MARANELLO, Italy (Reuters) – Ferrari on Thursday unveiled its new limited edition supercar, which incorporates features from Endurance motor competitions and Formula 1 and has already sold out despite its 3.6 million euro ($3.9 million) base price tag.
The hybrid butterfly-door F80 is a highlight in Ferrari’s model roll-out strategy aimed at keeping its wealthy customers engaged, as it prepares to launch its first and so far highly secretive purely electric car at the end of next year.
The F80 “is the car which raises the bar of our range,” Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer Enrico Galliera said during its presentation in the Ferrari hometown of Maranello. “It’s a car we hope would make history in coming years”.
Ferrari’s so-called supercars are top-of-the-range special models that it launches once in a decade, which embody innovative technological features.
The most recent Ferrari supercar was 2013’s LaFerrari, with its open-top LaFerrari Aperta version released in 2016. The first was the GTO, launched 40 years ago.
Just 799 units of the F80 will be produced, and each has already been assigned to a specific client, with total requests at three times the planned output, Galliera said.
“We’ll have to say no to people who do not expect it from us,” he said. The model will be the most expensive road car ever offered by Ferrari.
It features a six-cylinder three-litre full-hybrid engine totalling 1,200 horse power, racing brake pads, state-of-the-art active suspension and ultra light 3D printed metal parts, including suspension arms.
Its two seats are not aligned, with the driver’s one slightly ahead of the passenger’s one.
Although new, the F80’s engine is based on the same architecture of that Ferrari uses in World Endurance Championship – where it won the two last editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans – and uses Formula 1 technologies.
It has a top speed of 350 km per hour.
Deliveries of the F80 will start in the fourth quarter of next year, with production expected to run until late 2027, the year of Ferrari’s 80th anniversary.
($1 = 0.9216 euros)
(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Jan Harvey)
