LAFERRARI: THE 950-HORSEPOWER SUPERCAR TO BEAT FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS

950-Horsepower LaFerrari Is the Supercar to Beat for the Next 10 Years
By Damon Lavrinc, Wired, 5 March 2013.

Ferrari has just unveiled LaFerrari. It’s the supercar to beat for the next decade, and Porsche, Lamborghini and McLaren are officially on notice.

LaFerrari. It’s a name that evokes…nothing. But while it sounds like something you’d ask for at a tanning salon, let’s not concern ourselves with such trivialities. After all, this is Ferrari, and the Paisans in Maranello know how to build cars capable of blasting past ludicrous speed.

If you’re going to kvetch about the styling, just stop. They’ve honed the Enzo-successor’s shape down the nanometre in the wind tunnel, using decades of Formula One expertise to shape, mould and bend its composite body to the whims of advanced aerodynamics. It’s science at 205 mph, coated in carbon fibre and sprayed in a red that only the Prancing Horse can truly pull off.

To reach that top speed, Ferrari has developed a 6.3-litre V12 and mounted it amidships for a 41:59 front-to-rear weight distribution. Seven-hundred-eighty-nine horsepower (read that again, but slower) rockets out of the bent-12 at maximum revolutions - a mind-boggling 9,250 RPM redline - but Ferrari doesn’t stop there. Mounted on the back of the seven-speed automated-manual gearbox is an electric motor good for another 161 HP. That brings the total up to a nice, even 950 HP in total - not to mention 660 pound-feet of torque.

All told, the LaFerrari (yes, we know it’s redundant) tips the scales at a mere 2,800 pounds. That’s enough to get it from zero to 60 MPH in considerably less than three seconds and hit 124 MPH in under seven seconds. And for the real stats junkies out there, note that the LaFerrari laps the automaker’s Fiorano test track in under 1:20 - five seconds faster than the US$1.2M Ferrari Enzo it replaces.

Ferrari’s hybrid system employs a pair of electric motors (one to power the wheels and another to power accessories), while a 132-pound lithium-ion battery pack is strapped to the back of the passenger compartment and sucks in spare energy when clamping down on the four sets of massive carbon ceramic brakes. And naturally, the entire carbon fibre chassis is handmade, both more rigid and lighter than anything Ferrari has ever created.

While Porsche has the upcoming 918 Spyder hybrid, McLaren has its new P1 and Lamborghini has…this thing, LaFerrari’s specs and stats will be hard to beat by the power players of the hyper car world. And it’s going to be an interesting year, as all four are arriving in the next nine months.

Pricing isn’t being released, but something in the US$1.2-1.5M range is expected. Not that it matters - all 499 examples have supposedly been spoken for.

Video: LaFerrari

Photos and video courtesy of Ferrari.

[Source: Wired. Edited.]

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