Wraps are off the Ferrari F80, the spiritual successor to the legendary F40, the most extreme road car Ferrari have ever produced. And the performance numbers are going to blow your mind. 1200hp (1184bhp). 0-100kmph in 2.15 seconds. That makes the Ferrari F80 the fastest accelerating ICE road car in the world!
But first, the lineage. If you follow cars on Instagram and not Viral Bhayani, all the speculation around the F40 successor will not have missed your attention. And this is it. The F40 celebrated 40 years of Ferrari. The F80 comes 40 years after F40, actually 37 years after it, and it follows in a lineage so epic you will fracture your jaw, as it hits the floor so hard.
The lineage starts with the 288 GTO, a homologation special – Gran Turismo Omologato, built for Group B motorsport and was one of the fastest street legal cars of its time with a 5 second 0-100kmph time and top speed of 300kmph. Only 272 were produced. Next is the car that I’d chop my left hand off to drive. The F40 was evolved from the GTO, the last car Enzo had a direct connection with. It was als the first production car to crack 200 miles an hour – 320kmph. And for me personally the greatest car ever made. The savage beauty, all the NACA ducts, the iconic 80s supercar shape, the big wing, the viciousness of the twin-turbo V8 engine in the days of monster lag. I’ve never driven one, the day I drive one is the day I will retire, happily, but I am told the hair-trigger throttle response, the total absence of any traction or braking assistance, make this an exhilarating but also nerve-shredding driving experience. One day I’ll drive one, and then I’m out of here.
Moving on, the F50 was introduced in 1995. It was the first Ferrari with a carbon composite monocoque chassis using a lot of the lessons from F1. And it had a naturally aspirated V12, the F40 was a turbo-V8. Only 349 were made, unlike the F40 which was supposed to be capped at 400 but eventually 1311 were made. The follow up was The Enzo, with its F1 nose and V12 engine. It was Ferrari’s first real hypercar. Fitting for a car that carries the weight of its founders name and it celebrated Ferrari and Michael Schumacher’s iron reign over Formula 1. Limited to 400 units. And last of the supercars, La Ferrari, The Ferrari, the first Ferrari hybrid with F1-style KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) making it the fastest and most powerful Ferrari up to that time, limited to 499.
The F80 is a continuation of this incredible bloodline, and reflecting the growing number of super wealthy, actually hyper wealthy, production will be capped at 799 units, at a price of 3.6 million Euros, ex-factory in Italy. And all cars have already been spoken for. And customers were, “awarded with allocation of this car”. Just having money is not enough in this day and age. Ferrari had to deem you worthy of spending your money on the F80. Wild!
To give you some perspective of the performance, the V16 Bugatti Tourbillon does 0-100 in 2 seconds flat, but the F80 will be delivered before the Bugatti. The Ferrari SF90 Stradale did it in 2.2 seconds. The Chiron did it in 2.4 seconds. How much does a modern F1 car take to 100kmph? Depending on who you ask it is between 2.4 to 2.9 seconds. The F80 is faster to accelerate to 100kmph than an F1 car. 0-200? That's 5.75 seconds. Top speed? 350kmph – over 350kmph to be precise.
What we care about though is the engine. And, shock, it is a V6. Yeah, not a V12. Not V8. Ferrari says the V6 is the pinnacle of technology today. After all, turbo V6s are used in F1. The Le Mans winning Ferrari 499P uses the V6 and that’s the same 120-degree 3-litre V6, used in the F80. On its own it makes 900 hp. Chief technology officer Gianmaria Fulgenzi says everything is new but the biggest update is the MGU-K. This is a twin-turbo setup, the turbo is larger and spooled up by a 48-volt electric motor embedded in the turbo to cut out all turbo lag and improve response. It revs to 9000rpm
Specific output is 300 horsepower per litre. ICE output is 900hp. And the two electric motors on the front axle (e-4WD) and rear motor (MGU-K) of the hybrid system add another 300hp.
The electric arch is a new 800V hybrid. At its core is a 2.3 kWh race-derived battery, with a carbonfibre housing to save weight, and completely new cells provided by the same supplier as for the Formula 1 batteries. Peak output is 242 kW, 49 more than the SF90 XX Stradale battery, while weighing 38kg less. The system is fed by the MGU-K that powers the new front axle that delivers a maximum output of 284hp, and is more compact and 36kg lighter than the one mounted on the SF90 XX Stradale. Thanks to this, the F80 has e-4WD to help traction and get that 2.15s 0-100kmph time.
It also allows torque vectoring in corners, offering immediate and dynamic turn-in. and the e4WD system, which is an evolution beyond even the SF90 XX Stradale's technology, integrates with the vehicle's controls to manage and even encourage playful slides at the limit – that’s what Ferrari says.
Another inverter is used for the rear electric motor. This performs three functions: starting the internal combustion engine, recovering energy to recharge the high voltage battery and supplementing the torque of the engine in certain dynamic conditions. It can generate up to 70 kW in regeneration mode and assist the internal combustion engine with up to 60 kW of power. The electric motors were designed and produced in Maranello and derived from the Formula 1 ones, with a carbon fiber-core rotor, to allow higher revs with less weight and lower dimensions. Two of these in the front axle allow a weight reduction of 1.4 kg compared to the SF90 XX ones. And if your head is hurting trying to understand all this, let me add to it with aerodynamics.
Much is made of flat floors with sports and supercars. The Ferrari F80 doesn’t use a flat floor. The floor of this supercar looks like a Formula 1 car, full of barge boards, something that has never been done on a road car to reach a level of downforce never seen before on a street legal car – 1050kgs at 250 kmph.
This underfloor shapes the entire architecture of the car, which is designed around the aerodynamics. The front section is reduced by 25 cm on each side to improve the aerodynamic efficiency and create new airflow management around the cabin.
This means the driving position has been rotated 8 degrees, the pedals are 80mm higher – for a single-seater kind of driving position which we will come to in a bit. The underfloor starts from the front of the car, completely engineered around a tri-plane wing and S-duct, inspired by the one used on the 499P Le Mans race car. This front wing delivers a downforce of 460 kg at 250 km/h, which is racecar territory. The rear gets an active wing that lifts 200mm and can also tilt, delivering 590 kg at 250 km/h.
To maintain this level of aerodynamics maintaining proper ride height is critical. And for that there’s a new active suspension system – supplied by Multimatic which also supplies the dampers for Ferraris GT race cars. These dampers are designed around the aerodynamics, featuring horizontal shock absorber and springs, to provide space for the aero flow.
The Ferrari F80 makes use of CCM-R Plus brake discs similar to those used on the 296 Challenge, ensuring shorter braking distances, higher repeatability and almost 3 times the lifecycle for the discs. The F80 comes to stop from 100kmph to 0 in 28 metres, and from 200kmph to 0 in 98 metres – a Ferrari record.
The styling of the F80, I think it looks phenomenal. It keeps in step with Ferrari's recent trend for anthropomorphic design. So there’s no eyes and mouth. The front has a whole series of wings, ducts, and passages. There’s this black mask which hides the headlamps. It is like a UFO, a spaceship. Brings what design head Flavio Manzoni says a somewhat mysterious effect. He says,“We wanted to do something absolutely futuristic, futuristic and disruptive; we didn't want to get carried away with a nostalgic or continuity idea. We wanted to really look to the future, to do something absolutely innovative and unexpected”
The proportions are extreme: a very narrow cabin, wide shoulders, a wide track. And they claim it gives the F80 the effect of a single-seater, while not giving up the passenger seat. The seats are brought closer by 50mm, but the hip point is staggered slightly so the elbows don’t knock. The doors are butterfly doors, like the Enzo, and inside the cockpit is arranged around the driver for the single seater feel. The new steering wheel gets less capacitive buttons which have come in for criticism. There’s a small suitcase you can put behind the seats for a toothbrush and overnight underwear I guess. And there's a wireless phone charger.
This silhouette rests on two elements that Ferrari have called 'end plates,' which are a bit of an homage to the Ferrari F40, which had very geometric, very precise shapes, characterised by grid-like, vertical cuts. Manzoni says the F40 is “one of the most beautiful supercars in history.” The rear is characterised by a ridge that narrows, tapers at the rear and is marked by six air vents. The number of these very iconic vents is not accidental, reflecting the characteristics of the six-cylinder engine.
The tub and other elements of the chassis were developed using a multi-material approach, where the best suited material for the task is used for each individual zone. The asymmetric carbon fibre chassis is something Ferrari claims is unique in the entire automotive panorama, with the driver’s side being wider than the right-hand side for the passenger. Ferrari claims that this was done to reduce the cabin dimensions, to improve dynamics and to reduce weight. Compared to the LaFerrari, the chassis weighs 5 per cent less and has a 50 per cent increase in torsional and beam stiffness. It’s this chassis design that also means the car will only be made in left hand drive – and that’s why F80 will not be sold in India.