Ferrari Roma Spider 2024 Review

The 2024 Ferrari Roma Spider kicks off at $520,300 plus on-road costs, which represents a premium of roughly 15 per cent over the Roma coupe (from $453,000 plus ORCs).

Its pricing positions the Roma Spider slightly north of the Aston Martin DB12 Volante, which starts at $492,000 plus ORCs, but the Ferrari undercuts the Bentley Continental GTC S, priced from $568,400 plus ORCs.

The 2024 Ferrari Roma Spider comes standard with 20-inch alloy wheels, a leather/Alcantara interior, heated 18-way power-adjustable front seats, dual-zone climate control and a multifunction steering wheel with haptic controls.

The driver is faced with a 16-inch virtual instrument cluster, while the central infotainment screen is a smallish 8.4-inch unit. There’s also an optional 8.8-inch screen front of the passenger that enables them to operate the infotainment functions and monitor the car’s speed etc.

The Roma Spider’s standard kit list includes Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, navigation and an eight-speaker audio system.

The folding soft-top is a five-layer fabric sandwich that can fold in 13.5 seconds at speeds up to 60km/h.

There’s also a novel wind deflector (a fold-out panel) that deploys over the token rear seats at the push of a button. According to Ferrari’s estimates, the deflector reduces in-cabin turbulence by around 30 per cent, and it can be deployed at speeds of up to 170km/h.

The Roma Spider is Ferrari’s first fabric-roofed offering since the 430 Spider and it’s the first front-engined soft-top since the Daytona Spider, of which only 122 units were produced from 1971-73.

The 2024 Ferrari Roma Spider is unlikely to ever be crash tested by Euro NCAP or ANCAP, but it comes equipped with a comprehensive quota of safety features.

Front and side airbags, cruise control, automatic LED headlights with auto high beam and rain-sensing wipers are standard, and the ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) package – formerly a $15K option in the Roma coupe – is also now included at no cost.

The ADAS package adds adaptive cruise, lane departure alert, blind spot monitoring with rear cross traffic alert, traffic sign recognition, front and rear parking sensors and a surround-view camera to the safety kit quota.

The SSC 6.0 (Side Slip Control – aka stability control) offers various degrees of adjustability via the manettino switch, and the latter also enables you to tailor the aggression of the drivetrain and suspension, depending on the mood and occasion.

Stopping power comes from standard carbon-ceramic brakes.

The 2024 Ferrari Roma’s platform is based on that of the now-defunct Portofino, but 70 per cent of it is new.

Ferrari claims the loss of a fixed roof hasn’t notably diluted the Roma Spider’s dynamics vis-a-vis its coupe stablemate, and it’s by no means a lardy roadster at 1556kg (dry weight).

As per the coupe, cooling and airflow for the engine is provided by a perforated front fascia in body colour, rather than a conventional grille, while race-car-style vortex generators on the underfloor at the front of the car help the Roma generate more downforce on the front axle than the Portofino.

As per its coupe sibling, the 2024 Ferrari Roma Spider derives propulsion from a 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 that ekes out 456kW from 5750-7500rpm and a barrel-chested 760Nm of torque from 3000-5750rpm.

Drive is channelled to the rear wheels via a rear-mounted eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, which is fundamentally the same gearbox that made its debut in the SF90.

With less than 1.7 tonnes to shift with all fluids on board, the Roma Spider nails down some eye-opening stats for a topless grand tourer.

It sprints from 0-100km/h in 3.4sec, flashes past 200km/h in 9.7sec and can hit 320km/h flat out, should you have access to a runway or unrestricted stretch of autobahn.

In terms of raw figures, the Roma Spider comfortably out-accelerates the Aston Martin DB12 Volante (0-100km/h in 3.7sec), although the latter has a higher top speed at 325km/h.

The Roma Spider also outsprints the Bentley Continental GTC S (0-100km/h in 4.1sec), as well as having a marginally higher top speed (the Bentley tops out at 318km/h).

Ferrari claims an overall consumption figure of 11.4L/100km for the 2024 Ferrari Roma Spider.

We found it to be a surprisingly frugal cruiser as the Spider’s 80-litre fuel tank still had more than a third left after covering more than 600km during our test.

That said, a large chunk of this mileage was clocked up on highways at steady cruising speeds.

It would be a mistake to dismiss the 2024 Ferrari Roma Spider as a pretentious roadster that sacrifices dynamism in favour of a wishy-washy lifestyle focus.

In most respects, the Roma Spider effortlessly fulfils the dual facets of being a relaxed grand tourer and hard-core corner carver.

Slot the manettino knob in Comfort mode and the Roma Spider lopes along country roads and highways with a decent level of refinement.

Even with the top down, it’s possible to have a non-shouty conversation with your passenger at speeds of up to 120km/h. This is especially true if you deploy the wind deflector.

That said, the cossetting experience is marred somewhat by jiggly ride quality over corrugated surfaces, and there’s also some noticeable driveline shunt as you get on and off the gas in stop-start traffic.

Another gripe is that the eight-speed dual-clutch transmission is over-eager to shift up to high ratios in the chase for fuel economy. This is the case even if you slot the manettino in Sport mode.

Of course, you can easily take matters into your own hands by working the elongated carbon-fibre flappy paddles, which have a pleasing tactility to them.

We didn’t have the opportunity to give the Roma Spider a sustained flogging across winding roads, but the few corners that presented themselves during our test showcased a level of tautness that’s hard to find in a front-engine roadster.

The drop-top Ferrari has a planted feel, although the light and highly sensitive steering and brake pedal require a brief period of familiarisation to get completely in tune with the car.

The twin-turbo V8 has vast reserves of low- and mid-range oomph that you can deploy to waft past slow-moving cars, yet it’s also happy to zing its way up to its 7500rpm redline.

The 3.9-litre unit is a veritable gem of an engine, and its soundtrack has a decently sporting edge to it, although lacking the sheer drama and melodious timbre of Ferrari’s epic V12 motors.

There’s plenty of artistry on show in the 2024 Ferrari Roma Spider’s cabin. The twin-cockpit layout not only looks good, it creates a clear demarcation between the driver’s domain and the front passenger’s space.

The front seats are beautifully sculpted, and they do a good job of supporting your lumbar region, which means you can cover hundreds of kilometres without undue fatigue or emerging from the car with a backache.

There’s a reason Ferrari refers to this car as a ‘2+’ rather than a 2+2 as the rear seats are of the token variety. They’re okay for accommodating small children or tossing your backpack, briefcase or grocery bags into, but that’s about it.

Boot capacity is a modest but still usable 255 litres with the roof up – 17 litres less than what the Roma coupe can stash in the rear – but to lower the roof you need to put down a divider, which eats into boot space.

As with the coupe, the haptic buttons on the steering wheel don’t function very well, and the menus for the infotainment system and instrument gauge cluster display are anything but intuitive.

Hopefully this is an area that Ferrari addresses in its next-gen models.

The 2024 Ferrari Roma Spider has plenty going for it, so if an ultra-premium high-performance roadster is what you’re in the market for, it deserves to be on your shortlist.

Apart from its superb powertrain, the Roma Spider has a well-sorted chassis that hasn’t lost too much in the transition from coupe to topless tourer. There’s a tautness to its dynamics that places it at least half a rung above its direct rivals.

Ultimately, it comes down to where your priorities lie. If comfort and an ultra-opulent cabin are more important to you than outright performance, we’d point you towards the Bentley Continental GTC S.

The Aston Martin DB12 Volante comes close to matching the Roma Spider’s performance and dynamism and – at least to this tester’s eye – it’s better resolved visually.

There are no losers among this trio. Each has its own merits and, in the case of the Ferrari Roma Spider, they’re tantalising ones.

2024 Ferrari Roma Spider at a glance:
Price: $520,300 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Powertrain: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Outputs: 456kW/760Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel: 11.4L/100km (WLTP Combined)
CO2: 258g/km (WLTP Combined)
Safety rating: Not tested