The Special One

LaFerrari, which was unveiled at last month's Geneva Motor Show, is the most extraordinary road car Ferrari has ever made

F1-style carbon-fibre construction

And that means incandescent performance, of course. Ferrari won’t discuss a top speed (“it doesn’t matter,” they say) but it’s well in excess of 350kph. LaFerrari will hit 100kph in under three seconds, and get to 300kph in 15 seconds, a couple faster than the V8-powered McLaren P1 hypercar, its main rival which was also unveiled in production form at the Geneva show. At this level, that’s an eternity.

The extraordinary drivetrain is wrapped in the usual Ferrari ‘special’ package: an uncompromising, stripped-out, race-car like cabin, and a body honed in the F1 wind tunnel, though LaFerrari eschews big, garish wings in favour of ‘active aerodynamics’, its openings and surfaces changing shape to suit its speed and allowing a truly beautiful body.

We didn’t discuss the name over lunch. LaFerrari means simply ‘the Ferrari’, suggesting that this car is the summation of all Ferrari knows. But it also makes it officially the Ferrari ‘the Ferrari’, which sounds a little awkward. If they’d told me then what it was to be called, I’d have been blunt. But the name is the only awkward thing about this astonishing new car. And if you can afford to buy one, you can call it what you like.

SCORECARD

Ferrari LaFerrari

How much? €1.3 million (Hong Kong pricing TBA)
Engine: 6.3-litre V12 800hp plus 163hp HY-KERS electric motor
Transmission: Seven-speed twin-clutch paddle-shift manual
Performance: Under 3sec 0-100kph, over 350kph
How heavy? 1,255kgs dry

The name is the only awkward thing about this astonishing new car

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