Ferrari reveals 1015hp SF90 XX Stradale
Finally - an XX you can drive on the road...
Until now Ferrari’s XX programme has existed in parallel with the company’s road-car activities, building track-only specials reserved for the brand’s richest and best connected customers. But that is set to change with the new SF90 XX Stradale you see here. Yep, it’s a street-legal XX.
That fact makes it very different car from its predecessors: the Enzo-based FXX, 599XX and LaFerrari-spun FXX K. All of those were ultra-limited and sold so owners could drive them at Ferrari’s own track events, while also being pitched as rolling testbeds for cool future tech. The SF90 XX Stradale will wear numberplates, but it will also be more affordable and less exclusive than its predecessors.
Okay, affordable is always going to be a relative term when it comes to special series Ferraris. But with the limited-to-799 SF90 XX Stradale coupe set to start at €770,000 on the road in Italy – that including the country’s 22 per cent VAT – it looks like storming value when compared to the €1.1m pre-tax of the 599 XX when we drove it in 2010, and what was reported to be €2.5m for the FXX K.
In another indication that this new XX is about something other than steely-eyed track purpose, Ferrari is also going to sell a roadster version, with the SF90 XX Spider set to cost €850,000 in Italy and being restricted to 599 cars. Those are big limited editions, even by Ferrari standards, but the volumes have clearly been finely judged. Even as it is announced, both versions are fully allocated with coupe deliveries set to start at the end of next year.
So what will lucky buyers be getting? The regular SF90 Stradale is hardly short of performance, so to no great surprise, the gains being claimed for the XX are limited. The core powertrain remains almost unchanged, with a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 working in conjunction with three electric motors, two at the front – where they can bias torque across the axle – with another working in conjunction with the combustion engine and eight-speed double-clutch transmission. The V8 has new pistons to increase the compression ratio slightly, but power has only risen by 17hp to 786hp. The peak electric contribution has also gone up by 12hp to 229hp; so a system peak of 1,015hp – just pipping the forthcoming Lamborghini Revuelto’s 1,001hp. You can be pretty sure that’s not a coincidence.
The XX also gets a new ‘extra boost’ function, available when the powertrain is running in its full-fang Qualifying mode. This doesn’t feature a push-to-pass button, rather adds extra electrical assistance when the throttle is wide open and there is sufficient traction to make best use of it, depleting the 8kWh battery as it does so. Meaning that an XX’s fastest laps on track will come early on in a session it has started with a fully charged battery pack.
Ferrari claims a 2.3-sec 0-62mph time and a 6.5-sec 0-124mph time for the coupe – both two-tenths ahead of the corresponding numbers for the existing car. According to Raffaele de Simone, Ferrari’s chief development test driver, the XX is also significantly quicker on track at Fiorano than the regular Stradale, but he isn’t allowed to tell us by how much yet.
While previous XX models have been significantly lighter than their road-going siblings, the SF90 XX is only fractionally different. Ferrari claims a 1,560kg ‘dry’ weight for the coupe – 10kg less than the SF90 – with the Spider weighing 100kg more. Weight has been added in some areas, most notably with the large fixed rear wing, with the overall reduction down to savings including 3.5kg within the engine bay and 1.3kg with new optional race seats. These new buckets have a full carbon frame and are claimed to be the lightest that Ferrari has ever made, but – unlike some rivals – still allow for backrest angle adjustment.
It should also sound angrier thanks to a redesigned tube that links the car’s intake plenum to the bulkhead so that – as Ferrari puts it – “the occupants are treated to even edgier, more raucous harmonics as the engine takes in greater quantities of air.”
So far it might sound as if the XX changes have been mostly at the level of tweaks. But the aerodynamic alterations are substantial. Ferrari execs admit to having thought long and hard about breaking one of the company’s longer-established design principles, adding a fixed wing to a road car. The SF90 XX marks the first time since the F50, the high-hung new element being vital to meeting the aggressive downforce targets. Ferrari is being coy about the total peak the XX can generate, but says it makes 530kg of downforce at 155mph – 140kg more than the standard car manages at the same speed.
The XX also keeps the active aerodynamic elements of the existing SF90, a so-called Cut-Off Gurney flap lowering automatically from its normal low drag position to a higher downforce setting when required. The front and rear wheelarch vents also help to vent high-pressure air and increase the overall total.
We’re also promised that the SF90 Stradale’s driver-flattering behaviour will continue with the XX, this now using an improved Ferrari Dynamic Enhancer system and uprated version of the slide-holding Side Slip Control system.
Suspension hardware is little changed – springs are 5 per cent stiffer – but a new three-axis acceleration sensors talks to both the engine management to help find traction and also a version of the ABS Evo system that made its debut on the 296GTB, this individually adjusting the retardation at each corner under big stops to maintain stability and help to get the car turned into corners. Initial response has also been dialled down a little compared to the SF90 to make it easier to place at high speeds. Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres will be standard, track-biased Cup Rs an option.
As the regular SF90 is already quicker on a Fiorano lap than the LaFerrari it is nailed-on certainty that the XX version will become the fastest road-legal Ferrari of all time. Which, for many, will be more than enough justification for both the price and the chunky size of what is a limited run – one that Maranello’s rivals would dearly love to be able to get away with. The truth is that Ferrari knows its customers better than almost any other car company. A road-going XX variant is clearly something they are very keen for.
Suspect this is their solution to effectively replace the standard model with this. Thus the price is lower and volumes higher than usual xx models.
a very special car, and extremely hard to get an allocation for (even less cars than the 812c apparently)
shame about just the 10kg reduction but is what it is
there is an 'exposed carbon fiber' option for this car which only a few people were invited to spec, that's another 300k on top
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