The wait is now finally over as of yesterday on 7pm Malaysian time, the piece of cloth covering the Enzo successor was finally removed, revealing Ferrari’s new four-wheeled masterpiece in combining both raw power and fancy aerodynamic. However for this highly-anticipated car, something tells us that Ferrari did not really have any fancy names to put on this new model, and simply called it the “LaFerrari”.
Translates directly as “The Ferrari”, this odd name is explained by Ferrari’s President himself, Luca di Montezemolo, where they “chose to call this model LaFerrari, because it is the maximum expression of what defines our company – excellence”. But if the name bugs you that much, we could simply turn a blind eye on it and move on to the colossal power this beast carries and the sci-fi-ish looks we usually see on concept cars.
Like the McLaren P1, the LaFerrari is a hybrid where it has both the conventional combustion engine and two electric motors to provide extra thrust. But while McLaren is comfortable in blasting off the P1 with a twin-turbo V8, the LaFerrari packs a massive, high-revving 6.3-liter V12 engine with an output of 790-horsepower at 9,000 rpm.
Implementing the technology learnt from Scuderia Ferrari’s F1 KERS (Kinetic Energy Reserve System), they installed the HY-KERS on the LaFerrari to recharge the batteries of the 160-horsepower electric motor, giving it a combined output of a staggering 950-horsepower and 900Nm of peak torque. This gives it the ability to sprint from 0-100 in under three seconds, 0-200 below seven, and reaching 300 in just about 15 seconds, before hitting its top speed at 350km/h.
But the additional battery pack powering the two Magneti Marelli electric motors does not severely affect the LaFerrari’s overall weight, as both of them only weighs 60kg despite being able to store a vast amount of power in it. Mounted to the floor at the center of the chassis, the LaFerrari boasts a 41:59 front-to-rear weight distribution, and the extra 140kg from the hybrid system does not hog down the car as the LaFerrari only weighs 1,255kg.
As for the design, Ferrari is known to have mastered the dark art of aerodynamics, so those curves and that wide mouth are not just for show. And with that, they had managed to keep the concept look it carries and yet be fully functional in the real world. So to maintain the exclusivity of this sleek machine, only 499 specimens will be built, and each of them will carry a USD 1.69 million (RM 5.24 million) price tag.
