear.
All these airflow and cooling optimisations are meant to meet the 15% increase in thermal energy dissipation needed to keep the uprated powertrain in check. The SF90 recipe is carried over for the 849, so there’s a dry-sumped 4.0 litre twin-turbo V8 augmented by three electric motors, with one for each front wheel and a MGU-K (Motor Generator Unit, Kinetic) sandwiched between the petrol engine and eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox at the rear.
The V8 (internally known as the F154FC) on its own makes 830 PS at 7,500 rpm and 842 Nm at 6,500 rpm, which is 50 PS and 42 Nm more than the V8 in the SF90. A new, larger turbocharger, cylinder heads, engine block, exhaust manifolds, intake plenums, titanium fasteners, valve train system and fuel rail are responsible for the increased output.
The turbo, the largest ever fitted to a Ferrari, comes with F80-derived low-friction bearings and is specifically calibrated to cut down on turbo lag to a negligible point. Lessons gained from the 296 GT3 are used for the heat shield on the turbine casing to manage the turbo’s thermals. To offset the added weight of the big blower, other parts of the engine are subject to a diet, including the camshafts and the use of titanium fasteners.
The electrified portion of the powertrain is largely the same, with the three electric motors contributing a total of 220 PS. A revision is the lithium-ion battery that has a reduced capacity of 7.45 kWh (7.9 kWh on the SF90), although it still manages to provide the same 25 km of all-electric range thanks to further optimisation – the 849 Testarossa is effectively front-wheel drive in this mode and maxes out at 130 km/h.
The end result of tinkering with the plug-in hybrid powertrain is a total system output of 1,050 PS, which Ferrari says is an absolute record for a production Ferrari. “This car is conceived for the most demanding clients; those who want the very best from a Ferrari,” the Italian carmaker wrote in its release.
It is for this reason that the ‘Testa Rossa’ name was brought back. As the company explains, the name was first used on the 500 TR in 1956 and describes the colour of the cam covers on some of its most extreme, high-performance and iconic racing engines – the name translates to ‘red head’ in Italian.
Indeed, when you lift the engine cover, you can see the red cam covers fitted to the 849’s engine, so the decision to bring a name that most associate with the strake-heavy hero car of Miami Vice fame in the mid 1980s is purely to refer to a model at the very top of the Ferrari standard range (discounting the specials like the F80). What about the ‘849’ then? Well, the explanation is much simpler: ‘8’ for the number of cylinders while ‘49’ refers to the 499-cc displacement of each of them.
Short history lesson over, the powertrain also gets reworked calibration for better driving comfort to complement the increased performance, with better synergy between the electrical gubbins and combustion engine. The electric motors are subject to new cooling maps to ensure they deliver consistent performance under heavy load (i.e. intense driving).
Other areas of the car that are improved over the SF90 Stradale include beefier Brembo brakes (larger carbon-ceramic discs, redesigned callipers), recalibrated regenerative braking for better feedback and consistency as well as the implementation of ABS Evo and FIVE.
The latter is the Ferrari Integrated Vehicle Estimator (FIVE) digital system, which creates a real-time digital twin of the vehicle, accurately estimating performance characteristics like speed (within 1 km/h margin) and yaw angle (within one degree margin) that cannot be directly measured. The V8 also makes itself heard even more now, while the SF90 XX Stradale’s gear shift strategy is applied to the 849 Testarossa to optimise output in low and mid ranges
Proof that Ferrari’s efforts have paid off comes in the form of lap times. Around the company’s Fiorano track, the 849 Testarossa managed a time of 1:17.5 minutes, which is 1.2 seconds quicker than the SF90 Stradale and only 0.2 seconds slower than the hardcore SF90 XX Stradale, although the latter sits in the ‘Special Series’ category and is limited in terms of units offered.
As for other performance metrics, the 849 takes 2.25 seconds to get from 0-100 km/h, with the sprint to 200 km/h requiring 6.3 seconds. These figures are slightly faster that the 2.5 and 6.7 seconds on the SF90, while top speed is listed at above 330 km/h.
Finally moving inside the 849 Testarossa, there’s a new steering wheel that brings back physical buttons and the gear selector (styled to look like classic gated shifters) is positioned higher up on a central pillar, much like in the F80.
The improved ergonomics is coupled with better accessibility thanks to the reduced width of the bottom of the door panel and adjacent areas, which frees up additional space for the rear bench and the passenger-side glove box. On that mention, your co-pilot now has a touchscreen to fiddle with.
Customers can choose whether they want comfort-oriented seats, which come with a sculptural treatment of the upholstery and styling that matches the geometry of the cockpit, or carbon-fibre racing seats with sporty side bolsters to hold you in place against strong lateral forces.
Other options include the Assetto Fiorano specification, which piles on the carbon-fibre and titanium to trim the overall weight by 30 kg. Specific components in this package include 20-inch carbon-fibre wheels and lightweight tubular seat upholstered in black Alcantara that saves around 18 kg. You also get two twin wings instead of twin tails, larger front flicks, an additional pair of vortex generators for the front underfloor, stiffer Multimatic shocks with lighter springs and more.
GALLERY: Ferrari 849 Testarossa, in Rosso Fiammante
GALLERY: Ferrari 849 Testarossa Spider, in Giallo Modena
GALLERY: Ferrari 849 Testarossa, Assetto Fiorano package, in Grigio Titanio
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