Finest Ferrari launched

Ferrari has handed over the keys of its $2 million LaFerrari flagship to selected media outlets in Maranello, just as first images and details of an ever more focussed version appear.

Only six of the world’s biggest-selling English-speaking automotive publications were granted access to LaFerrari, all of which were unsurprisingly glowing in their appraisal the most powerful production Prancing Horse ever.

Ferrari has reportedly threatened a $75,000 fine for any publication that breaks the May 26 syndication embargo, which applies to outlets that purchase first drive reviews published this week, granting the select handful of magazines exclusive rights for almost a month.

Therefore we can only bring you verdicts from the UK’s Autocar, Top Gear, Car and EVO, and North America’s Car & Driver and Automobile, on the spiritual successor for the Enzo and Ferrari’s answer to the Porsche 918 Spyder and McLaren P1 hyper-hybrids.

“However fast and furious and noisy and exciting to drive you might imagine LaFerrari to be, double it, add 20 and you might, just maybe, get somewhere close,” said Autocar’s Steve Sutcliffe.

“The sheer thrust the thing can generate will scare most people half to death to begin with, for example, because it really is monumentally rapid. And it just never lets up.

“The acceleration, and the noise, and the violence, it all just keeps on coming at you, stronger and louder with every extra revolution of the crankshaft until the limiter intrudes at an ear-splitting 9250rpm”.

Top Gear’s Charlie Turner said the 718kW La Ferrari is just that: ‘The Ferrari’.

“Forget all you know about fast: this is a whole new stratosphere of performance, a relentless accumulation of speed accompanied by the greatest automotive soundtrack in the world.

“You don't so much accelerate in LaFerrari as warp scenery. As the V12 screams its way to the 9250rpm redline, the Italian countryside is hauled back and fired out of the rear-view mirror.

“A 950bhp hypercar shouldn't be easy to drive, but this one is. That's the genius of LaFerrari, which takes the concept of driver aids that heighten rather than blunt the experience and propels it into a new dimension, which grafts F1 tech to a vast, traditional V12 to showcase the very best of Maranello old and new.”

While Car UK’s Chris Chilton said lessons learned from LaFerrari will make next year’s 458 replacement “a monster”, EVO UK’s Richard Meaden said LaFerrari’s petrol-electric powertrain provided a “solid wall of thrust” without the P1’s “fuss or sense of multiple power sources”.

“The hardware might be thoroughly modern, but LaFerrari’s heart remains a screaming naturally aspirated V12 engine,” said Meaden.

“More like a force of nature than something man-made, it owns your senses, its pulsing beat sending all manner of subtle vibrations into you through the structure of the car.

“Where the real magic happens is in the way the electric motor makes its contribution. The ultimate silent partner, it augments the V12’s performance, response and delivery without ever making its presence felt.

“Ferrari has used the electric motor as a means of sharpening the powertrain’s response and providing torque-fill in the lower and mid-range of its torque curve, which then allows the petrol engine’s tune to be optimised for top-end fireworks.”

But as good as it may be, Ferrari will – despite previous denials -- soon offer an even more potent version of the limited-edition LaFerrari, all 499 examples of which are already spoken for , although it’s unlikely to deliver more than the standard car.

Which means it should be powered by the same 588kW/700Nm 6.3-litre naturally aspirated V12 that, constituting Ferrari’s first hybrid model, combines with a 120kW electric motor to deliver total output of no less than 718kW, accelerating the car to 100km/h in less than three seconds.

According to Autocar, the even more hard-core LaFerrari XX – which takes its name from the original Enzo-based FXX and 599XX prototypes – is likely to bring significant weight-savings, aerodynamic and electronic upgrades.

As suggested by first spy shots of an early test mule at the Nurburgring, LaFerrari XX should also feature more track-focussed handling.

Wearing an unpainted body, the pre-production model featured sliding plastic windows, a large new rear spoiler and slick Pirelli tyres.

Expect LaFerrari XX, which will be even more expensive and exclusive than the model on which it’s based, to officially surface by next February.