I've been meaning to put my thoughts together on my SF90. Apologies in advance for the length. Image Unavailable, Please Login When the SF90 was announced I, like many other Ferrari customers I'm assuming, got a number of messages from my dealer asking if I wanted to order one. I wasn't impressed with the way it looked in the launch materials, I was hoping for something more unique but instead I felt like Ferrari announced a slightly more special 488/F8. That combined with the new pricing tier and unproven platform made it easy for me to pass. Then I drove one. I was at a Ferrari Esperienza event. I emailed in advance to see what cars they had to drive, the coordinator replied with a list that included the SF90 Stradale. I replied asking to put my name down to drive that. The coordinator responded: Techman, we already have you signed up to drive the SF90. They knew. My main concerns going into the drive: I'm not a fan of AWD vehicles, I'm not a fan of turbocharged Ferraris (they're laggy and don't sound great imho) and I didn't think the SF90 looked good based on the launch materials. Driving the SF90 eliminated all of my concerns. Any time I've owned an AWD sports car I've ended up being bored by it. Too much grip, not enough twitchiness. Lately though I think modern RWD Ferraris are a little too twitchy, they could use a little more traction. The SF90's AWD doesn't feel boring at all, the car still feels light on its feet, steering is still quick/light/effortless, but what the AWD provides is grip when I need it. Full throttle in the SF90 and it can put all of its power down. Nice. I owned a 488 Spider. It didn't sound bad, but it didn't sound great, and I felt like the stock exhaust had a fatiguing drone during most normal driving. The SF90 on the other hand sounds great. It's quiet when I want it to be quiet, and makes a great noise under load. It also has a reasonable pitch near redline, much more fulfilling than the 488, though definitely not as good as my 812. 99% of the time there's zero turbo lag, the electric motors do their job and you end up with a clearly turbo charged engine that somehow behaves even better than a naturally aspirated engine. It's a very unique combination, it's so much better than a turbocharged engine alone. The control systems do a pretty good job at blending the electric motors and V8. I've noticed when the car is cold it'll rely more on the e-motors, but it's always blending the four motors seamlessly. You just get the feeling of one insanely capable power plant (the remaining 1% is because I feel like I can sometimes confuse the system into not blending the power plants as seamlessly but it's incredibly rare). I never felt like the CaliT/488 engines hid the turbo lag as much as Ferrari liked to claim, but with the SF90 it really does drive like there's zero turbo lag. I've had an EV as my daily driver for a few years now and one thing that stands out about it is how not fatiguing it is to drive. I suspect it's a combination of the instantaneous throttle response and insane torque, you never feel like the car is struggling to move even when you're lighting applying throttle. The SF90 inherits this behavior and as a result it feels fun to drive regardless of how much throttle input I'm giving it. It doesn't matter if I'm casually leaving a traffic light or if I'm pushing it more, the car always feels ready to respond. Things that surprised me on my first (and subsequent drives): the suspension is incredible. I drove both the AF and non-AF cars. With the standard suspension on my first drive I remember remarking that even without bumpy road mode on the car felt really comfortable. Now that I've got a few months of ownership under my belt there are times when I'll turn on bumpy road mode, but both it and normal operating modes hit a great balance between comfort and sportiness. I drove my 812 yesterday after driving the SF90 and couldn't believe how bad the suspension was in comparison. F167 can't come quickly enough. The AF suspension is definitely stiffer, but no front axle lift killed that as an option for me. It was also stiff enough that I felt like it would make me want to use the car less and that wasn't my goal for this one. This was a car I was going to drive. I'm glad I didn't opt for the AF package, though I really liked the AF spoiler when I finally saw it in person (I checked with Ferrari, can't add the spoiler without the suspension change - even through Tailor Made). The car feels more special than any other modern Ferrari I've owned. I'm not entirely sure why that is. I suspect it's a combination of the sound, steering feel, power delivery, styling and a bunch of other things I can't put my finger on. When my SF90 production kept getting delayed with no end in sight, I went to a Ferrari 296 driving event with the hopes that I would fall in love with that and just ask my dealer to get me one of those asap. Although I liked the 296, it didn't feel anywhere near as special as the SF90. I was disappointed at the time, I figured it would be an easy way to save some money and potentially get a car sooner than my forever delayed SF90 (more on that in a bit) but the 296 felt like a successor to the 488 lineage - the SF90 felt like something else entirely. I have a 296 GTS on order, but I have a feeling that's not a car I'll keep for the long haul. I've never driven an F40 but I've always heard the incredible rush of torque once the turbos spool up is something else entirely - the SF90 under full throttle, particularly in the lower gears, is what I imagine a modern version of that must feel like. Plant your head back on the headrest, mat the go pedal and hold on for dear life. It's an amazing sensation that I repeat as often as I can (interestingly enough I got tired of doing the same thing in my Model S Plaid, but not in the SF90, I suspect the sound and feel of the car is what makes the difference there). The styling. Ok this one caught me by surprise. The first SF90 I drove was tdf blue, it looked better than the photos. Even the weird Camaro tail lights didn't bother me in person. And the weird new wheel style? Also pretty cool in person. Remember my three concerns were: AWD, turbocharged and iffy styling. Seeing the car in person took the styling from a negative to a neutral. Then I saw one in Rosso Corsa with Nero roof, oh man was I sold. I love the pointy nose, it doesn't show up in most photos but in person it's way more aggressive. It's still more on the conservative side than I think it could've been, but the car has real presence - I think it looks great in person from all angles. If you haven't seen one in person, the photos don't do it justice. The only thing I wish it had was dihedral doors. The SF90 is wide, the doors are wide, and if you have the racing seats getting in if you're in a tight parking space is a little more challenging than I'd like. This is the one area where I think the 296 has a clear advantage - it's definitely a much smaller feeling car. Image Unavailable, Please Login Now let's talk about that steering wheel. Unlike the yoke in my Plaid, most of the controls I interact with on a regular basis are physical buttons - turn signals, volume and music controls, those are all well executed. I love the new thinner steering wheel too, it's a far better design than the GTC4 Lusso/812/F8 generation steering wheel. Menu navigation is the problem, since you need to use the cap sense touch pad there. I've mostly been able to work around it. Here's my instrument cluster setup from left to right: engine temp/oil pressure, navigation, tach, audio. With this setup, music is playing from my phone via CarPlay but I don't have the CarPlay UI visible. If I need to switch tracks I've got the physical button on the back of the steering wheel. Navigation instructions from my phone appear in the second panel from the left (though I don't get a map view this way). The only issue is when a new message comes in, the CarPlay UI takes over the majority of the screen, but if you just don't do anything it'll disappear in a few seconds and everything goes back to normal. It didn't need to be this way but not a deal breaker by any means, I almost never have to interact with the touch pad. Ferrari really just needs to replace the touch pad with a normal d-pad and this design can work. The Purosangue seems to take a half step by marking out a d-pad but my understanding is it's still a cap sense surface. Maybe next generation. There are also a ton of UI elements on the instrument cluster. You can see they significantly simplified the layout in the Purosangue already. You get used to it but initially, man, the whole layout was super distracting and hard to follow. On the bright side I do find myself changing tach colors more than I thought I would. I wish Ferrari offered more customization for the UI. This generation we seem to have all of the problems of a digital instrument cluster with none of the benefits realized. The display itself looks good and isn't distracting at night. The UI performance is just awful. Thankfully with my setup above I almost never have to see the horrendous frame rate since I'm not swiping between screens. Image Unavailable, Please Login I drive almost exclusively in qualifying mode. I paid for 1000HP, I want to use it. The only exception is if I'm driving a very short distance between buildings at the office and I don't want to cold start the engine just to shut it off 2 mins later. In that case I'll drive in eD mode alone, which works great. Another side benefit of eD mode, I can reverse into the garage without filling it with exhaust fumes. In qualifying mode the high voltage battery seems almost always fully charged. Ferrari seems to blend braking, engine braking and regen together. Lift off the throttle at highway speeds? It'll start filling the high voltage battery, but the car feels like it's engine braking. Lightly hit the brake pedal? Same deal, it'll be some combination of regenerative braking + mechanical braking depending on how much stopping power you're requesting. The braking feels pretty natural but I can definitely tell at times when it cuts over to the disc brakes from regen. I will see braking is the one place where the SF90 hybrid design shows its downside - you can tell there's a lot of weight to stop. Other than braking, the SF90 feels light and nimble, but there's no getting around physics. After a couple decades of loving convertibles, I drove in a friend's F430 coupe a few years ago. His coupe was a year older than my 430 spider and had twice as many miles, but it felt like a brand new car compared to the creaky/flexy mess that my 430 spider was. From that day on I swore off of convertibles. This proved to be a problem when I went to order the SF90. Remember I wasn't interested in the car at announce. The problem is by the time I went to actually order one, my dealer had no more coupe allocations. Spider, not a problem, but their coupe books were closed. I figured 1000HP and missing a roof was a recipe for an even worse experience so I was at a loss. My dealer suggested a different option: go Tailor Made. They had a separate allocation pool, I could get a coupe and I'd get a more interesting car in the process. I was concerned that I'd be forced into getting something weird, but my dealer assured me that I'd end up with something I loved. I grabbed the next available tailor made appointment, which was unfortunately a couple months out. This was during the height of the pandemic and I wasn't going to risk getting sick by flying to NYC so I opted to do it remotely. The tailor made team asked me to give them a sense of what theme I was looking to execute with this car. I spent some time writing down all of my thoughts, but my guidance was really that I just wanted the car and I didn't want it to look weird. A huge percentage of TM cars end up looking awful in my opinion but I suspect that's a reflection of individual personalization being truly for the individual. I have a pretty boring history of F cars from a color standpoint - they've all been Rosso Corsa. Every time I order another one I tell myself I'm going to try a different color, but then I always end up with Rosso Corsa. The Tailor Made NYC team prepared three themes for me: two Rosso Corsa cars and one Azzuro La Plata car. I dismissed the Azure La Plata config, it's a cool color but not for me, and went Rosso Corsa again. (some of the photos below were taken by my PPF installer after wrapping the car - hence the PFS SoCal watermark). Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login The default SF90 interior is kind of boring in my opinion and I let the team know I was looking for options to spruce that up. They arrived at a great solution. Alcantara and apollo bright for the carpets, and Foglizzo Lux 034 leather for the seats and accents. The combination of alcantara and apollo bright in the spec the TM team came up with does a lot to add some more interest to the interior. The Foglizzo Lux 034 leather the designer proposed is a great color and the leather itself feels incredible. My build was held up for months because they apparently had never applied this leather to the CF racing seats before and they weren't happy with the consistency of the grain on the seat. I told them it didn't bother me at all, I just wished they had told me sooner rather than remaking the seat multiple times over before reaching out. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login The matte gold painted wheels also turned out perfectly. I'm glad I went for them. My biggest regret is not going for Rosso TRS like the TM designer suggested after we'd settled on the config. I had never seen the color in person, but in hindsight the spec turned out so perfectly that I should've just trusted the designer completely. That was my biggest takeaway going through the tailor made process. If you don't come in with weird ideas, they won't force a weird config on you. You'll end up with an extremely tastefully done specification. I'm definitely sold on tailor made and for any car I plan on keeping for a while I'm definitely going TM. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Although the SF90 is easily one of the best Ferraris I've ever owned, the ordering and quality control have been among the worst. I was told to expect delivery late 2021 or early 2022, in reality the order spent months in limbo while the factory tried to build my seats. With no communication during this period we were just waiting while other cars made progress. Ferrari really needs to improve their communication/transparency, I could've saved them a ton of time had they just reached out the first time they ran into an issue. I had a sense that something was up when they asked if it was ok to go back to a standard Daytona seat style instead of the special tailor made CF seat design. I eventually took delivery at the end of last year. My car had tons of paint issues, the hood/front bumper weren't properly aligned and my driver's side bolster came pre-worn. All of these things were corrected in due time but it's clear to me that while Ferrari may have scaled to deliver ~13K cars a year, the rest of their processes haven't scaled at the same rate. Image Unavailable, Please Login I've got 1200 miles on the SF90 thus far and weather permitting I drive it most days of the week. I always felt like my old manual 430 spider was the most fun Ferrari I'd owned. The 458 (drove but never owned) felt more refined but less fun. My 488 was faster and more comfortable but less engaging/fun. My 812 is different, but not the same sort of fun. I figured that era of fun was just over. The SF90 changed my opinion there. It's ridiculously fun to drive. In fact, driving the SF90 made me feel the way I felt when I drove my first Ferrari over 20 years ago. It's worth every single penny.
Best write up on the SF90 I’ve read, with all the negativity out there initially which you thought yourself, you saw the car in real life, drove it and can now give productive feedback.. not sure I could have gone Rosso Corsa with a TM slot, but you have ended up,with the car you want.. I went AF, purely because I prefer my sports cars to feel like sports cars not M5’s or E63’s, never understood Bumpy Road Mode on a Ferrari, and also because the suspension is no stiffer than my previous Pista. Think someone posted about a Novitec Suspension lifter system option, so the AF option shouldn’t deter if a lifter is essential..
The reviews were all weird for so many reasons. Most of the reviewers aren't owners, they seemed far too focused on silly things ("omg first FWD ferrari in eD mode!!" "look it's silent! this is so crazy!" etc...). I found that most of the reviews sounded like they came from people who had never spent any time with an EV so they didn't know what to appreciate. Also critiques that the car wasn't fun, engaging, etc... don't make any sense at all. It's hilarious now if you look at the 296 reviews, almost none of them have the complaints of the SF90 reviews despite the similarities between the vehicles. Two more electric motors definitely don't ruin the experience. I suspect there's a bigger issue with the car reviewer community in general. It's tough to add value and perspective if you don't spend a ton of time with the vehicles and lack context for the cars people will be upgrading from. I think suspension depends on where you're driving. The roads around here are a mixed bag, and if I can smooth out bumps on my route I'm all for it. The SF90 Stradale is really aptly named, the Stradale part in particular. And yes I hear you on Rosso Corsa via TM. I should've gone with their Rosso TRS recommendation. I chickened out and I didn't know how much to trust the designer. I learned my lesson. The Tailor Made team (at least my designer) is worth listening to. One more thing I neglected to mention in my review - the upgraded sound system is awesome. One of the best I've experienced in any of my cars. Highly recommend it.
Great write up ! Thanks for taking the time; I like you have been on the fence about the SF90 but after reading your review may check it out. Still not crazy about interior and UI … think that could sway me away just like it did with the Roma. Enjoy it and congrats, spec turned out beautiful.
Congratulations and thank you for sharing! This car is truly exceptional to drive. I recently received mine, and I'm absolutely amazed at its performance and handling. It possesses a unique quality that sets it apart from all other cars. It's important to recognize that reviewers cannot fully comprehend every aspect of a car within an hour or two, or even in a single day. Many individuals tend to fixate on cars from the past and are resistant to embracing new hybrid technology. Consequently, their impressions of the car are merely based on a fleeting moment. It takes time to truly grasp the intricacies of each mode and fully appreciate what Ferrari has accomplished with this vehicle. In my opinion, they have done an outstanding job with this model, although I do agree that quality control could be improved.
Interior in terms of styling I feel is boring with the default fabrics. Tailor Made improved this quite a bit for me through a mixture of different fabrics/textures/colors. The cap sense steering wheel side of UI I agree needs work. After sitting in the Purosangue last weekend, I'm afraid even the updated steering wheel doesn't seem like it will address the issues. We'll need to wait for the SF90-M I'm afraid. It's still not a deal breaker for me though, following the setup I outlined in the review above it's livable.
Totally agree - it's such a great car to drive. I suspect once more get into owner hands you'll see the tides turn on the perception of the SF90. It's a spectacular car. I'm really curious to see what the VS is like.
Just read your review, very interesting and matches my own thoughts in many ways. I have about 4K miles on our AF coupe now and our non-AF spider is about to arrive. I also did a review some while ago after some road-tripping in the car and doing many fast road miles around Europe. My main conclusion was that it is sensational to drive fast and in many ways feels like the chassis engineers had Speciale in mind rather than Pista in their development. I had that immediate sense of connection with the car like in the Speciale - a high degree of control with the hair-trigger throttle and aggressive forward weight movement with even small throttle lifts added to a faithful and progressive rear end. The Pista is not quite the same and feels really quite different to both Speciale and SF90. Our Speciale has over 14,000 miles on it, the vast majority of them doing some very exciting things (IOM TT circuit, Le Mans circuit, Goodwood circuit, Mille Miglia tribute, tours of France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and the alps etc.). But lately I have hardly touched it because we had so many other cars arrive. I took it out yesterday for about 40 mins. The car is undeniably brilliant and I still have that connection with it that I always had. I don’t plan to ever sell it. But, it felt, dare I say it, a little soggy at the front. The car is perfect, no technical issues. My point is that both the Pista and SF90 improve upon the Speciale in this regard quite significantly. I was actually a bit surprised. I would still say that if a person could only have one Ferrari, the Speciale is an ideal choice. It’s n/a, V8, mid-engined, sonorous (though not like the V12s), beautiful and possesses a fun, faithful and engaging chassis. But for the first time I understood that the Pista is a step on. It is not as playful, I’ve always described it as more ‘business’, the business of going quickly. And I knew its front end was always better. But owning and driving the SF90 has added another context to my evaluation of the two non-hybrid V8s. The AF SF90 is so solid overall and very good at the front. It beats both Pista and Speciale in that regard, despite being significantly heavier than both. I took it to Silverstone recently and discovered it’s not just great on the road. It feels really great on track. One of the best and most fun track cars. We have had many Porsche GT cars (991 and 992 GT3, GT3RS and GT2RS) and owned them mainly for the track. They are brilliant. But this ‘heavy’ Ferrari is as much fun and maybe more than any of them. I loved it. In that context and following my recent drive of the Speciale, that car hasn’t gone down in my estimation, but the newer cars’ demonstration of the benefits of their modernity has gone up in value in my mind. In other words, they have started to make the Speciale feel a bit, well, old. Tomorrow I’m flying out to Switzerland to drive some of the mountain passes in our Pista Spider which is there. I’m intrigued to see how I’ll get on. It’s a great car and there are, in 2023, some key advantages of the V8 turbos. Namely they’re quieter and effortlessly powerful. When you want to enjoy driving, scaring other road users with your exhaust and generally disturbing the peace is not really a good idea. The ‘all business’ Pista just allows you to get on and have fun. It’s my first big trip to the alps in the car since we bought the SF90. It’ll be interesting to see if I conclude that I should have ignored the benefits of open roof motoring and put the SF90 coupe on the trailer instead.
Thank you both @Techman and @Lukeylikey for your reviews. They are exactly on what I would write on both the SF90 and Pista. I was with the first 'group' that was slotted for an SF90. After driving the demo car (in the pouring rain) for an afternoon I cancelled my order. I didn't like the set up, gearing and most importantly the almost disconnect between the battery and the ICE. As if the car didn't know what it wanted to do with both engines. Neither was in tune with the other and the experience was just a fluttering mess. Come the introduction of the SF90 Spider, and I thought "why not let's give this car a second chance". I went all black and everything carbon with no AF as I needed the front lift. But also, a Track Pack on a convertible; really (I drive a 488Challenge)!! I posted pics in the separate picture thread. I had my car delivered, and as with other modern Ferrari's it always looks different in real life than in pictures. I expected tpo hate the looks I wanted to hate the added battery I thought I would hate the ride and set up. In short this car would be a major let down for Ferrari and for my love of the brand. I almost needed to hate this car. I WAS WRONG The car is brilliant and the true grand Tourer the 812(GTS) is supposed to be. The non-AF set up is actually extremely comfortable and smoothes out bad surface quality but still manages to communicate extremely well. Steering and pointying into a corner is extremely well done. You can feel a bit of help buit it's not intruesive. I went into a powerslide and though "crap, now I'm almost in trouble" but instead grip was there and I felt like a rockstar driver. Doing dead sprints is still with a lot of 'emotion' yet not with a lot of wheelspin and a fear of ending up at the wrong end of the street. Even the sound quality of the radio is the best I've heard on any Ferrari. Engine noise is a nice combination of the Pista's "overly exciting turbo's spooling and fluttering" and some high pitched noise. Everyone (car lovers and clueless people included) that have seen the car says it's both a beast yet also classy to look at; a true winner in design (Pista Piloti remains all time favorite). Minor gripes is the obvious inclusion of an unlogical infotainment I can do completely without (my teenage son loves it though). It's the obvious down I can only say if you want a Ferrari that does it all; the SF90 Spider is the car to get. Stupid fast, yet refined and comfiortable WITH "emotion". The 812 has that glorious V12 engine that completely dominates the experience. yet it lack the refinement the SF90 has. Still the Pista Piloti remains my favorite. it's a domesticated Wolf that wags it's tail in joy and playfullness whenever you take it for a walk. But punch the trottle and take it off Sport and it is a true wild animal that can and will bite!
So…. We did the trip, 9 passes in two mornings (a number of them twice). The first thing to say is what a wonderful driving place Andermatt is. There’s a great hotel called the Chedi there and access to some of the world’s best driving roads literally on your doorstep. Highly recommended! The Pista was probably the perfect car to do it in. Very slightly smaller than the SF90, easily enough power and a broad seam of mid-range torque served up courtesy of the two turbos. I’ve always loved our Speciale but I think this was the first trip where I thought the Pista makes the Speciale feel the older car. The front end on the Pista is brilliant and worked so well on the mountain roads. Better than the Speciale, even though I still love that car’s playfulness. How about the n/a engine advantage? You know what, on those two days, I just wouldn’t have preferred the linear but lower torque Speciale with its blaring exhaust note. I’m getting to the stage where noise for the sake of it is just tedious. Plus you feel it attracts the wrong sort of attention when you’re going for it and therefore disrupts the fun. The Pista exhaust is engaging, with a still sporty but not sweet note, and loud enough without dominating. I thoroughly enjoyed the car. But would the SF90 have been better? Although the Pista’s turbo motor is virtually lag free, when coming out of hairpins and tight corners you can still feel the fact it is not instantaneous. Better than the Macs and turbo Porsches I’ve had but when you jump into the SF90 you realise the Pista has more delay than you think. SF90 power is just massive and instant. But on those mountain roads I didn’t need the extra power. I think I would have enjoyed the SF90 just as much, just not more. The main reason for this is the added size. I’ve driven the SF in mountains before and it shrinks its size and tucks the nose into bends so well that you can give more throttle than you think you dare. But if you do, better be sure there are no cyclists or other road users around. Back off though and the car starts to feel ever so slightly larger than the Pista again. But, in all honesty, even that was not the main thing. When it boils down to it, our Pista is a spider and our SF90 a coupe. The top down on the mountain with bright sunshine overhead, in a beautiful yellow (actually Shergill yellow under a different name I recently discovered) had me downloading the Matt Munro. It was a special two days. I’m away on business at the moment. When I get back we take delivery of our SF 90 spider non AF. Maybe that will be one amazing car! The best CV of both? Except its colour isn’t Shergill yellow…. View attachment 3551287
Thank you for the great story. I was with friends in the alps a few weeks ago with my 812GTS, it’s a fantastic place ! If one day you are in the south west of France, Pyrenean mountains or pays Basque, drop me a PM !
Fantastic story about your drive. We have similar cars and you'll quickly love the SF90 Spider non AF for what it is, a comfy spider with loads of power. The SF90 does shrink around you and feel smaller then it appears. What was striking to me is that it really is a wider car then the Pista. I have no problem parking the Pista in my garagae, but when I park the SF90 next to it, it really is a lot wider. You are also a brave soul in driving spirited in Switzerland. A country notorious for it's high speeding tickets....!
Great review! I have a 296 GTB and a 296 GTS coming. After spending so much money on Ferraris and being a 20+ year Ferrari client, I stare at the 296 and I am so underwhelmed. I find myself looking at F8s and 488s / Pistas and I feel cheated by Ferrari. The 296 itself is a weapon but the styling is so poor and soft. (Who signed this car off???) Hence my jumping into the SF90 forum. The SF90 at least has some form of aggression to its styling. It’s is bigger (which I prefer), has Road presence (I feel the 296 has basically none) and has a V8 in the back. I thought from the Ferrari Espirenza tests I did I would love the 296 exhaust but it’s actually quite muted being a V6(nosy gts I have everyday experience of it) I now ironically seem to prefer my old 488 spider sound !!!! Go figure ?! I cannot buy a SF90 new now so hope to find a good late delivery miles or very low mileage one. Any tips from current SF90 owners ? On options to have not have. I am obviously very used to the steering wheel / UI system so that’s not an issue for me. (Apart from its very slow reaction time and intermittent glitchiness)
Welcome to SF90 forum.. I purchased an Assetto Fiorano SF90 Coupe before 296 was on the radar but totally agree it leaves me cold, my dealer has thrown the kitchen sink at me buying a 296 GTB or GTS, but I find it’s looks awkward and full production model V6 for that price is tough sell to me before I got to see one, that came when I was picking up my car from service and they had it next to a 296 GTB at showroom, side by side AF SF90 looked like a HyperCar and the 296 GTB a slightly larger Lotus Evora.. just don’t see it. So as you have got used to the worse part of the SF90 already, the user interface, then the rest is all good but I would insist on the essential option of Assetto Fiorano Package, don’t bother with the base model SF90, just don’t think you are getting the SF90 platform unless you go for the AF option, and especially if the 296 left you flat.. yes loads will chime in about suspension lifter and bumpy road mode, but you will see from my posts I don’t believe any Ferrari should have bumpy rode mode and the lack of suspension lifter is of course relevant to some people but coming from many Pistas, I can tell you I’ve never grounded out anywhere in London on speed bumps in my AF SF90, yes nose is slightly longer than Pista but clearance is the same. I think because of some rumours people are depriving themselves of the best SF90 option because of the suspension lifter conundrum. If it is essential to where you live get the AF SF90 and retrofit the Novitec Suspension Kit at £5k, or not bother with SF90 at all. Of course on this forum I’m in a minority about this, but essential option is Assetto Fiorano Option with the Multimatic Suspension and Titanium Exhaust. The only other option I would say to me was essential was Interior Option CITZ, the Carbon Fibre upper tunnel, to fill in all the other unique Carbon Fibre options with the Assetto Fiorano Pack. Coupe comes with Carbon Door Cards, Spider does not. It’s a special car, misunderstood, many keyboard warriors out there but represents remarkable value for money especially in UK, makes zero sense that the price delta between used Pista is £50k.. AF SF90 Coupe is next level to Pista, and 4 X as many Pistas came to UK v AF SF90 Coupe.. but it’s not for everyone, you got to get in that seat and get road and track time and form your opinion…I hear you on the 296 but we are definitely in the minority here… good luck with your next purchase
Hi JJ77 Thanks for the feedback. I live in London also and I never used lift on all my Ferraris (my lambos had to have it !!). I do press the lift button to go into my drive but I do let think it is actually required. I am probably trying to justify the 5k for the lift and forced AFS lights ! Bumpy road mode on the 296 doesn’t actually do a great deal. It’s marginally better over bumps. I love raised carbon wing on the SF90 AF. Not so keen on carbon door panels. I think at £350k the SF90 is probably at its lowest price point. Now’s time to find a nice one.
Think £350k for base and £375k for Assetto Fiorano is where base camp is and when deliveries start in March 2024 of XX Coupe and the UK price inc premium is £1.1 to £1.2M, AF cars will go back over £400k..
