An initial review of the Ferrari 849 Testarossa, highlighting its four-figure horsepower, high cost, and innovative hybrid technology with a focus on adrenaline-fueled driving experience and advanced dynamic systems.
Many numbers define the Ferrari 849 Testarossa . First and foremost: horsepower. It has a four-figure output, which seems to be the benchmark at the sharp end of the supercar segment these days. Next, cost of entry.
A bit north of half a million for the standard car and a couple-hundred grand extra for the comprehensive optioning Ferrari anticipates from its most enthusiastic clients. Getting more obscure, how about kilowatt-hours? Specifically, the ability of the usable 7.5 kWh in the hybrid Testarossa’s battery pack to propel it electrically at speeds of up to 81 mph, exclusively through the front wheels.This story originally appeared in Volume 34 of Road Track.But as my first drive in the new-age Testarossa began on a cold, damp racetrack in Spain, the experience was dominated by a metric normally measured in picograms per liter: the concentration of adrenaline in the bloodstream. I didn’t have a medical team available to extract a sample and run numbers after my time on the Circuito Monteblanco near Seville. But from the driver’s seat, it felt as if I was getting closer to milligrams per liter. Or maybe even grams. Ferrari leads the way on active dynamic systems, and befitting the 849 Testarossa’s position near the top of the model hierarchy, it gets a full set, from the reaction-sharpening ABS Evo and oversteer-managing Side Slip Control to the electrically powered front axle and electronically controlled rear differential, which enables precise amounts of torque to be sent to each wheel. It even has the Ferrari Integrated Vehicle Estimator previously seen only on the F80, a digital crystal ball that creates a virtual model of the car to compare with reality, reported by myriad sensors, preparing the smart systems for what it thinks will happen next.Yet all of this technology can only play the hand dealt by Newtonian physics. And after a night of heavy rain, the Testarossa’s track-biased Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s battled for grip pretty much all the way around the half-wet, half-dry circuit. The speed of the reactions from the electrical side of the powertrain and the abundance of torque it makes at low speeds meant wheelspin was happening even with gentle throttle applications and short-shifting the engine into higher gears. The fight was a hugely exciting one to referee. The 849 I drove on track had the optional Assetto Fiorano pack that brings those Cup 2 tires, carbon-fiber wheels, lightweight bucket seats, and small winglets on each side of the rear spoiler, giving the 849 a passing resemblance to the 1970 512 M race car. Factor in active aero elements and extra underbody vortex generators, and Ferrari claims a peak 915 pounds of downforce at 155 mph. But at the lower speeds dictated by the surface, there was much more slip than grip, to the point of requiring most of a turn to opposite lock every time I went through what should have been a fast right-hander with a gently falling camber. Except when the car is in its fully electric eDrive mode, the majority of the 849’s output always goes through the rear wheels. I soon discovered that both the Sport and Race dynamic modes allow substantial angles of yaw before the stability systems intervene. Only the tamest mode, Wet, delivered relative calm—at the cost of tip-toe acceleration as the cold tires battled for traction. Overall, it was a thrilling refutation of the accusation that cutting-edge supercars are too smart to offer visceral excitement. But also, when it comes to driving somebody else’s 1000-plus-hp Ferrari on a damp racetrack, a little visceral excitement goes a long way. The Testarossa’s famous name and radical design are tacit admissions that its predecessor, the SF90 Stradale, struggled to make the emotional connection necessary for any Ferrari to be considered truly great. The 849 is far more than a face-lift of the SF90, but the two cars share their platform and powertrain, essentially using the same mechanical package of a twin-turbo V-8 working in conjunction with two electrical motors at the front, one turning each wheel, and a third integrated between the engine and dual-clutch transmission at the rear. Working together, the motors can deliver up to 217 hp, a figure identical to that of the SF90. Changes to the V-8, including ball-bearing turbochargers and a bigger intercooler, have increased power and torque to 819 hp and 621 lb-ft, representing relatively modest improvements of 50 hp and 31 lb-ft. The 1036-hp combined peak is higher than the Lamborghini Revuelto’s 1001 but less than the Aston Martin Valhalla’s 1064 and the new Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X’s 1250. Truly, these are extraordinary times. The bigger change from the SF90 is visual. Beyond identical 104.3-inch wheelbases and similar dimensions otherwise, as well as prominent fender-mounted Prancing Horse shields, the 849 bears no obvious resemblance to its predecessor. As with many new Ferraris, I couldn’t say whether I liked it on first impression. There is something cartoonish about the horizontal black bar between the headlights, the same “mask of Zorro” look seen on both the 12Cilindri and the F80. But I also know that, as with all the best Ferraris, I couldn’t stop staring at every opportunity. My only real disappointment is that, despite sharing its name with the 1984 Testarossa, the new car doesn’t feature any of that era-defining Ferrari’s strakes.The cabin is less radically changed. The most obvious difference from the SF90 is the relocated transmission selector, which is still styled to look like a gated manual shifter but now raised to sit closer to the dashboard. As in all modern Ferraris, most of the 849’s controls are on the steering wheel, but physical buttons have replaced the SF90’s sometimes-unresponsive touch-sensitive panels. The new car still lacks a touchscreen, so using the supported Apple CarPlay or Android Auto takes over almost all of the digital instrument display and is awkwardly navigated using the cursor buttons. But this is not an onerous sacrifice.Although the Testarossa is one of Ferrari’s mid-engine supercars rather than a front-engine grand tourer, it is definitely a comfortable, daily-viable kind of machine. The cabin has plenty of space for heads and elbows. The car I drove on the road did not have the Assetto Fiorano pack, and the supportive seats offered a plentiful range of power adjustment. It even had radar cruise control and an attention-monitoring camera that sits behind the steering wheel, the latter mandated by European road regulations. In seeming proof that the Testarossa wasn’t designed with European safety mandates in mind, the camera sits atop the unchanged steering column and obscures the bottom of the digital instrument pack. On a moist racetrack, the Testarossa felt like quite a handful. But on what the weather fates decreed would be a dry mountain road, it became almost perfect. The suspension is stiffer than the SF90’s, but the new car felt impressively compliant over broken surfaces, especially with its adaptive dampers in their “bumpy road” setting. On smoother asphalt, even switching to the firmest mode, Race, didn’t turn the 849’s ride harsh, and body control remained exemplary throughout.The Testarossa for my street drive was shod with less aggressive Pirelli P Zero R tires that delivered locked-down high-speed stability. But there was also a sense of subtle playfulness at lower speeds very different from the seesaw adrenaline spikes on track. Still, this is a sizable car, and on narrower roads, the 78.7-inch width is a limiting factor. But overall, the 849 felt much more lithe and lighter than it should have, given the mass being carried. Ferrari quotes one of those pointless fluid-free “dry” figures , in this case 3461 pounds; topped off with liquids, the Testarossa is doubtlessly much closer to 4000 pounds. But it didn’t feel that heavy, as it was eager to turn and happy to make adjustments to a cornering line through fractional accelerator-pedal changes. Okay, so eDrive mode is only really suited to near-silent sneaking, as the novelty of a slow, front-wheel-drive electric Ferrari wears off very quickly. As with many high-performance plug-in hybrids, the Hybrid mode also feels strange, starting and stopping the V-8 with arbitrary suddenness. Both Performance and Qualify modes keep the engine running all the time, the latter giving full electrical assistance at the cost of depleting the battery. I spent 95 percent of my time in the car in one or the other of these. The biggest dynamic difference between the Testarossa and its predecessor is one of polish. Getting to full throttle on the road will be a rare achievement, and doing so delivers a fury that will project the 849 beyond the world’s highest speed limits in scant seconds. But at the lower levels of commitment, there is much more finesse than before. The SF90 was a technical tour de force, but it was also Ferrari’s first plug-in hybrid. Plenty of learning has happened since it was introduced for 2020. The 849 blends electrical and combustion power more deftly, especially at low engine speeds where the ions add assistance imperceptibly. Ditto the invisible transition between regenerative and friction braking through the vast carbon discs and pads, with a much more natural-feeling pedal than the Stradale’s. And while the SF90 sometimes suffered from slight steering corruption when the front axle was powering over bumps, that seems to be entirely engineered out of the new car. That said, I still pine for a little more organic steering feel. Ferrari’s appeal has always been measured in much more than performance metrics. On paper, the 849 Testarossa is only fractionally improved over the SF90 Stradale, but the reality is a car with much more of the irrational allure integral to the brand’s magic. Like another famous institution headquartered within Italy, Ferrari operates with a logic that requires its devotees to make frequent leaps of faith, as well as instinctive genuflection toward its icons. Yet it seems a little strange that the Testarossa gets a V-8 while the canonized F80 that tops the model range has a smaller and less harmonically pleasing V-6, albeit one tuned to make more power. The 849 is also more comfortable, roomier, and around $3 million less expensive. And you don’t need to work your way onto Ferrari’s VIP list of special customers to be invited to buy one. By Ferrari’s standards, the 849 Testarossa isn’t the most desirable model. Yet maybe it should be the one at the top of your list.
Ferrari Testarossa Supercar Hybrid Performance
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