By Basem Wasef
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February 02, 2024
The X-X Factor: How The Ferrari SF90 Pivoted To Immortality
This story starts where all great Ferrari legends begin: the 1.86-mile Fiorano test circuit. I’m strapping into the Ferrari SF90 XX. It’s a heady moment. Just to my right is old man Enzo’s original office, where he scowled over innumerable track tests. Today, the drama comes from the car itself, as well as an impending storm that’s darkening the sky. I fire up the V8, and the engine rattles the passenger cabin. This is not your average Ferrari. The intake plenum tube is moved closer to the interior, and it makes a lot of noise.
But does the XX have the stuff of mythology? The further we car freaks are dragged kicking and screaming from our internal combustion roots, the more of a gift to our psyche each old-school hypercar becomes. Now, it seems like every time one comes along, an expectation grows that it will be as mythical as the 250 GTO or the Enzo.
Once in a while, Ferrari writes another chapter in its long narrative of myths. When we first saw the SF90, it had all the power and speed, but it didn’t pack that intangible ingredient to merit its own chapter. The 986-horsepower and the half-million-dollar cost wasn’t enough. It didn’t wander far from the stylistic design language of other Ferraris; blur your eyes, and it bore resemblance to plainer. Crucially, Maranello didn’t cap its production to one fewer than market demand, per Il Commendatore’s infamous edict.
Ferrari
That was two strikes against hypercar immortality. Enter this SF90 XX. Massaged by engineers and test drivers and modified by stylistic conjuror Flavio Manzoni, the SF90 XX looks like it was conceived in a parallel universe to the donor car, in a world where high-spec swagger flows freely and mingles with impeccable taste. Forget the flush surfaces and elegant restraint: The XX has dimensionality in person, more complex curves, and enough swoops and contours to fool Zeus himself.
Ferrari has been building ultra-exclusive, track-only specials under the XX banner since 2005. Past examples include unhinged offshoots like the Enzo F-XX and the FXX-K EVO, whose V12 hybrid churned over 1,000 horsepower before four-figure output was fashionable. The most rarified of XX social classes are the members of the F1 Corse Cliente program. If you’ve ever dreamt of owning your own Ferrari Formula 1 car for private track days and have metric tons of cash burning a hole in your offshore bank account, you’ve found your people.
The SF90 XX is the first fully street legal model to bear the XX tag. It also borrows elements from extraordinary Ferraris like the 458 Speciale and F12tdf, limited-run models that go above and beyond the scope of serial production cars. Despite its license-plate-mandated limitations, the XX Stradale and Spider’s bodies look wilder and more ambitious than the standard-issue SF90s; the carbon fiber and aluminum skin, replete with slats, inlets, and spoilers, might as well have been designed by Agent Provocateur.
Ferrari
Punchier and more imposing in the flesh, the XX looks swole at any speed. The front end wears large nostrils hiding twin internal S-ducts that maximize cooling and downforce while eliminating storage space for your golden gold clubs. This feature, shared with the 488 GT3 and 296 GT3 race cars, sucks air through radiators for the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8; additional air cooling is provided by intercooler radiators just ahead of the rear wheels. The increased porosity along with an enlarged front splitter, new wheel arch louvers, strategic vortex generators, and reworked underbody air routing negotiate a delicate dance between downforce and drag; the 12 percent increase in intake air volume obviates the need for larger radiators while leaving the overall drag coefficient of the car untouched.
The elongated haunches resolve in a longtail-style rear end. Interestingly, a sweeping LED strip makes the XX look more like a lovechild from Molsheim than a purebred Modenese. The visual theater of the twin-turbo V8 remains, and the powerplant is tucked far below a Lexan lid. Rounding out the rump is a large rear spoiler complemented by a discreet shut-off Gurney flap. While not as demonstrative as the honking rear wing of the 911 GT3 RS, the feature is a big deal for Ferrari, as it’s the first road-going model to wear a fixed rear spoiler since the late, great F40 and F50 models. Rather than rely on driver input, algorithms manage the Gurney flap’s position: When low drag is required, the flap stays down to draw airflow below the wing. Under high-speed handling or braking, the flap tilts up to allow the wind to adhere to the wing, pressing the vehicle earthward with an eye-opening 1,168 pounds at 155 mph. That’s about as much force as the eponymously named LaFerrari, one of the true OG flagships.
Though the XX wears the extroversion of a race special, the SF90’s powertrain was already close to maxed out and thus enjoys a nominal power increase. The XX gains only 30 horsepower via polished inlet and exhaust ducts, combustion chamber machining, and new pistons, bringing the grand total to a still-not-inconsiderable 1,016 horsepower. The added power shaves two tenths of a second from its 0to 62 mph time, hitting the traps in 2.3 seconds. Unlike the 296’s hybrid components, which can be easily removed to produce a pure internal combustion race car (see: 296 GT), the SF90 intertwines its gas and EV bits more intricately, so they work in lockstep together. That means no physical reverse gear for weight savings, relying instead on the front two (of three) electric motors for backup duty. The eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox has been uprated with software derived from the Daytona SP3 for what Ferrari describes as “more engaging dynamic acceleration profiles.” Exhaust sounds have also been heightened in between shifts, offering a sonic experience similar to throttle lift on overrun.
Ferrari
The XX version gains a host of electronic enhancements that up its track game. An ABS evo controller from the 296 GTB enables finer individualized control over brake distribution, more precise vehicle dynamics control based on a six-axis sensor, and improved boost control logic for gutsier charges ahead in Qualifying mode. Hardware mods include stiffening of the Multimatic-sourced titanium springs, which trims roll rates by 10 percent.
Back to the track: The interior is all about function, with floormats replaced by hard surfaces and carbon fiber door panels accented with painted scallops available in three brash colors (Flash Orange, Giallo Modena, and Azzurro Dino). When the V8 kicks in, the car feels more uncorked than the tamer, road-trip-ready SF90. I’m taking it all in from carbon fiber seats. Swaths of carbon and Alcantara surround me. Dead ahead is a digital tach that sweeps to an 8,000 rpm redline, and all manner of customizable information including tire temperature and pressure, fluid temps, etc. In grand Ferrari tradition, the all-in-one steering wheel packs everything from wiper functions to turn signals, featuring the red anodized Mannetino switch at 4 o’clock. An LED light countdown embedded within the top of the wheel translates the upper registers of the rev range into easily interpreted shades of urgency.
By now the clouds are really rolling in, but I toe the throttle anyway, since there are no promising gaps in the forecast. The strange beauty of trick technology is that despite outrageous power and shitty weather, the flip of a dial can turn an angry machine into a docile pup. Rolling on Bridgestone Potenza S005 rain tires in Wet mode, there’s some grip to be found on the circuit in straight lines, though dipping into the throttle yields thrust that falls short of feeling like you’re tapping into 1,000 horsepower. A quick turn of the Mannetino into Sport, and the car comes more alive, pushing forward with confidence as squeezes of the throttle yield squirts of G-forces. Graduate to Race, and minor sidesteps and brief slides reveal that this thoroughbred just wants to hustle.
Ferrari
Another session in slightly drier conditions hints at vast reserves of power ready to be unleashed. While I’m reluctant to lean on what are presumably considerable levels of downforce in the wet, dropping the hammer in a straight line summons immense amounts of torque that devour pavement at an alarming rate. There’s an accuracy to the controls that makes it gratifying to explore the SF90 XX’s limits: Steering feels clear and communicative, the brakes produce tremendous stops when stood upon, and the throttle manages the interplay between gas andelectric power with linearity.
Aided by the torque vectoring effects of the two front motors and the smart ABS individually applied to each wheel by the stability controlsystem, I know it’s not my natural born skill that’s keeping my borrowed steed from skidding off the circuit. However, it’s not until I review the onboard telemetry that I see how much the computers were holding back. Overlaid against a trace of lead test driver Raffaele de Simone’s lap, there are moments when I flat-foot the accelerator unnecessarily, producing a flatline of engine output because the computer sees the futility in trying to lay down all that power onto wet tarmac. There are also times when I stubbornly try to wring out the most from a gear when a simple upshift would have generated more traction. While the machine makes you feel like a rock star, screaming and wailing and cornering despite the pools of water separating you from serious G forces, it’s the quick-thinking electronics that make the SF90 XX seem more supple and manageable in the rain than its spec sheet might suggest.
With its all-wheel drive, seamless electric assist, and finely tuned steering and damping systems, the XX is the dance partner you’d want in these conditions — even if it’s capable of producing enough energy to power a home for days. When the long, wet day closes, and it’s time to return home, does the SF90 XX inspire the longing it ought to considering its supreme positioning within the Ferrari lineup? It’s a curious game, this give and take of nomenclature, taxonomy, and branding. Yes, this one still isn’t quite as outrageous as XX models of yore, and there are not yet any Ferrari-sponsored track activities built around this particular modelto fully validate its insider status. But as an elaboration of an already elevated model, the SF90 XX bangs hard against the limits of whatcan be achieved in a road-legal car; under more favorable conditions, it proved its mettle by besting the brand’s lap record for a road car at Fiorano by 1.7 seconds.
Ferrari
If you’re debating the premise any further, you need not worry about the sting of parting with $890,000 for the hardtop or just under a cool mil for the convertible: All 799 coupes and 599 Spiders were spoken for long ago, which has the strange but predictable effect of stirring desire for the things we cannot have.
