Featured | La Ferrari

Its nameplate is both simple and complicated all at the same time. The manufacturer is Ferrari, the model name is LaFerrari, rendering this decidedly Italian arm of the ‘Holy Trinity’ hypercar triptych the ‘Ferrari The Ferrari’. Not that they needed to belabour the point, but yes: this is the Maranello manufacturer at its most definitive.

LaFerrari is the stuff of both legend and fantasy. Could Enzo himself have perceived of such a car? Probably not. The final supercar he physically oversaw – the F40 – is in itself an icon. It is possibly beloved by more fans than LaFerrari. But at its heart, the F40 was a product of a very different car company from the one that blueprinted and built LaFerrari.

Able to draw upon modern manufacturing materials and methods, LaFerrari was the carmaker’s first hybrid-assisted supercar (as were the other hybrid hypercars in the ‘Holy Trinity’ for their respective manufacturers). But it was also Ferrari’s most powerful road-going car to that point, and it decreased fuel consumption by around 40 percent. We’re picking most LaFerrari owners would be somewhat impervious to fluctuating fuel prices, however.

Power came from a rear mid-mounted 6.3-litre Ferrari V12 generating a head-spinning amount of power all on its own: 588kW (789hp) and 700Nm of torque. Add to that Ferrari’s HY-KERS mild-hybrid system which could supplement LaFerrari’s combustion engine with hi-po bursts of an extra 120kW (161hp) and you’ve got combined power of 708kW, or not too far off a thousand horses in the old money.

Electronically-limited to a top speed of 350km/h, the hypercar’s party piece really was its acceleration – acceleration so ridiculously swift that a racetrack was the only safe place to experience it. Forget the sub-three second time to 100km/h, LaFerrari will dispense with the 0-200km/h sprint in under seven seconds. Zero to 300km/h? Fifteen seconds. We’ll give you a moment to let your brain recalibrate…

In true Ferrari style, the company only produced 499 – a number they fixed upon from the outset. They could have sold many more, but Enzo himself always stuck to the maxim ‘Build one less car than the demand for it’. It’s an ethos which rings true throughout Ferrari to this day, although with a price tag at its 2013 release of over a million euros, LaFerrari was always going to be exclusive without trying.

Oh, and if you’re still unsure about ‘LaFerrari’ as a nameplate, the hypercar’s internal project name was ‘F150’. Which would probably have confused more than a few American pick-up truck fans.