How long has it been since Ferrari, McLaren, and Porsche were duking it out with the LaFerrari, P1, and 918 Spyder? The answer is too long, more so if you consider the technological advancements in both internal combustion engines and hybrid powertrains.
Rather than pouring millions of euros into developing a hybridized replacement for the 918 Spyder, the German automaker from Zuffenhausen is expected to bring the Mission X concept to market by decade's end. As for McLaren, there are conflicting reports.
On the one hand, a P1-replacing hypercar is due in 2026 with a combustion engine and some hybrid assistance for good measure. Other peeps believe that McLaren is readying a zero-emission successor, which is tipped to launch by the end of the decade.
As opposed to Macca and Porker, the Prancing Horse is already testing chassis mules of the LaFerrari's heir apparent. Codenamed F250, the newcomer has been spied on numerous occasions. The carparazzi recently caught one testing outside the Maranello factory and at the Fiorano circuit, with the heavily camouflaged F250 making distinct twin-turbo six-cylinder noises.
Shocking, isn't it? You should be, not when Ferrari engineers refer to the 3.0-liter V6 in the 296 as piccolo V12. Already proven in the 296 road car and 499P racing car, the wide-angled sixer is a technological marvel that develops in excess of 200 horsepower per liter of displacement. In the 296, total system output (including the rear-mounted electric motor) is rated at a simply ridiculous 831 ponies.
Photo: Baldauf
One of the better-sounding V6 engines in production today, the F163 suits the F250 perfectly. There's no denying the purity of a naturally-aspirated V12 has no equal among combustion engines, but as Bob Dylan once sang, times are a-changing. Increasingly stringent emission and fuel economy regulations force automakers to downsize, and that's exactly what the folks at Ferrari are doing nowadays.
We also have to remember than a 120-degree V6 with a hot-vee setup is a better package than a free-breathing V12 in a high-performance application, especially a car that looks more appropriate at Fiorano than on public roads. Obviously inspired by sports prototype race cars, the F250 has more 499P to it than LaFerrari. Speaking of race cars, the prototype spied testing at Fiorano shows airflow visualization paint in the central intake of the front bumper.
As implied, that's the solution used to determine a race car's aerodynamic flow. This detail also should be more than enough to prove that Ferrari is developing a track monster with license plates, a very different animal from the LaFerrari before it. As to why this fellow features flow-vis solution in the central intake of the front bumper, that's because Ferrari is trying to strike a balance between front-end drag and downforce by means of aerodynamic wizardry.
Aero wizardry as in the S-Duct, a duct that directs air through a large vent in the hood to create front-end downforce. The drag penalty is relatively small. For the 488 Pista, which is the first road-going Ferrari to feature the S-Duct setup, the Italian automaker quotes 18 percent more downforce and 2 percent more drag compared to the 488 GTB. That said, look forward to the F250 dropping in late 2024 or early 2025.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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