THEN THERE WERE TWO
Do not adjust your page (or iPhone). You’re right: something about this feels awfully familiar. Three years ago, when only polite Japanese on tube trains wore masks, the 2018 Sports Car Giant Test grand finale pitted Porsche’s 911 GT2 RS against the Ferrari 488 Pista. On that occasion the Ferrari prevailed, and this SF90 is 276bhp more powerful than the Pista. It’s got to be a sho0-in, surely.
To find out, we’re leaving the track and keeping our shoe in as much as we dare, heading south-west into Snowdonia. Much as we like melting away hours and tyres on track, for our hypothetical money even circuitfocused supercars need to be able to entertain on real roads far below the grip limits you can explore around playgrounds like Anglesey.
Neither of these cars is in the optimal configuration for this portion of the battle, something we discover the moment we leave the smooth confines of the circuit. The GT3, which morphed into a surprisingly supple road car more than a decade ago with the advent of adaptive dampers, is much harsher on the road this time around.
And the addition of the Assetto Fiorano package has had a similar effect on the SF90, a car I remember feeling incredibly refined in standard form at the launch in Italy last year. But neither is unusable. We’re not talking wheel-hopping, vision-blurring stiffness, just a purer focus on handling that serves both well on the track – and serves to dim any GT strengths on the road by allowing tyre roar and small bumps in the road surface to permeate the cabin.
Inside that cabin, just as outside, it’s the Ferrari that feels more special. Acres of gorgeous carbonfibre, an incredibly detailed virtual instrument cluster and a total absence of carpet all serve as reminders that advanced technology and trick materials are central to Ferrari’s DNA. The forward visibility past the low scuttle and beyond the peaks of the wings is superb, but like many Ferraris (with the exception of the Roma GT, and its big ⊲
centre tunnel) the SF90 never feels cosy. Perversely, it’s almost too roomy.
In the Porsche, by contrast, a human body is virtually an interference fit. That’s not to say it’s cramped, although I do find the carbon-backed buckets force my shoulders into a rounded, caveman-like shape that makes me wonder if I might be the only GT3 buyer under 25 stone to order mine with the regular sports seats. They don’t look as cool, granted, but they still deliver ample support and, unlike the non-foldable carbon chairs, they mean you can make use of the huge cargo area behind the seats.
The SF90 has only a small shelf behind its front seats, and most of the frunk is taken up by the electrical hardware that helps make this hybrid
Francend all-wheel drive. Just finding sucient space to stow your clobber for a trackday weekend could be a challenge. That escape to the south of might require that you buy fresh underwear en route.
Of the two it’s the Ferrari that feels most different away from Anglesey. On track, other than satisfying our curiosity to see what a hypercar feels like in EV mode (answer: serene, but city-car slow) or in Hybrid mode (disorientating), we’d had the e-manettino hybrid controller in Performance or Qualifying, to keep the V8 in play at all times.
But on the road Hybrid mode is configured to maximise the benefit of the electric assistance, not only in terms of power but also eciency. The way the powertrain leans heavily on its EV capability, sidelining the internal-combustion engine wherever possible – whether that’s bumbling through town at low speed, or cruising down the A55 at 80mph – is incredibly well engineered, and would become a real ally in regular-speed daily use. But it can feel disconcerting.
Because if you want to up the pace in any car, you need consistency. Having the V8 flit in and out of play is like watching a snooker match in which the coverage keeps switching from colour to black-and-white. Which is why, as we cross the Menai Strait separating Anglesey from mainland Wales and start picking our way through Llanberis towards Yr Wyddfa, the toggle stays permanently in Performance mode and the V8 stays permanently lit.
But not lit lit. That would be insane. Even at half throttle the SF90 is outrageously rapid. This is a car, remember, that has almost exactly twice the power of the GT3. The merest tickle from your big toe sends it firing down the road, the only lag the one between your eyes and your brain as you scramble to compute what’s happening. Thanks to the seamless way in which the e-motors take up the slack, there’s no respite as you wait for the V8 to summon its boost.
And in a sense, that’s a problem. Because while the SF90 is pretty much unflappable on the road, thanks to its grip and all-wheel-drive traction, there are few stretches of road on Earth where you can really indulge yourself by uncorking the car’s combined 986bhp for any length of ⊲
THERE ARE FEW STRETCHES OF ROAD ON EARTH WHERE YOU CAN REALLY INDULGE YOURSELF BY UNCORKING THE SF90’S COMBINED 986BHP
time, and almost none where you can do it legally.
You could argue that the GT3’s 9000rpm redline is similarly out of reach, and that even with ‘just’ 503bhp the 911 is also ridiculously over-endowed. But the Porsche’s power output feels well judged, while the modest 347lb ft of torque means that you must work for your reward. That work also involves, should you choose it, hustling a six-speed manual gearbox with a deliciously mechanical feel. The narrower 911 is also easier to place and easier to see out of, and we love the feel and consistency of its brakes and steering, and the purity of a front axle whose only job is to steer the car.
There’s nothing revelatory about this GT3. It’s only incrementally more exciting than before, and we’ll admit some people might find the idea of it almost underwhelming as a result. If you already have last year’s GT3, why would you trade up?
Yep, ask us which car fascinates us most and we’ll tell you that it’s the Ferrari SF90, no question. It bravely pushes the supercar into new territory, makes 1000bhp more accessible and friendlier than it has any right to be, and bridges the divide between the exotic combustion-engined machinery of the past and the high-performance electric cars that will surely become the norm in the not-too-distant future. It’s a multi-dimensional character in tune with the clean-air zeitgeist in a way the GT3 just isn’t, one capable of gliding silently through city streets one minute and ripping round a track, guns blazing, the next.
But this test’s criteria have always been simple. We’re only interested in the blazing bit. Three years ago the self-assured, single-minded Pista prevailed over the GT2, a car you might describe as a GT3 overcomplicated by the addition of turbocharging, which adds heaps of performance but sacrifices sound, throttle response and purity in the process.
This time, it’s different. We’re mesmerised by the SF90. It’s an incredible machine. But while watching and listening to a world-class orchestra can stand the hairs on the back of your arms so upright you could use them as wire brushes, sometimes a simple stripped-back two-chord jam can be so absorbing you never want it to end.
WE LOVE THE FEEL AND CONSISTENCY OF THE GT3’S BRAKES AND STEERING, AND THE PURITY OF A FRONT AXLE WHOSE ONLY JOB IS TO STEER THE CAR