The Ferrari SF90 Spider Is A Near-1000bhp Convertible Missile

With a combined 986bhp served up by its V8 hybrid powertrain, driving a Ferrari SF90 is going to be a full-on experience. You’re probably not going to want the distraction of a missing roof, we’d wager For anyone fancying that, though, Ferrari has an answer, in the form of the inevitable SF90 Spider.

Although a lot of manufacturers are now dumping retractable hardtops, Maranello is sticking with the briefly popular arrangement, since it gives the best noise insulation and doesn’t deform at high speeds. And the SF90 is certainly capable of ‘high speeds’.

The powertrain side of things remains the same. There’s a 3.9-litre twin-turbo providing the bulk of the grunt (769bhp), supplemented by a trio of electric motors drawing power from a 7.9kWh battery pack. It’s around 100kg heavier than the coupe, raising the dry figure to nearly 1700kg, but this hasn’t put much of a dent in the car’s performance.

0-62mph still takes 2.5 seconds, with the 0-124mph time going up by three tenths to seven seconds dead. The top speed is down by 1mph to 211mph, and driven flat out at Ferrari’s Fiorano test track it’s just half a second slower than the coupe, and marginally brisker than a LaFerrari.

Since the folding hood would have gotten in the way of the cooling vents found behind the Stradale’s roof, the Spider has a series of louvres in the rear screen which evacuate hot air without compromising downforce. Speaking of which, Ferrari’s engineers needed to carefully tweak the surfaces of the roof to make sure aerodynamic flow to the car’s rear is just as good as it is on the coupe.

Unlike a lot of drop-top supercars, the view of the engine is still there, as the roof neatly stows in front of where curious onlookers will peer in for a view of the V8. There are also some lovely new buttresses that are unique to the Spider.

Spider buyers are still given the option of the Assetto Fiorano pack (above) first seen on the Stradale. It adds race-derived Multimatic dampers, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, a rear spoiler and various carbon fibre and titanium parts that drop the weight figure by 21kg.

This adds just under £40,000 to the price, which we don’t have a UK figure for just yet. In Italy, it’s €473,000, which works out around £425,000. Both the SF90 Stradale and SF90 Spider are series production models rather than limited-run specials, it’s worth pointing out. Ferrari does appear to be cooking up something like that, though, with a mysterious LaFerrari Aperta-based prototype spotted at Fiorano recently.