Ferrari Daytona SP3 2022 Review – International

The trick with driving a car like the 2022 Ferrari Daytona SP3 is not to ask too many questions – like “what will you do to me if I crash this?” or, even more vitally, “how much is it worth?”

While I could obviously tell that the Daytona – part of Ferrari’s ‘Icon’ series and built to celebrate the famous Ferrari v Ford racing successes of the 1960s and 70s (is going on about your own greatness the opposite of being unable to let go of a grudge?) – was expensive, and quite likely in the seven figures, I really didn’t want to know the price until I’d handed it back in one stunning, eye-widening, scintillating piece.

It actually took about a week to get an official – and very specific – number from Ferrari Australia, which is $3,842,608 plus on-road costs.

Yes, some Australians (they won’t say how many) have agreed to pay that much for a Ferrari they won’t be allowed to drive on public roads, because all 599 of the limited production run are left-hand drive. Oh, and they’re all sold.

So, clearly some people see value in that price. There’s also a chance that they will, thanks to their absurdity and collectability, go up in price over time.

At least there aren’t any options for Ferrari to sting you with. What you see is what you get, and what you see is quite amazing. And what cost butterfly doors, really?

You do, of course, get airbags in the 2022 Ferrari Daytona SP3, but let’s face it, if you crash this thing you’ll probably wish you were dead. I mean, how could you? It would be like shredding the Mona Lisa.

The technology that’s stopping you from doing that is all in the software (and the giant brakes, 398mm front and 380mm rear). The Daytona gets the latest version of Ferrari’s Side Slip Control system dubbed SSC6.1, which somehow manages to get the correct amount of power and torque to the ground, through the rear wheels alone.

I can report that the traction-control light on the dash seems to be working very hard indeed when you dare to put your foot down.

Other technology crammed into the Daytona’s tiny cabin includes the touch-control steering wheel, lifted from the also amazing SF90 Stradale and 296 GTB. Apparently, drivers can actuate 80 per cent of the car’s functions without taking their hands off the wheel, which seems very wise indeed.

You also get a lush and beautiful curved 16-inch HD screen in front of you so you can watch your speed turning into a digital blur.

Well, there's a bit of hair splitting with this claim, because Ferrari’s clever new hybrid supercars are even more powerful, but there’s no doubt that the 6.5-litre V12 in the Daytona SP3 is the most powerful engine the company has ever created.

It actually traces its origins back to the 6.0-litre V12 that broke cover in the Ferrari Enzo almost 20 years ago, but that one made just 485kW.

The Daytona’s glorious V12 makes 618kW of power at, deep breath, 9250rpm. Now just pause and try and imagine what a Ferrari V12 sounds like as it approaches 9000rpm (a feat made possible by new titanium conrods, new pistons and sliding finger cam followers – you know, the ones you’d find in a Ferrari F1 car). You can’t, really, but I’ve heard it and it’s a sound I won’t ever forget.

The muscular engine also produces 697Nm of torque at 7250rpm and those totals manage to outdo the 812 Competition.

The Daytona puts all of that power through the rear wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox.

The big lump is dropped into a carbon-fibre tub, just like the La Ferrari, with which it also shares its wild butterfly doors.

All this means that it is very, very fast – and loud – hitting 100km/h in 2.85 seconds, and 200km/h in just 7.4 seconds, with a top speed of 340km/h.

Is the 2022 Ferrari Daytona SP3 comfortable? Would it matter to buyers if it wasn’t?

The cabin is certainly unusual; it doesn’t have traditional seats, just bits of brightly coloured foam stuck straight to the car’s tub. Not a lot of adjustment there, then, but fortunately you can move the pedal box to make up for short legs (and if you’re really tall, you’re probably not going to enjoy it at all).

Then there’s the noise, which is simply deafening at highway speeds (in France, this can mean 180km/h – the speed at which I was overtaken by an enthusiastic Volkswagen people-mover), with all kinds of wind boom from the removable roof.

It might well have drowned out the stereo, but I never bothered working out how to turn that on, because the noise of the engine is, let’s face it, one of the reasons you’d at least think about buying this car.

A Ferrari V12 sounds spine curdling, violent, almost obscene as it approaches 6000rpm, a point at which it seems to be vibrating not just through your soft organs, but your very soul.

And then you push the throttle further, the shift lights on the steering wheel glare at you, and it revs even higher, becoming something beyond engine noise – transcendent. Deafening might be another word.

Ferrari describes it quite well, as “an endless, rising crescendo that gives a feeling of limitless acceleration”.

This might well be the final and fabulous send off for naturally-aspirated performance engines, and the way it rises in pitch and passion is Ferrari engineering at its best.

It can be a little terrifying, of course. The carbon tub makes the Daytona unforgivingly stiff and on broken road surfaces it can feel like you’re about to leap off over a hedge and into lifelong debt.

Indeed, unpleasant roads are a chore, and one that can leave you feeling exhausted as well as scared, but once we found some smoother back roads in the sunny French countryside, the Daytona really started to speak my language.

The steering is superb. The sense of being not just connected to the road surface but intimate with it is invigorating and the speed unrelenting, and encouraging.

I must admit that it pains me to say it’s not the greatest, or the fastest, Ferrari I’ve driven, however. The 296 GTB, which uses hybrid trickery to launch harder from down low, with traditional engine screaming layered on top of electric punch, is more impressive, and still my favourite, while the SF90 obviously has it covered for outright accelerative violence.

But still, this Daytona SP3 is an unforgettable experience, and its noise alone would be reason to think it will find the place in history that its designer, Flavio Manzoni, was seeking.

“I hope the Daytona is a vehicle that people would look back on 30 years from now and recognise as one of the icons of the 2020s,” he enthused.

As much as the 2022 Ferrari Daytona SP3 is a towering engineering achievement – who looks at the 812 Competizione and thinks “no, we could have gone further”? – and a fantastically fast car, I think what it represents most of all is a piece of design.

Ferrari’s designers always enjoy talking about their cars, but to hear them talk about the Daytona as “sculpture” seems entirely appropriate.

Obviously, it looks stunning in photos, but to stand next to the Daytona is to be overcome by the need to touch it, run your hands over it, get down on your knees and gawp at it.

From inside, it’s equally impressive, with those giant wings out in front of you, and the mirrors floating over them. You sit very much in the car, in its guts as it were, and the little wrap-around windscreen makes it feel very much like a Le Mans racer of old.

Appropriately, we were introduced to the car at Le Mans, during a classic-car festival, and it was swamped. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to drive it flat-out down the Mulsanne Straight, but even at (semi) legal speeds, the track experience was magical.

Out on the road, once I’d stopped being terrified that a bump or a pothole might ruin me, it was also extremely enjoyable, unforgettable even, but never more so than when I was driving it past a plate glass window.

And the noises from that screaming V12… how could you not just burn all the fuel in your tank making muscular music?

Pretty much everything about the Daytona is wondrous, but the fact that you can’t have one is annoying. Then there’s the price, at almost $4m. I don’t think many people can wrap their heads around that and I certainly can’t.

How much does the 2022 Ferrari Daytona SP3 cost?
Price: $3,842,608 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Sold out
Engine: 6.5-litre V12 petrol
Output: 618kW/697Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel: 15.5L/100km
CO2: 352g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: N/A