One of the stars of this week’s Geneva Motor Show was, undoubtedly, the new LaFerrari hybrid. Ok, it’s probably not the most iconic name the Italian supercar maker has ever come up with for one of its models, but that’s what we’re stuck with.
But setting the name aside, the £1 million LaFerrari takes the fight to McLaren’s P1 with a 6.3-litre V12 engine, two electric motors, and offering 0-186mph in 15.5secs. And just for good measure, it also utilises Ferrari’s F1-derived aero technology.
The replacement for the rather iconic Enzo, LaFerrari is intended to be ‘the Ferrari’, a car that packs every traditional Ferrari virtue into an ultra-modern envelope.
Delivering in excess of 900bhp, the Ferrari will hit 62mph from standstill in 3secs.
It’s also around 110mm longer than the McLaren at 4702mm, and about 50mm wider at 1992mm. Surprisingly, it’s also 54mm lower at 1116mm and claims a relatively radical 59% rearward weight bias. For a car like this, Ferrari engineers label the split “just about ideal”.
Of particular significance is the introduction of the hybrid system which, making full use of the Scuderia Ferrari’s F1 KERS know-how, has resulted in a solution that exalts Ferrari’s fundamental values – performance and driving thrills. Ferrari’s F1 racers, double world champ Fernando Alonso and No2, Felipe Massa — contributed to the design of the driving position, which is similar to that of a single-seater.
The hybrid technology used, known as HY-KERS, represents the perfect combination of maximum performance and lower emissions. LaFerrari emits just 330 g/km of CO2, but without resorting to electric-only drive which would not fit the mission of this model.
The HY-KERS system is, however, designed so that in future applications a car can be driven using exclusively electric power for a few kilometres and, during development testing, a full-electric version of LaFerrari achieved just 220g/km of C02 emissions on the combined cycle.
The LaFerrari is equipped with dynamic controls that are integrated for the first time ever on a Ferrari road car with active aerodynamics and the HY-KERS system.
About Jim McGill
Jim McGill is an award-winning motoring and motorsport journalist with more than 25 years' industry experience. He contributes to a number of newspapers and magazines, including The Times, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Scotsman, Sunday Herald and AA Magazine.
Recent Comments