In the 1980s, my hometown used to be the third wealthiest city in Italy and expensive cars were selling like hot cakes. Then things changed and, well, it no longer is. However, there’s still a Ferrari dealership in town and I was finally able to get acquainted with the all-new Ferrari Roma.
There were plans to host a live event to unveil the new Ferrari grand tourer last February and introduce it to prospective buyers as well as, er, scroungers like myself. Unfortunately, the event was cancelled for *you-know-why* reasons but I was fortunate enough to visit the showroom and check out the Roma in person.
I’m just gonna get straight to the point and I have to say that the Roma looks a lot better in “the metal” than it does in the pictures. The swooping lines and proportions are flattened by the camera lens and it’s got a unique character and presence that don’t transpire until you’re standing next to it. Pictures really don’t do it justice.
It doesn’t look like anything else in the Ferrari line-up, it is a completely different design language that’s supposed to attract a different type of customer and draw new crowds to the Prancing Horse brand.
When we first saw the car in the photographs, many of us immediately thought “Aston DB11” but now that I’ve seen it, I have to say it reminds me a lot of the Jaguar F-Type. The front grille, which is not actually a grille, is something I’d never seen before in a supercar. It is also slender and hunkered down and more compact than it looks.
Even the interior is different, the steering wheel is not as busy as it is in, say, a 488 and it “only” features a few controls and buttons, not a million of them like in the other Ferraris. There’s a new vertical screen, plus another one for the passenger. This car has GT written all over it.
The Roma is powered by a twin-turbo 3.9 L V8 putting out 612 hp and 560 lb-ft of torque. Prices are set to start at around €200,000 with deliveries expected to start in the next few months.
Italy, February 2020
This post was previously published for my tribe Game Changers on Drivetribe
_Flabbergasted LF 