Front-engined coupe is Ferrari’s fifth new car this year.
The Ferrari Roma, the new mid-front-engined 2+ coupé of the Prancing Horse, features refined proportions and timeless design combined with unparalleled performance and handling.
With its distinctive flair and style, the car is a contemporary representation of the carefree, pleasurable way of life that characterised Rome in the 1950s and ‘60s. Similarities to Bond’s DB10 are obvious.
Ferrari tends to use separate platforms for separate model lines, but the Roma’s basis is the Portofino – same wheelbase, same 3.9-litre twin turbo V8 engine, but with a few crucial changes. The engine has been juiced up by 19bhp to 611bhp at 7500rpm, it uses the new eight-speed DCT gearbox from the SF90 Stradale and the interior is entirely new.
It’s a few millimetres longer, wider and lower than Portofino, a full 191mm longer than Vantage and 83mm shorter than a DB11. But, like the Vantage, it bulges like a tense muscle, but at the same time brings some minimalist elegance back
Performance is enhanced over the Portofino, partly down to the extra grunt, partly down to weight loss – at 1472kg dry, it weighs 73kg less than it’s open top sister car. So, 0-62mph in 3.4 seconds is a tenth faster than the Portofino and two tenths faster than the 503bhp Vantage, 0-124mph in 9.3 seconds is comfortably faster than both and a top speed of 198mph+ is plenty for anyone that lives in the real world.
In interior details are scant, so you can take a good look at the picture and draw your own conclusions, traditionally a designers way of saying this car’s built for speed before comfort.
