Ferrari SF90 Spider review

It wasn’t that long ago that Ferrari launched the extremely limited 651bhp Enzo to act as its eponymous flagship, with a claimed 400 being put into production and order slots only opened to the firm’s most valuable customers.  

Ferrari does still take that particular route with its Icona cars of course, but nowadays those aren’t necessarily the pinnacle in terms of performance. In fact, any old lottery winner can walk into a dealership and place an order for a 986bhp SF90 Stradale, which pairs a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 with three electric motors to produce its 1,000 metric horsepower. Compare that to the paltry 828bhp produced by the 1-of-599, £2 million, impossible-to-get-hold-of Daytona SP3 and you’ll see what we mean.

And now, to really hammer home that the hybridised SF90 is genuinely a part of the ‘regular’ product range, Ferrari has chopped the roof off to create the Spider. 

Give me some stats then… 

The SF90 Spider gets exactly the same powertrain as the coupe. That means a combined 986bhp and 664lb ft of torque to blow your barnet off, with the internal combustion engine looking after the rear wheels and two of the electric motors trying to keep up with the fronts.

The 0-62mph sprint is dispatched in 2.5 seconds (the same as the Stradale), while 0-124mph takes 0.3 seconds longer or 7.0 seconds in total. We reckon that’s plenty quick enough though. Head on over to the driving tab of this review for more on how that feels. 

Plus, in non-objective news, we also think it looks better than the Stradale, with the two buttresses behind the seats adding some visual drama to the upper half of the SF90. 

Can I drive it on electric power alone?

You certainly can – this is a proper plug-in hybrid after all. Charge up the 7.9kWh battery and if you’re light of foot you’ll manage around 16 miles of all-electric running at speeds of up to 84mph. Plus, there’s no reverse in the V8’s gearbox, so all backing up is done on electric power too.

What’s the roof like?

It’s a similar hard-top, flip-back action to lots of recent roofless Ferraris, which means it’s a rapid and rather well-packaged system. It might not be glamourous to talk about packaging when chatting about an almost-1,000bhp supercar, but it’s quite remarkable that Ferrari has managed to squeeze in a folding tin-top, a plug-in hybrid powertrain and a V8 engine into a standard production car. 

How much is it?

Ah yes, it’s not cheap. This may be part of Ferrari’s mainstream product range, but prices for the SF90 Spider still start at £418,233. Ouch. Also, it’s unlikely you’ll be avoiding the options list. There’s more on that over on the buying tab though. 

If you consider the stats, contemplate the powertrain and experience the sheer performance of the SF90, it really is remarkable that Ferrari is able to offer it as part of its core model range. It’s ludicrously complicated, stupendously-clever and obscenely fast, and now they’ve doubled down on the fact that it’s a standard car by offering the equally-brilliant Spider. 

Rival manufacturers must be alarmed at the way Ferrari has embraced hybridisation in its mainstream cars, and the 10-out-of-10 296 GTB proves that the SF90 learnings translate into its smaller supercars too. 

The Spider doesn’t quite score that highly in our eyes thanks to its sometimes strange four-wheel drive feel and its poor practicality, but it’s still a technical masterpiece – perhaps even more so than the coupe.