Replacement Update for SF90 (849 Testarossa revealed)

I absolutely love this spec. Congratulations!

 

BEAUTIFUL, the SF90 looked great in greys and black. I got white which wasn't the ideal color. On my coupe I spec'd blue interior, on the spider I spec'd green.

 

On the 849, I told me dealership to put me down for a spider, pending pricing.

 

Think I’m gone do the same tomorrow !

 

I've heard mid-5s for coupe and low 6s for spider thrown around, but no exact numbers yet - someone else in the other thread mentioned similar. Think ~5% higher than SF90, well below Revuelto starting prices.

 

Sorry i took a while to respond to your thoughtful post. The elise has really light steering and fantastic pivot. Possibly the one you drove had too big rites on the front or poor alignment. Normally the steering is fingertip light esp at any speed. The Alfa 4c on the other had had heavy steering. Yes the rover engine is low, but as you say they came up with much faster versions. What I like about a ligth lithe car is its immediacy esp on backroads, the immediate pivot, the ability to suddenly drop a bunch of speed. and frankly the small wdtha nd shortness of the car allows you to place it and carry speed you simply cant ina bigger car.Then there is the feeling of the car no so much as a tool but more as an extension of your physical being. With light weight and a very stiff tub the suspesion can articulate and maintain road contact over undulating surfaces (with an absence of slop) in a way a heavier and by necessity more stiffly sprung car cannot. Lastly with manual steering you can feel limits throught he wheel that is simply impossible with ps. This all leads to a hugely rewarding and faster backroad pace. Its not the scruff on the neck at all, more like a ballerina on their toes, very delicate and sharp or in swrd terms a rapier. .

Now I get the modern ferrai eps setup. My Alfa Gulia has the same ideal, super fast and sharp. Its an honest application of eps, not trying to fake analogue which so many others do, but an embracing of eps and what it can do, and that is something different and rewarding in its own way. Its certainly preferable to the fake heft and dead steering so many other new cars are afflicted with, the C8 corvette being an egregious offender. I think paddles are the way to go on track and frankly given modern roads and traffic paddles just make a car more useable more often. But each of these things is also part of a slippery slope of loss when you're on a sunday backroads drive.
To give a current analogy, many here esp in ferrai world believe an ev will lose the very soul of the car because of the way an ice motor vibrates sings to you etc etc. So if I wind the clock back, to a car that asks of you for your speed, and then rewards in spades is for road entertaining in a way that many moderns are not.

I like the sound of the motor even though an ev would be more direct and accurate in meeting out power not to mention faster accelerating, but it owuld quite obviously lack in other subjective ways.

I even like shifting, knowing the next bend coming up, my brain working ahead to select the gear I know Ill need or want, the dance of the hands and feet, the feel of the shifter like a rifle bolt, the steering telling me the surface of the road.. its me working the machine, the two coming into harmony, like playing a musical instrument however imperfectly as opposed to cranking up the stereo. I even like NA motors, cause you have to work them, but they also have this long long reach and pull that just keeps coming, whereas a turbo motor is whiz bang pop next gear even if faster.

I'm sure the 849 will have awesome steering, it will sound good as ferraris do and will drive all of a piece in a way McLaren's do not. I'm sure the acceleration will be mind bending and with the electrics there will be no lag. It also seems like maybe weight is under control Im reading below 3500lbs? Just to my way of thinking Id take it with a stick and a NA motor pref a v12, that way its more like a F50. To me its all about fun and visceral fun.

Ferrai these days seems about faster than everyone else and bleeding edge tech, thats cool, but its something different, no reason ferrari shouldn't make both types of cars, or put another way there is a reason why a manual 355 is worth way more than paddle or any 360, even though the 360 is an objectively better car.

Imo the 849 looks good, yes there are some awkward bits but one would need to see it A in the flesh, and B from the vantage point of someone standing to understand. The paint colors and the color of various bits will have a large effect. Lest not forget that when the 86 testarossa came out it was far from universally loved and it too did not have that classical harmony of form. .

 

You write really well and capture all the sensations well. For a few minutes I was in the car with you!

 

Thank you for your thorough and elaborate reply. It shows class to take the time and address your interlocutor with well structured arguments and in such a polite manner (the latter seems to be lacking sometimes in fchat). Fundamentally I agree with most of the things you said. I just have a different opinion about the feedback of unassisted racks (the Elise included), as I find them to have either too much "road noise", or being too slow, too heavy, or all of the above. I also think that manual Ferraris commanding a higher price than their F1 counterparts is a function of rarity and simplicity (cheaper to maintain). But this last part is a discussion for another topic. Pleasure to exchange thoughts in such a civilised manner.