Ferrari 599 SA Aperta | Showpiece of the Week
Maranello laid down the gauntlet with the SF90 last week - but special, scintillating cars are what it does...
Yes, Porschtonheads has been a little Ferrari heavy these past few days, but with the unveiling of the marque's most powerful ever production road car, can you really blame us? At first glance the 599 SA Aperta may appear to reside at the opposite end of the spectrum to the mid-engined madness of the new SF90; a V12 convertible gran tourer, more suited to wending its way down the Italian coast than thrashing around a track.
But the car has one or two tricks up its unassuming sleeve, sufficient for Top Gear to describe it as "one of the most exciting cars in the world" when they drove it in 2011.
Foremost amongst these is the 670hp, 457lb ft engine from the 599 GTO, a unit which itself was derived from the powerplant found inside the track-only 599XX. With an 8,400rpm red line, the 6.0-litre V12 not only propels the SA Aperta from 0-62mph in just 3.6 seconds and on to a top speed of over 200mph, but also emits the kind of melodic howl which even 1,000hp-worth of hybrid V8 can't hope to match.
To cope with all that added power the Aperta also received the GTO's gearbox. Similarly descended from the 599XX, it was capable of 60 millisecond shift times and complimented in its more focussed attitude by re-calibrated magnetic dampers, a 10mm decrease in ride height and a thicker rear anti-roll bar.
Aesthetically, the SA Aperta may not be as in your face as the GTO it borrowed so heavily from, but fittingly for a car named after Sergio and Andrea Pininfarina, did have several telling performance-orientated design differences. New front and rear bumpers housed larger cooling ducts and the rake of the windscreen was slightly increased to more easily meet the removable soft top - though our Showpiece is fitted with the optional carbon fibre lid. Meanwhile, the C-Pillars were crafted from carbon fibre and the boot-lid was replaced with an aluminium item to save weight. Finally unique five-spoke wheels were added, completing the package.
Only 80 were produced worldwide, with just 10 per cent of those being RHD examples, making our Showpiece a very rare find indeed. Just as the 575 Superamerica is held in high esteem by enthisasts, then, so the limited-run SA Aperta followed suit; although with that car being relatively common compared to this, there is a slight discrepancy in value. The price to feel the wind in your hair from behind the wheel of this prancing horse? A cool £1.4 million.
tbox it is. This F1 box must be the dummest idea ever.... manual or double clutch only for these kind of cars.I'm pretty sure there was only 8 RHD ones......
tbox it is. This F1 box must be the dummest idea ever.... manual or double clutch only for these kind of cars.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff