Actual Driving Impressions/Thoughts

Sorry I meant to say how he started with the Speciale!

 

Manzoni did flaps and gills on the PF designs at first and now he's all over the place. To each their own but have been disappointed in his work and likely not going to repurchase based on what's been coming out.

 

So first time out since I collected the car in the rain!
Sadly as my wife would say, I have spent some time in the car in the garage going through the menus etc.
Got to grips with them quite quickly and the touch controls I find work quite well. Interestingly I discovered the cabin heating is electric. Sat in the car playing and warm air comes out of the vents!!
Apple CarPlay works very well considering you don’t have a touch screen. Again the pad works well and you can easily switch back to the normal display with say Amazon music playing. I use the cplay2air for wireless CarPlay and it works perfectly.
So today weather was good, roads dry but 6 deg!
The car is just great to drive. The acceleration is just mad... I have a pista and this thing is just faster. The response is just... that’s electric motors for you.
The car, to me, doesn’t feel heavy. I was going into roundabouts and it just went where I pointed it. I am still getting to know the car I admit but it just goes. So what about round town... it’s a dream. Switches to eD and just glides.
Now this may be sacrilege..... I’m a techi.... the sound this thing makes as a warning to pedestrians is just erry.. love it

Brakes... you know what. They’re ok. Pleasantly surprised, and they can stop the car! Even on cold tyres!

one final point. I had the hi power sound system. In every other Ferrari (the Portofino was ok) that meant slightly better than average. My boys have fiestas that have b&o sound systems in that I was envious of..
Not so in the stradale. The sound is excellent. At last...

So do I like being in this car.. absolutely. Wonderful cabin. Wonderful to drive.
Life moves on, things change Ferrari have to move with the times and this is a hell of a platform to start from.
I wasn’t going to mention sound as, just me, I don’t by the car for sound. I want performance and handling and, let’s face it, the ability to use these things in the real world. The sound is loud on start up... more than the pista and the sound is piped in I believe and sounds like a modern Ferrari! It’s not a v8 v12 with no cats or filters or turbos etc but so what...

As always just my views and sure I’ll get shot down

 

@Gcsdave behind the steering wheel of a SF90 sounds like a wonderful place to be on the street! Thank you for sharing some of your driving experiences in the new SF90 Stradale, here. Especially as there is a long line of drivers behind you waiting to get their chance behind the wheel to...

 

We should never forget, especially in these awful times how lucky we are.... first world problems of deciding which super car we prefer....

 

Did you ever have a listen to the standard SF90 speaker system? Especially for the portofino I found that the hifi system was somehow more flat and empty compared to the standard.

 

No I didn’t. I went for the uprated on both cars.
The 430 and 458 were standard. Oh dear.
The 488 I got the uprated one as I did in the pista... hmm
The Portofino uprated one is quite good. Sf90 very happy with...
Let’s hope they offer map updates...

 

Thank you for sharing your impressions and also you are right, we are a fortunate bunch for sure. Its hard for me to wrap my head around a car being even faster than Pista but I believe you!


Sent from my iPad using FerrariChat

 

How true about great fortune. Memories of early post-college life with my university friends in our shared 1983 Oldsmobile 98 where one of us had to hold the glove box closed on all turns or its contents would empty. To use the turn signal, you had to be the electronic relay and use your hand and move the lever up and down at whatever rate you wanted to signify you were turning. And you needed more people on the left side when driving as the suspension was so screwed up the car would tilt too much to the right. Also, the occasional carburetor / injector flames up into the hood that might occur after you started the car. Then you only needed to get out of the car to pop the hood after you turned off the ignition to make sure it was not a runaway fire. Luckily, it never was. We survived and I am fortunate to be writing this post with fun people like yourselves that love this brand.............

....forgot one thing....That Olds 98 did have a lot of sound!

 

Ok, so I was a massive sceptic on the SF90 due to its weight, looks (in pics - not real life) and $s - bang for buck. I drove the car today and I must say I am SUPREMELY impressed. I could not feel the weight, the brakes were superb and the e/H/Track modes worked brilliantly. To say its fast is an understatement!!. It felt nimble and the steering was excellent. I did not have much seat time (and will get another extended drive on a track) but from the limited drive I might be up all night on the configurator!!

 

like I said ...

 

At What dealers are you guys driving the car? I’m a potential buyer and would like a
Go.

 

Not in the US

 

Yes, I know, already posted in "picture and news thread", but it belongs in 'driving impressions'.



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putting AWD to the test?


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Initial impression he seemed to enjoy it- albeit too brief

 

Thank you for your honest feedback and having the strength to walk back from your initial opinion and sharing it with us (few people do this in honest enough manner). Cheers!

 

Lol....yessss

 

The guy’s reaction and face says it all. Pretty funny.

 

I think there's an SF90 vs. 765LT drag race coming up on DragTimes. Let's hope the Ferrari wins!

 

I hope so.

 

Here is experience on my first 200 miles on the SF90. Just for reference and context, I love driving my TdF, 812, and Pista and still the 458 . Plus I love the Challenge car. I am going to do a comparision to driving my TdF. Because I think they are the most different. Everything I wrote below is just IMO.

I list these cars specifically to show the time range of cars I own. I am not in the old world of vintage. On the newer side, sooner or later, I will be in some of the 90s NA cars as I love some of them I have test driven.

Now let me tell you that sound is a big thing to me and engine response is as well.

Ok, onto the SF90. Wow, it is a different and new universe for Ferrari. I love it. It is very different than the land of the TdF. I love the driving experience of the TdF. It is different. TdF is like a raw, controllable symphony of nuclear explosions that you can hear, feel, and tell. But you better be paying attention...because they are nuclear explosions.

The SF90....to me it was like Pista++++++ in terms of power and acceleration. But it is more in other dimensions. The AWD just adds a dimension of to apply the power in a nimble fashion that adds some of those + signs to my Pista comment above. The brakes are great. Real stopping power. Great feel through them. I liked the brakes more than my Pista's brakes. Engine response in the qualify and performance mode is scary strong. I can feel that the car is heavier than the Pista. And the Pista has a degree of sharpness and ability to put the car that none of my others cars can match.

The AWD is very well integrated, close to invisible, and adds to the feeling of a very nimble car that shrinks around you and the weight just disappears. Similar to how RWS was used in the 812 to give virtual short wheelbase. It definitely feels like it is in a weight class lower than the 812.

I was concerned about visibility out the rear window. It is pretty similar to most Ferrari's I have owned. Handling and steering turn in ....perfectly set up for road use. But in switch back driving in the hills, seemed to sharpen up. Manettino difference on this car is more pronounced. This car seems to get better the faster I drove it in more challenging circumstances.

The engine response: the blend of the e-drive with turbo and NA is incredibly well done. In the hybrid mode, the car just automagically and cleanly switches from NA to edrive and back. Sometimes staying in edrive is helpful for me as I always run low on fuel as I don't like going to gas stations. I surprised myself that I actually liked the edrive mode. It allowed me take a business call without the other person hearing anything. Also, I never thought I would write my impressions and say that. Performance and qual mode is where its at. Qual mode is amazing. Combing this mode with race on manettino, then you are in the performance zone. You have lots of sound then. Then you have the recent Ferrari universe feeling. With qual, its in the new universe.

You can DD this car with the hybrid mode if you want. You can use this hybrid mode if you have a headache. Or if the passenger says they have a headache. You can use the power performance and qual modes when you want huge power. Just like you would for a normal fun drive with a Ferrari. The SF90 seems to be more widely useful. Except for luggage space.

Now the question of sound. To me, its louder and better than Pista sound. I was surprised by the volume of the sound. Lots of it. The quality of the sound is ...Pista like. Not NA like. That doesn't mean it is bad. Just different. It think it uses the hot tube system to get engine sound into the cockpit. Externally, the car sounds loud as well at startup and driveaway. The edrive mode's produced sound is Star Trek-ish on purpose for pedestrian warning. So I was pleasantly surprised and happy with the sound. Not Tdf level sound. But what is. But its fun.

What I didn't like: The digital dashboard has too much going on. It would be great to be able to remove functions. For example, I never use the Nav map. A couple of other features I could just do without on the dashboard. The good news is that can be accomplished through a software update allowing some dashboard features to be turned on and off.

One great feature is the function to project either speed or rpm/gear onto the windshield so you don't have to look down.

Is it fun: My most fun car to date is the TdF. It is hair raising and feels like I am riding on a dragon. The SF90 feels like I have great driving control of a vehicle to be explored. It's not as raw as the TdF but it is just as fun for me.


For me here is another kind of fun: what amount of necessary attention is needed. This is also affected by kind of road surface, weather conditions, etc. I have found that integration of the outside world into the cockpit with the challenge and control of driving is what creates fun for me.

The TdF is like riding a dragon. It requires every neuron at full attention. That creates a different kind of fun. A fun of full involvement. Because it's needed to extract all of the potential. From participating in Challenge, I found that this feeling of full involvement is both incredibly gratifying and also exhausting after a certain amount of time. Nothing like feeling all neurons and everything in your body involved in driving and racing experience. At the end though, I was exhausted. Having a background feeling some fear induces some fun for me. After all, this is racing experience. The TdF lives in this universe. It is a timeless Ferrari experience.

The SF90 made me feel a mind-car meld. It was also a master of difficult situations. I turned ESC off. Even more fun. Compared to the TdF, I would have less fear from spinning off the road and flying off a mountain in an SF90 on a bad surface in bad weather. I have a feeling of comfort that I can push the SF90 further and further. I do not feel close to the limit of this car yet. These performance limits to this car open up a new universe. It is in this new universe's boundary where all neurons will need to be at full attention. The capabilities of the powertrain, braking, AWD and car control systems take this car to a far far boundary. It is out in that part of this new SF90 universe where challenge and control create an incredible amount of fun. This feels like a new Ferrari experience. Not bad at all. But its like flying the newest most capable fighter jets....astounding once you allow yourself and you are capable of pushing the car.

So that's my impression of the SF90 using a comparision to the SF90. IMO, the 2 most different cars are the 2 most fun I am driving right now.

Thanks for reading all of this.