FERRARI PORTOFINO
Driving through Southern Italy in search of the sun and good life in the new ‘everyday’ Ferrari
The most affordable Ferrari is also the easiest to live with
DROP THE TOP IN ST Tropez, splash on some sunscreen, head east while hugging the coast and the tyres of your Ferrari will side-slip and mile-munch some of the most spectacular driving roads in the world, slowing down through Cannes and the glamorous towns on the French Riviera, across the border into the billionaire-dense principality of Monte Carlo, past the mega-yachts bobbing in the Monaco harbour, sun shades on as we leave behind the world’s most expensive traffic jam and continue through to the Italian Riviera, eventually ending up in the fishing village of Portofino where, you might recall, Richard Hammond did the return trip back to St Tropez in a Ferrari Daytona while racing James May in a speedboat. Ten years later we aren’t recreating that race because we’re nowhere near Portofino, despite driving the namesake Ferrari. This is the off-season and the Italian Riviera is shuttered. The Ferrari guys would have had to open up a hotel in Portofino for us, which isn’t as big a deal as 591 horsepower having to deal with biting cold, rain and even snow in the hills above the coast. The white slippery stuff is the reason we aren’t in the hills above Maranello either, sneaking in a few laps at Fiorano on the way back. It’s why we’ve hoicked diagonally across Italy to Bari on the southern tip of the eastern coast in search of drop-top weather and dry roads, both of which prove elusive. Never mind. We are in a Ferrari. There are tougher jobs in the world.
PORTOFINO IS THE ONLY CAR IN THE WORLD THAT IS BOTH A REAL COUPE AND AN ELEGANT SPIDER AT THE
SAME TIME
The everyday Ferrari
The Portofino is also the entry-level Ferrari. And the most affordable Ferrari, though at `3.5 crore before options and taxes this is all relatively speaking of course. It succeeds the decade-old California, a controversial car but also the best-selling Ferrari ever, accounting for around 30 per cent of annual volumes that are now in the region of 8500. 70 per cent of all California customers are new to the brand says Ferrari and until the SUV-that-is-not-an-SUV arrives, Ferrari’s volume growth will hinge on the Portofino’s success. Which, going by the styling, is hardly going to be a huge challenge for the sales guys.
Where the California was a bit frumpy with an oversized butt the Portofino looks like a proper Ferrari – harder, sleeker, lower, wider and with more obvious aero detailing. The L-shaped headlamps have become a Ferrari visual signature and they immediately put to mind the 812 Superfast and 488 GTB, no bad thing considering these are two of the greatest cars on the planet. Keeping with the Ferrari tradition of very-obviously-wind-tunnelhoned bodywork, the trailing edges of these lamps have a prominent air curtain-type intake that vents into the front wheel housing. By channelling the air out along the scooped sides, this sucks out the pressure from the front wheels (wheel turbulent wake control in Ferrari-tech-talk) and aids in reducing the drag coefficient down to 0.312. That dramatic vent on the flank is the most distinctive piece of visual ornamentation, ‘function for performance’ according to the designers, and together with the narrowed flanks gives it those really tight and cool cokebottle hips. Even the rear has been slimmed down with the taillamps positioned at the extremities and are now fixed unlike in the past where it moved with roof mechanism and thus required additional lights at the bottom to meet regulations.
The long hood and short rear roofline flowing straight into the boot give it a two volume design, unlike the bulky three volume of the California with Ferrari’s designers referencing the legendary Daytona as visual inspiration. They also highlight that the Portofino is the only car in the world that is both a real coupe and an elegant Spider at the same time. And I agree! It really looks tremendous in the metal – with the roof up there’s no way of knowing this is a convertible and with the roof down it looks like it was designed to be only driven topless. Purists considered the California a Ferrari for those who couldn’t afford or handle a ‘real’ Ferrari. No such criticism – visually at least – will be levelled against the Portofino.
While the wheelbase and all key dimensions remain unchanged, the body-in-white is all-new with torsional stiffness up by 35 per cent and the stiffness of the suspension mounting points going up by 50 per cent. Weight has gone down by a significant 80kg thanks in part to reducing complexity – for instance the A-pillar that used to have 21 individual parts is now a two-piece unit. The suspension hardware is mostly the same with front dampers stiffer by 15.5 per cent and rear dampers
stiffer by 19 per cent. There’s a new electric power steering taken directly from the 812 Superfast, third generation of the e-diff though without Side Slip Control and a further evolution of the MagneRide dampers. And finally the roof stows away in 14 seconds, now even while on the move at speeds up to 40kmph.
At the heart of every Ferrari...
Is the engine and the V8 is from the same engine of the year winning family, the block in fact is shared with the 488. It retains the 3.9-litre capacity of the California T but detail improvements like new pistons and con-rods to handle the 10 per cent increase in cylinder pressures have resulted in a 38bhp power bump to 591bhp. Gianfranco Ferrari, the engine man I shared two dinners with (and no relation to Mr Ferrari, it’s a surname as common in Modena as Nair in Kerala) was particularly proud of the equal length exhaust pipes that have now been cast as a single piece including the turbo housing instead of individual pipes welded together. Imagine the complexity! Will make for a fantastic wall sculpture!
THERE REALLY IS NO NEED FOR ANY MORE TORQUE, PEAKING AS IT DOES AT 760NM – IN A CAR
THAT WEIGHS JUST 1664KG
Engine man Ferrari used to be with the Formula 1 team and he tells me there’s now significant transfer of tech and personnel between the race and road car teams. We talk about legendary Ferraris and my ears perk up when he tells me that the turbos are by IHI, the same guys who did the turbos on the F40. And the Japanese suppliers include NGK who also supply spark plugs to the F1 team. Wisely we do not discuss last year’s Japanese GP.
Along with power, the torque also goes up but by only 5Nm. There really is no need for any more torque, peaking as it does at 760Nm – in a car that weighs just 1664 kg. In fact, there’s such a tsunami of torque that max torque is only fully unleashed in the higher gears, allowing for quick overtakes without need to downshift. In the lower gears the torque traces a markedly different curve with a lower peak, around 650Nm in first and progressively going up in second and third. It’s a trick seen before in the California T and 488 and what that does is give the engine a distinctly non-turbo character in that there’s no wallop of torque followed by a running out of breath. Floor it and the engine feels inexhaustible getting harder and punchier as it goes through the gears. Every gear liberates more, more torque, and you’re pinned harder and harder into your seat. There’s no let up. And there’s no turbo lag. Nothing at all.
Saying the engine doesn’t feel turbocharged is completely wrong. You can hear the whooshing of the turbos, you can feel the low-down surge that’s only possible with forced induction but responses are immediate. Ferrari, the engine man, points out that at 2000rpm the response time is just 1 second. For perspective, on the 488 it’s just two-tenths quicker at 0.8 seconds.
More perspective. The Ferrari Enzo made only 50 more horses than the Portofino, so forget all talk of this being the ‘entry-level’ car. Two-tenths is shaved off the Cali T’s 100kmph time, now taking 3.5 seconds. The excellent
7-speed twin-clutch gearbox shifts harder and faster, both up and down the ratios, and aids in getting to 200kmph in just 10.8 seconds. Top speed is in the vicinity of 320kmph. Oh, and you also get a cruising range of 740km, if you want to drive the entire Riviera without having to pull in at the pumps.
It also sounds harder and more powerful, engineers making a big deal of the aural quality aided by an electronic flap in the exhaust that remains closed to be ‘sociallyresponsible’ at idle while opening up when the throttle is depressed more than 50 per cent. In Sport it shouts out a soundtrack that runs through the entire gamut of bass, tenor and soprano, per yet another graph we were shown on a delightfully lengthy engineering presentation. On the road it sounds great and passers by are left shaken or smiling depending on their mental age.
And then it rained
It looks sunny in these pictures but once the cameras were packed away the skies opened up and I got wheelspin in fourth gear at 4000rpm. It’s not that the Portofino lacks for traction but the roads around Bari have to be the worst I’ve experienced in all of Europe. Look on the plus side though – I can tell you with complete conviction that the Portofino will work very well in India. Stick the F1inspired Manettino in Comfort and the ride quality over broken roads for a 591bhp sportscar is astonishingly good. There’s 120mm of ground clearance and short overhangs so there’s no need to worry about the nose grinding on road imperfections, so much so that it doesn’t get or need a nose lifting mechanism like on the 488. And when you’re in the mood to drive a Ferrari like a Ferrari ought to, sticking Manettino in Sport, there’s still a bumpy road mode for the suspension that gives you great ride while sharpening the exhaust note, steering, gearbox and engine responses.
Add to that the Portofino is very easy to drive in keeping with the GT positioning. No, it is not in the mould of an SL AMG or Conti GT, those are big heavy continent crunchers; the Portofino is lithe, agile, immediate and responsive. Like all Ferraris the steering is incredibly quick, 7 per cent quicker than the California’s, and the unintended side effect is that dodging potholes needs the merest suggestion on the steering wheel. It does make the Portofino slightly too busy and requiring more concentration at motorway speeds but you get used to it. A Ferrari should feel like a Ferrari after all.
Find a dry(ish) patch, build speed and there’s grip to spare so long as you be sensitive with the throttle and not overwhelm the rears. With sturdy centuries-old stone walls lining the narrow roads, caution was the order of the day but I can tell you that the light steering allied to the uncanny absence of body roll does feel aloof when pushing on. Just when you go from six-tenths to nine-tenths, want to be dialled into the entire experience, the Portofino filters out that last layer of detail. And without the safety net of Side Slip Control, I didn’t attempt oversteering it on these roads.
Then again if you want a slide-slipping Ferrari there’s the 488 GTB. What’s remarkable about the Portofino is that despite the hardcore performance you can drive it at a relaxed pace. It engages you at moderate speeds; it flows, there is compliance in the damping and the cabin is plush. Top up, it will rush through Cote d'Azure getting you from the French to Italian Riviera at great speeds. Top down, it feels at home with the rich and famous soaking in the sun in Portofino. It’s a stretch imagining one using a Ferrari everyday, but as an everyday Ferrari, the Portofino is spot on. ⌧
IT SOUNDS GREAT AND PASSERS BY ARE LEFT SHAKEN OR
SMILING, DEPENDING ON THEIR MENTAL AGE