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We've timed quite a few Ferraris around Anglesey over the years
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The 488 Pista setting the quickest time of all with a lap of 1 minute 10.8 seconds
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But in the hybrid propelled four wheel drive SF90, the game would appear to have gone to a new level as far as the generation of pure speed is concerned
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Because despite weighing some 1742 kilograms, the 1000 horsepower SF is the fastest road car Ferrari has ever produced, says Ferrari
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and by quite some margin around a track, apparently. So how fast is it around Anglesey
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Stay tuned and we'll find out. You get lots of beeps
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You get loads of weird messages come up in the dashboard. before you move a millimetre in the SF90
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And I have to say, the more time I've spent with this car
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the more I am liking it, the more I am understanding it
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And it's not just the fact that you've got 1,000 horsepower from a combination of a fantastic Ferrari V8
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and three different electric motors. the way you interact with the car full stop really does take a while to acclimatise to
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but now that I'm kind of getting there and I'm actually quite liking the haptic controls on the
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steering wheel the fact that you can switch the dials just like that I didn't like it to start
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with we all had a bit of a problem with it at Evo on our car of the year it didn have the tyres on it basically for the conditions We struggled to get our heads around it because it was a difficult thing to like
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even though it was immensely rapid. This has got the ogue dampers in it, if you would
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They're much more kind of normal damper response that you get from this version of the SF90
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compared with the one that we had in Scotland. And it does just feel a lot more natural
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in its responses, particularly the front end, particularly the damping. It just feels like an immensely rapid car that has nutcase traction, really, really nutcase
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traction. Because I didn't realise this until I drove this car today here at Anglesey, that basically
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no matter what mode you put it in, it reacts to what you're doing and it sends drive to the front
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axle if it detects that you need some extra traction from the front axle. It doesn't matter
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whether you're in qualifying mode, CT off, everything off, or race mode, it just doesn't
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matter. The car works that bit out for you, which sounds way too digital, but actually it works
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really well in practice. The thing that the SF90 does here as well that's just brilliant
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is disguise its weight. We've put this car on the scales and it's 1740 kilograms, which
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sounds like quite a lot, but you've got like nearly 300 kilograms of batteries in this
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car and E-motors, but God knows what else. So that's not that heavy. I thought it was
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going to be a bit heavier than that. Ferrari have always claimed 1570 kilograms dry, but
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that's a 1740 with pretty much a full tank of fuel, all the fluids, everything. GTRs used
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to weigh that not so long ago, and they didn't have 1,000 horsepower, not out of the factory
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anyway. Fundamentally, though, I can go on about this car's controls and its sophistication
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and its electronics and its hybrid system, but basically it's just an absolute monster
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in a straight line. Its performance is absolutely loopy super crackers The gearbox is fabulous It is so fast and so immediate
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The brakes are really good too. Really, really good brakes. Much better brake feel on this car than the one that we had in Scotland
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This one's on Cup 2 R's, which are demon tyres. You basically get two warm-up laps to bring
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them in gently, two flying laps, and then they're gone. Well, they're not absolutely
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gone, but they're well past their best. A normal set of Cup 2's will last, not all day
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but many, many, many laps more. Anyway, it is time to put the crash helmet on
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and get the stopwatches out and see just how fast the SF90 can go around Anglesey
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Fastest time we've ever recorded on a full production road car around here
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It's 10.8. a 1 minute 10.8 in the 488 Pista. This car's way heavier than that
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but it's got way more power, way more torque. But there's only one way to find out
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Before that, I need to swallow quite a large Brave pill because I'm a little bit intimidated by this car
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Anyway, shut up, Sutcliffe, and put your lid on. So with the twin-turbo V8 and its three electric motors set to qualifying mode, the chassis
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set to CT off, and with a fresh set of Cup 2 Rs, all nice and toasty, here's the lap
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So there you go. After a few attempts to get the tyres and my head in the right place
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the SF90 did a lap of 1 minute 9.99 seconds, which is an outrageous time for a road car
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even though it doesn't look all that dramatic on camera. But that's the thing about the SF
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To get the best out of it, you need to be as calm as possible with your inputs
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to manage the flow of torque and power to the rear tyres
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because even though all four wheels are driven, it constantly needs to light up the rears if you're remotely aggressive with the throttle
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I climbed out of it oscillating through a combination of relief and mild euphoria
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I don't mind admitting that now. But in the process, the SF90 beat not only Ferrari's own simulation time by a tenth and a bit
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it also set a new road car record for the Anglesey Coastal Circuit
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one that might not be beaten for a little while. Then again, who knows what on earth the Scuderia will come up with next
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Either way, for the time being, the SF90 rules
