FERRARISSIMA!

FERRARI SUPERCARS, DATING BACK TO THE 288 GTO, HAVE ALWAYS PUSHED LIMITS—IN TERMS OF BOTH ENGINEERING AND STYLE.

- EZRA DYER

THE SOUND TAKES ON A HARD EDGE RIGHT AROUND 6000 RPM.

At a point where many internal-combustion engines are at or nearing their rev limit, the Ferrari F80’s twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 is just getting limbered up for its manic scramble toward its 9000-rpm redline. The shift lights streak from the left across the top of the squared-off steering wheel—red, then blue—and you'd better pull the paddle for an upshift as soon as your brain registers the first flash of the LED, because the 888-hp peak arrives at 8750 rpm, and the rev limiter steps in at 9200. Your ears, including the parts assigned to the vestibular system, won't warn you of the impending rev cut because the V-6 sounds and feels like it'll keep pulling to 15,000 rpm, the limit for a contemporary Formula 1 car. That's not a coincidence, because the F80, like its predecessors all the way back to the 288 GTO, intentionally evokes F1. But there is a major difference—with 1184 horsepower, the F80 is more powerful than a modern F1 car.

And that’s why our first experience behind the wheel is at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, near Italy's Adriatic coast, rather than Ferrari’s own Fiorano test track. The F80 needs room to run, and Misano, a 2.6-mile MotoGP track, offers the long straights and fast corners to adequately exercise a car that generates 2315 pounds of downforce at 155 mph and employs brake-rotor tech borrowed from the 296 Challenge series. Misano also has wide gravel traps and tons of runoff, which help tamp down the worries of both driver and manufacturer when the car in question is the latest in the line of elite-of-the-elite Ferraris and will likely cost $4 million to $5 million, depending on one’s appetite for options on top of the $3,735,000 starting point.