Last week, the XF wagon obliterated the X-Type – 93% of the vote. I applaud your automotive choices in life. Ferrari is making choices too. Are they still top dog? They seem to think so – they’ve just unveiled a car with a very famous name: Testarossa.
Hard not to get excited. But lust and love are two very different things.
The 2027 Ferrari 849 Testarossa vs the 2022 Ferrari SF90 Stradale
I often speak of BMW’s LCI, or their mid-cycle model refresh. They never make the car worse, though they don’t always make it better. Just different.
It’s not just them – everyone does it, even Porsche. 991.2 – that point two means you’re cooler than someone without it. Go you.
But Ferrari doesn’t do any of that. They don’t really do model years either. They’ve skirted around the issue many times though. Think 348 vs 355 – same underpinnings, new styling. Or the 550 Maranello vs the 575M, that case being the same styling with refreshed mechanical bits. The Ferrari faithful eat it up, just like the rest of us peons in our Bimmers and Porsches.
But the plot may be wearing thin. I now bring to the stage Ferrari’s just-discontinued SF90. It’s a hybrid sports car and represents a sort of new lineage for the brand. The SF is hypercar fast – could have taken the mantle from the Ferrari La Ferrari (that name, oy). But this isn’t a successor to any of their famous models. At least it wasn’t.
Because now Ferrari have taken the guts of the SF and thrown away the rest. Meet the Ferrari 849 Testarossa. It’s an SF with updated styling, but it brings back perhaps their second most famous name in Testarossa, a V-12 mid-engine car from the 80s. They made over 10,000 of them, which is a lot by Italian sports car standards.
Can they do that? Take a famous name and attach it to anything? Will we fall for it?
The 2022 Ferrari SF90 Stradale
Our journey begins on Cars & Bids, where they recently featured a very nice SF example.
- 1,600 miles
- Nero Galaxy over Nero leather. Man look at that metal flake in the paint.
- Powered by a 4-liter twin-turbo V-8 and three electric motors. 986 horsepower, thank you please
- There’s an eight-speed DCT that makes the back end work, while two motors power the front wheels. How will you fix this in 20 years, I do not know.
- Clean CarFax
- Nice things like the Assetto Fiorano Package (titanium and carbon bits, upgraded suspension), carbon ceramic brakes, carbon racing seats, and Ferrari side badges.
- This SF cost $763,295 when new, but now it…
- Sold for $485,000. Congratulations on driving a car 1,600 miles for $278,295
Let’s start with that last bit. Ferrari SF90 Stradale values are not where you want to be right now. It’s not exclusive like an F50 was – you could easily snatch one up, but it sure as hell is priced like a special model. It’s also their first plug-in hybrid, unlike the La Ferrari, which charged the batteries via a KERS unit and had a V-12.
Some say that depreciation curve is normal, but I’m calling BS – have you seen Porsche 911 prices? Hell, an S/T costs more than the SF90 when it was new. And we’re not done yet: I think the new Testarossa will increase that value drop quickly. Let’s see.
The 2027 Ferrari 849 Testarossa
Meet the SF90 LCI! You’ll see the word “revised” a lot:
- A revised V-8 with some new internals and bigger turbos. Now it makes 50 more horsepower.
- The electric motors remain the same, giving the Testarossa a total output of 1,036 horsepower.
- DCT remains as well
- Think of it like an E-Ray – you can drive up to 16 miles on the battery alone.
- There are revised brakes (that word again), suspension geometry, and better ventilation.
- Pricing will start at about $580,000 – but as the SF shows, it’s easy to jack up the cost with options
Now – the name. The original Testarossa had a V-12, which Ferrari no longer makes. But more importantly, it had those iconic side strakes and blocky rear-end. Those strakes are so iconic, I bet if I showed you just that shape you’d know the car. This 849 eschews that for a very slab-sided look.
Now I know I just got done telling you that Porsche needs to modernize their 911 design, but Ferrari goes too much the other way. What makes this a Testarossa beside the name? I don’t expect pop-up lights, but this is a derivative shape that could be any Ferrari, or any supercar if I’m honest, so generic the shape has become. Park it next to the SF, and you might not even know which is which.
Ferraris will always be special. But is the new Testarossa special enough to take the risk of a $300,000 depreciation hit? Let me know below.
