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What is it?
It's the one we've waited a long, long time for. Ferrari's successor to the Enzo, its ultimate distillation of speed, its magnum opus. LaFerrari.
Easy to get your hands on, then?
Not so much. With a price tag of over £1m apiece, all 499 LaFerraris were sold before the car was first unveiled at the Geneva Motorshow last year. This despite the fact that to simply be considered LaFerrari ownership material, you needed (a) at least five Ferraris in your collection and (b) a first-name-terms relationship with Ferrari Chairman Luca Di Montezemolo, who personally approved all 499 owners. And thankfully let us have a shot, too.
So how does it work?
Ferrari heralds its creation as a rolling showcase of the limits of road-going possibility. Having sat through a three-hour technical presentation in which Ferrari's finest engineers attempted to explain degree-level theorems involving complex maths, physics, chemistry, aerodynamics and materials science, Top Gear has to agree with this assessment.
So here's the shorthand version. At LaFerrari's heart lies a 6.3-litre V12, which fires 789bhp through a seven-speed dual clutch gearbox to the rear wheels. And what an engine: arguably the greatest V12 in Maranello history, a twelve-cylinder heart that revs to a staggering 9250rpm redline.
In any normal game of supercar Top Trumps, 789bhp would be sufficient for victory, but in the hypercar stratosphere defined by the P1 and 918, that's merely the down-payment. Pinching tech from its F1 outfit, Ferrari has added a Hy-Kers hybrid system to the V12, not just to improve its green credentials but to make an already ballistically fast car even faster.
Tell me about the electric bits.
The Hy-Kers system provides an additional 161bhp - or very nearly a Fiesta ST's worth - of instant power through the electric motor mounted to the back of the gearbox. Unlike the 918 and P1, you cannot plug LaFerrari into a wall, nor cruise silently in all-electric mode - the e-motor is there to add punch to the petrol engine, not replace it.
Read Clarkson's verdict on the McLaren P1
And what punch it adds. The Hy-Kers fills out the bottom end of the torque curve of the viciously high-spinning V12, meaning an utterly constant, stupefying surge of power from anywhere in the rev range to literally anywhere else.
Stats? With a total combined output of 950bhp, LaFerrari will get from 0-62mph in 2.9 seconds, hit 124mph four seconds later, and top out ‘in excess' of 218 miles an hour.
OK, got it. It's very exclusive, very complicated and very powerful. But what's it actually like?
As you open the front hinged swan doors and drop into a cockpit decked wall-to-wall in carbon fibre and leather, the first thing you notice is the seat adjustment. Or, rather, the lack of it.
The seat forms an integral part of the LaFerrari's tub, so each owner will have their own set of seat pads tailored for them before delivery. To get comfy, you pull a lever below your right thigh to release the pedal box and adjust the pedals to the perfect distance, race car style. Shut the door with a hefty thud, adjust the steering wheel, insert the key - yes, it still has one of those -and watch the TFT screens blink into life. Thumb the ‘Engine Start' button. Instantly, the V12 soul of LaFerrari barks into life, a sound that talks of pedigree, potential, and power. This is it.
Written By:- Charlie Turner
More of this article on the Top gear website
