Ferrari Roma 2020 Review

There’s a lot in here to justify the $409,888 price tag of the Ferrari Roma, not the least of which is that red-painted pearl sitting beneath the droop-nosed bonnet.

Nobody will cross-shop the Ferrari Roma with a Toyota HiLux, so it seems like reasonable value.

The upper end of Porsche’s 911 range usually sits a long way north of here, and the Roma costs only $11,000 more than the lesser convertible Portofino.

That car is a lot softer in its outlook than the Roma, and it comes with a folding metal hard-top roof – and two nominal rear seats.

This car has a fixed roof, not even the option of a sunroof and, again, two nominal rear seats (with ISOFIX fittings).

It also has a relatively lavish interior by Ferrari standards, with leather everywhere and a very clever slot in the side of the centre console for phones (though a less clever lack of inductive charging).

It is the second Ferrari to use its new generation of multi-media displays and controls (after the astonishing SF90 Stradale) and a few more of the kinks have been ironed out of it.

There’s a single, curved 16-inch digital display for the instrument cluster and it has a range of display options that are found by swiping the touch pads on the steering wheel.

An 8.4-inch touch-screen display sits in the centre of the dash, containing the seat, climate, navigation and other controls, while there’s the option of an 8.8-inch touch-screen in front of the passenger.

There’s a reversing camera, active cruise control but, oddly, no inductive phone charging and no sunroof option.

By far the most important piece of active safety in the Ferrari Roma is the sixth generation of the company’s Side Slip Control (SSC).

Wired in the Manettino (the little red switch on the steering wheel), the SSC6 governs when the Roma slides and exactly how much it slides.

It’s just the ticket when the 285/35 ZR20 rear Pirellis run out of bite, which they can do at even 200km/h in the wet. We know. We checked, accidentally.

There are other safety pieces in deep here, like the torque-vectoring E-differential, but the most obviously necessary one is the SSC. It allows the driver to adjust how much of an electronic safety net the Roma delivers, from the slide-happy Race mode to the protective Wet mode.

Is the Ferrari Roma really a Ferrari Portofino/California with a new suit?

No.

It might share the basic architecture and the same 2670mm wheelbase, but Ferrari insists the Roma is 70 per cent new and far more agile than the convertible. Seems fair.

The new eight-speed dual-clutch auto (shared, for the most part, with the SF90 Stradale) leaves the powertrain sitting 20mm lower than it does in the Portofino and it’s 100kg lighter (1472kg), give or take an option.

It’s also 70mm wider and 36mm lower in the roofline, so the wider footprint already encourages agility.

The 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 is a slight upgrade of the Portofino’s motor, delivering 456kW of power and 760Nm of torque, and it’s enough to rip to 100km/h in 3.4 seconds and to 200km/h in 9.3 seconds. Ferrari reckons it’s good for north of 320km/h.

The V8 scores new camshaft profiling, dropping the valve 1mm deeper into the combustion chamber, and a new inductive RPM sensor allows Ferrari to spin the turbocharger 5000rpm faster.

The interesting part is in the exhaust, though, where Ferrari ripped out the silencers at the rear of the car, mostly because the particulate filter downstream of the smaller catalytic converter took away enough noise to make it legal anyway.

It rides on the same springs as the Portofino at the front, though the rear springs are about 10 per cent softer, and its track widths are wider at both ends, making its spring rates effectively softer all round.

There’s a rear spoiler integrated into the bottom of the rear glasshouse, but it’s not adjustable by the driver. Instead, the three-position spoiler works to meet the car’s needs, depending on the speed and the driving style at the time.

It stays in the fixed (LD, or low drag) position until 100km/h, but the MD (medium drag) position generates 30 per cent of the car’s maximum downforce for a price of only one per cent more drag.

Then there’s HD (you guessed it), which tilts to a 135-degree angle to achieve 95kg of downforce at 250km/h for just four per cent more drag. It stays in MD above 300km/h because Ferrari says it improves the balance and lowers drag.

It helps the Roma develop 95kg more downforce at 250km/h than the Portofino, in part thanks to vortex generators built into the flat underfloor

There are Ferraris that aren’t dripping with theatre, which is an odd contradiction. The Ferrari Roma isn’t one of them.

The multi-function steering wheel has a touch-screen panel with a built-in start ‘button’ and the V8 fires up loudly and strongly.

It’s not a sweet song from the flat-plane crank motor, but it’s dripping with muscle.

The Roma is immediately more convincing a car than the Portofino, even from the first engagement of the gear and the first oscillation of the spring.

It feels solid, integrated and superb, with steering that’s much quicker and more nuanced just off centre than the Portofino’s and there’s a stiffer, short-travel brake pedal for the carbon-ceramic anchors.

It’s a lovely car at low speed, with a calm ride from the optional Magnetorheological adaptive dampers and a taut feel from the bodywork and every corner of the chassis.

Broken roads are eased over, speed bumps are taken with disdain and it all feels composed.

It’s more remarkable at speed, though, where the Roma points harder into tight corners than the Portofino and its body remains flatter through faster bends, without the propensity to roll disconcertingly.

The Ferrari Roma’s steering remains a wonderful partner, though slightly behind the 911 family for intimacy, and the chassis is utterly reliable.

We had a mix of very slippery roads, very grippy roads and rain, and the car is easily catchable when it slides at the rear under power. The SSC does the lion’s share of the work here, but it’s still composed enough to be managed with the skid controls switched off.

All that power can overwhelm the rear-end of the Roma, but not the driving experience, where the chassis shines like it never could in the Portofino.

Who’d have guessed that the 50-year wait for a real 911 rival would come belatedly from Ferrari and not McLaren or Aston Martin or even Audi?

It has. The Ferrari Roma is so comprehensively good that it’s easy to see it transcending traditional Ferrari heartlands for a wider world of sports car buyers.

There are some technologies missing inside the cabin and the MMI is a bit fiddly, but the comfort and design and materials make up for it, mostly.

The motor can actually sound a bit one-dimensional in its vocals when you push it for more than a few kilometres, so it’s not hard to imagine aftermarket exhaust systems finding their way into Romas.

There’s nothing fake about the chassis’ abilities, and it feels lighter and tighter than any other V8 front-engined Ferrari. It feels like a junior 488, with a slightly more front-biased balance.

You can slide the front-end on the way into faster bends, drift the back-end gently on the way through the middle and punch it out the other side, all while smiling in a mix of enjoyment and respect.

The brakes remained strong, the engine kept hauling and the gearbox is actually the hidden superstar here, unable to be tricked in auto mode and snapping through shifts with almost no perceptible break in acceleration.

The five handling modes all have their own characters, making it configurable for every driver and every condition.

The Ferrari Roma is a terrific car, a likeable car and a quality piece of engineering. It only took three goes at the California, but Ferrari has finally found the V8 GT sweet spot.

How much does the 2020 Ferrari Roma cost?
Price: $409,888 (plus on-road costs)
Available: First quarter 2021
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbo petrol
Output: 456kW/760Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel: Under homologation
CO2: Under homologation
Safety rating: N/A