The Ferrari SF90 XX Stradale Is A 1,016bhp Track Monster You Can Still Drive To The Shops

It was inevitable that Ferrari would give its SF90 hybrid hypercar the XX treatment, but the result, dubbed the SF90 XX Stradale, doesn’t work out quite how you might have imagined. The key bit is the last word in the name ‘Stradale’, or ‘road’. Yep, what you’re looking at here is the first car in the Ferrari XX series which remains road legal.

And yet, it’s still plenty extreme. Just take the new front splitter, which increases downforce by 45kg on its own. Then there’s the rear wing, which is the first fixed wing featured on a road-going Ferrari since the F50, Ferrari points out. It generates 315kg of downforce. These two parts work together with various other aero elements including an enclosed underbody to provide 530kg of downforce at 155mph, 140kg more than the regular SF90 Stradale manages.

The SF90 Stradale is hardly lacking in the horsepower department, but regardless, Ferrari has sought to increase power a little. Benefitting from lighter pistons, a reworked combustion chamber, polished inlet and exhaust ducts and a higher compression ratio, the 4.0-litre, twin-turbo V8 now kicks out 786bhp, an increase of 17bhp. Factor in the SF90’s three electric motors, and you’re looking at a total figure of 1,016bhp.

As before, the engine drives the rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic gearbox, albeit with a “significantly” altered shift logic first used on the Daytona SP3. Part of that involves a fruitier shift sound from the exhaust. Lovely.

The press release doesn’t mention anything in the way of chassis changes, focusing more on the electronic side of the equation. On that front, the SF90 XX gets the 296 GTB’s ‘ABS EVO’ controller, which Ferrari says “makes it possible to determine the target slip of all four wheels and consequently optimise brake distribution”. Meanwhile, the 6W-CDS (Chassis Dynamic Sensor) provides more data than the system it replaces, making for more efficient vehicle dynamic controls.

Inside, there are simplified door panels, an entirely expected helping of Alcantara, and a new racing seat with a bare carbon fibre structure. The latter element saves 1.3kg relative to the SF90 Stradale’s seat.

Like the sound of all that, but want the wind in your hair? There’s also an SF90 XX Spider, featuring a retractable hard top which opens in 14 seconds at speeds of up to 28mph. The Spider is the more expensive and exclusive of the two, coming in at €850,000 and with a production cap of 399. Ferrari will be building 599 coupes, charged at 599 a pop.