The most extreme road-going Ferrari yet has recently lapped Hockenheimring's Grand Prix circuit in a blistering 1:43.47 with racing driver Christian Gebhardt behind the wheel. This, in turn, puts the SF90 XX Stradale on the same level as the 991.2-gen Porsche 911 GT2 RS Manthey Performance Kit.
The biggest surprise? That would be Mercedes-AMG's hideously underrated GT Black Series, which – back in 2020 – clocked 1:43.30 in the hands of Christian Gebhardt. Why is that surprising? In addition to being a front-engined vehicle, the Black Series also differs from the SF90 XX Stradale by means of no hybrid assistance.
Sport Auto's fastest lap at the Hockenheimring Grand Prix circuit is credited to Christian as well, who recorded a stupendous 1:40.79 in the McLaren Senna. The Mercedes-AMG ONE and Maro Engel hold the lap record here, for the hybridized monster with F1 muscle recorded 1:38.56 at an average of 167 kilometers per hour (104 miles per hour).
The lap record for road-legal cars, that is, because the ONE cannot be considered a true series-production vehicle. Not only did AMG limit production to 275 units, but a Formula 1-derived turbo V6 hybrid power unit is a wholly different animal from the flat-plane crank V8s of the aforementioned Senna, SF90 XX Stradale, and GT Black Series.
Care to guess which of them was produced in the highest numbers? Make that GT Black Series, of which approximately 1,700 units were assembled in Sindelfingen. The beating heart of the GT Black Series is a 4.0-liter V8 with a hot-vee design, with said V8 differing from other members of the M178 family through a flat-plane crankshaft. AMG calls it M178 LS2, and in this application, it develops 730 ps (720 hp) and 800 Nm (590 lb-ft) of twist.
Photo: Sport Auto on YouTube
Also shared with the track-only GT Track Series, the M178 LS2 will see a third application, that being the Aston Martin Valhalla. Similar to the SF90 XX Stradale, it combines a twin-turbocharged V8 with two front-mounted electric motors and a third one driving the rear wheels.
The British automaker quotes 1,012 metric ponies or 998 mechanical horses, a top speed of 217 miles per hour or kilometers per hour, and 2.5 seconds from zero to 62 miles per hour (97 kilometers per hour). By comparison, Ferrari says the SF90 XX Stradale belts out 1,030 cavalli vapore (1,016 horsepower) at 7,900 revolutions per minute.
Capable of up to 135 kph (84 mph) in electric-only mode, the plug-in hybrid supercar from Maranello runs out of steam at 320 kph (199 mph) due to its downforce-heavy aero setup. The SF90 Stradale, on the other hand, tops 340 kph (211 mph).
Only 799 berlinettas and 599 spiders will be produced, with all of them allocated to customers prior to the Prancing Horse reveal of the SF90 XX in June 2023. At press time, the SF90 XX Stradale is the fastest production Ferrari at Fiorano, lapping the Italian automaker's circuit in 1:17.309 versus 1:19:00 for the SF90 Stradale, 1:19.5 for the SF90 Spider, and 1:19.70 for the Ferrari LaFerrari.
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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