LaFerrari joins SF90 and Senna

Kind of a dream to be able to write this. A very expensive dream and one that I have thought carefully about. We’re in the very fortunate position to be able to put some of our finance into what is now a very expensive (to me at least) assembly of cars with that hopefully not being a financially irresponsible decision. Maybe this story will be interesting for some of you.

I’ve loved cars since the age of 7 when my father was able to bring home some very nice cars from his work. He never really loved cars but he was my hero figure and the sound, smell and look of these things left a passion in me. I also grew up as an F1 fanatic, again, a passion my father never shared.

Mansell and Senna were my favourite drivers and Ferrari was, well, Ferrari.

My logic behind the LaFerrari purchase is that it looks like the next Ferrari hyper will be a V6 or V8 hybrid (no guarantee but sure looks that way). This would leave the LaFerrari as the only mid engined, V12, DCT Ferrari hyper car that will ever be made. Despite the price, which is significantly higher than original, to make it a good purchase it has to be able to at least retain its value which I feel it must be likely to do over the next 10 years. To be clear, ownership and driving pleasure is part of the ‘return’ which means that even if it holds station in that period it will have been an amazing experience. In the end though, I bought it because I think it is the pinnacle motor car in the world for me. Pagani, Koenigsegg, Porsche with Carrera GT and 918, McLaren with P1, all wonderful but not the equal of LaFerrari to me.

This car is perfect spec for me and very close if not identical to what I know we would have ordered if we had the opportunity back in 2015 when this car was built. Rosso F1 2007, full carbon, 3-point belts, glossy Grigio Silverstone wheels and the mileage is less than 200. It is completely immaculate and unmarked.

I have not yet driven it due to the cold temperatures and salt on the roads. However, I took a few pictures and can make a few observations about appearance and overall non-driving feel of the car compared to Senna and SF90.

We’ve owned SF90 for about 18 months and 3k miles and know how brilliant that car is to drive; fast, agile and really rewarding considering its power. We’ve owned the Senna for less time and only a couple hundred road miles so far. Senna and SF90 are similar track speed but obviously very different ways of getting there. The Senna is instantly more raw, more hyper-car in the way it feels. What is a hyper-car? I guess it has to be rare, intended to achieve a pinnacle in some metric, with no expense spared in its development despite few examples over which to amortise the development cost. Rare, expensive and extravagant, even more than something like a Pista. Despite the SF90 having hyper-car performance it doesn’t really seem to fit my definition in other respects. When sitting in the Senna, the SF90 seems much more normal. An Aventador competitor rather than a LaFerrari competitor or even the Senna. Senna is based on pretty normal underpinnings though, the 720 chassis for instance. However, the extreme aero and extreme light weight (given it’s power) on the Senna seem to put it in that hyper-car bracket. Rare, exotic and extreme. It pushes the ‘drive it to the track then on the track’ thing further than anything else you can buy, even today, four years later. When the Senna arrived, it was much more imposing than I expected. I thought its look was sensational, despite thinking it impossibly ugly at launch. Somehow, this year I realised I was really starting to like the way it looked and began to think more about what it offered. In 10 years time a high downforce, non-hybrid, hyper-car might just be very good news indeed. And it’s called Senna. Nobody but McLaren could do that.

I wondered if I should just leave it at that. I had asked our Ferrari DP some months earlier about sourcing a LaFerrari but that seemed to be taking a while to get the right car. There were a couple of examples we looked at but I only really considered doing it through the Ferrari dealer. So impressed was I with the Senna, and a little scared at the price of the LaFerrari, that I figured if it didn’t happen then so be it.

Then the right car came and the purchase happened quickly after that. A big thanks to our DP who really did find a cracker of an example. So what are up-close first impressions like? For context the LaFerrari is around three times the value of a Senna. Is it three times the car? I suppose some of that can’t really be quantified because there are market dynamics now involved in the value of both cars. Senna MSRP was about £750k before options and LaFerrari £1.2m 5 years earlier, so double. Does it feel twice the car? Yes, without question in my mind it does.

The Senna sound I have not really heard beyond about 5k revs but I already know it is the least impressive element on the car and maybe the most impressive on the LaFerrari. In the flesh the LaFerrari looks so much nicer than in photographs - it is exquisite, that’s the best word I can find. Sitting inside the car feels much more special than the Senna. The quality, the bespoke nature of the car, the more compact interior. It all screams automotive royalty and is full of promise even before you drive it in anger. The driver cockpit and console is a real piece of art as is the car itself. The LaFerrari is smaller than I expected, much lower roofline than even the Senna. Both wonderful cars but the market is not wrong.

If there’s anything negative it’s this; I already feel much more sensitive about how I put mileage on the car. Trailering it to where I want to drive it is what I’ll do I think. Motorway miles are an ultra expensive prospect and just not worth it. But simply doing no mileage and being seen in it holds no appeal for me. I prefer not. Transporting it to the alps or somewhere like that and doing 3 or 400 miles seems like the sensible way. My insurer wants to keep miles below 1k pa and I don’t feel the need to argue. Truthfully, if I keep the car longer than 10 years I can’t see more than 5k miles given we have other cars in the garage. My task is to make them as special as I can.

Already, without driving the car, I have a different sense of ownership of this car compared to something like a Pista. Funny thing; on the day it was delivered our Competizione VIN appeared on MyFerrari. We have a saying in the UK about waiting for buses. Takes ages then two come at once!

Given there are other LaFerrari owners on this board, any thoughts about the ownership experience, the car or what else I can expect would be most welcome. I can’t do a driving comparison between these cars yet but soon.
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Ah, cheers Jag! Have to find a way to meet up with you and your F50 - also an amazing machine, full of Ferrari goodness

 

Thanks for everyone’s good wishes - what a privilege it is! Once we’re through our cold and wet winter I’ll let you know how I get on with the Senna. I’m hoping to do a trailer trip to the alps in the summer and will load one of the two of them but not sure which. Probably the LaF.

 

Interesting. I guess for many who end up owning these hypercars, it is the realisation of something you might have thought about since being a child. As with so many things, the reality is both everything you expected and some things you didn’t. The fact is I have driven the car twice, both on A to A drives. There is not a better car in the world in my opinion. True, I haven’t driven every car but as a work of art it is 10/10, as a work of engineering it is 10/10, as a work of design it is 10/10, as a quality product it is 9/10 (the mark lost is the battery which needs replacing every 10 or so years - ours is currently waiting for one). Only one mark lost because the warranty you can buy seems reasonably priced and covers the battery. I just think it is an absolutely wonderful car and different to any other Ferrari I have owned or driven - a different level. Remarkable given how much I think ‘normal’ Ferraris are themselves a cut above other cars.

But with such a low mileage car I am too conscious of the mileage for my own liking. Not just that, when and where to use it has to be planned, mostly because of its impracticality and value. I would like to be offered the F250 when it arrives, and if this happened, I would find it easier to drive because I suspect that even with a bit of mileage on, it would likely be worth more than it cost (depending on how confident Ferrari feel when setting its price..).

To drive it feels fantastic. The monocoque lends a real point of difference to other Ferraris and that V12 is imperious. The KERS system is imperceptible save for the fact that torque, even for a V12, feels immediate and copious. The handling feels secure and since the generation of interior controls is from the 458 there is a really familiar feeling (the Ferrari I have driven most is the 458 Speciale). The handling is typically Ferrari and a little reminiscent of the Speciale but the feel inside the car is very different. You always know you are driving something very special.

I think the best thing that could happen with my ownership of this car is for values to increase further so that I don’t mind adding a few miles to it. That would come with age and if I own it for a long time I can see me finding ways to use this car more, for example, the Mille Miglia would be a spectacular event to do in the LaFerrari. You would come to know it intimately after something like that. As it is, I know the surface of a few of its secrets but a detailed knowledge is still to come. Might be exciting!