motor-world

[motor-world]

THE BIRTH OF A NEW BREED- THE FERRARI SF90 STRADALE

The engineers at Ferrari sat down and thought of embracing the future. The result was a car so fast that the likes of McLaren and Porsche were threatened. It became the first ever hybrid Ferrari to roll out of the Maranello factory.

It is called the Ferrari SF90 Stradale, which means road, and features the first PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) architecture. So, what makes it special? The SF90 Stradale is a front wheel drive car. The engine is a hybrid which produces 769 bhp from petrol and gets an extra boost 217 bhp from three electric motors. Two of which are independent and located on the front axle, with the third at the rear between the engine and the gearbox.

The engine is an evolution of the V8 unit found in the 488 Pista. The engine's capacity has been increased to 4.0 L and the bore has also been increased to 88 mm. The exhaust system has been tweaked to make the presence of the car felt by its competition. The SF90 Stradale has a 7.9 kWh lithium-ion battery which does 100 km/h and gives a range of 26 km.

The SF90 Stradale has an 8-speed dual clutch transmission. The new transmission is 10 kg lighter and more compact than the existing 7-speed transmission used by the other existing models due to the removal of the reverse gear which is provided by the electric motors in the front. The new transmission has increased the efficiency of gear shifting by 30%.

Going eco-friendly means Ferrari must have lost its speed due to the heavy electric motors. Ferraris reply to this question was the SF90’s 0-100 km/h time of 2.5 seconds, following it the SF90 reaches 200km/h in just 6.7 seconds. The F-1 department of Ferrari taking inspiration form iconic F40 did an extraordinary job with the chassis. They have made a completely new chassis for this car by combining aluminium and carbon fibre. This improves structural rigidity and gives a suitable platform for the cars hybrid system. The car weighs around 1,570 kg including the 270 kg electric system.

The engineers at the tech department of Ferrari have employed something called the eSSC (electric Side Slip Control) which controls the torque distribution to all four wheels of the SF90 Stradale, to make the drive more enjoyable.

In the SF90, a 16-inch curved display located behind the steering wheel displays various vital statistics of the car to the driver. The car also employs a new head-up display that would reconfigure itself according to the selected driving mode. The steering wheel is from the 488 but has been given a complete overhaul. The knobs on the steering wheel are all touch functions. the small bits of the steering wheel like the indicators and the flappy gear paddles are retained from the 488. The interior has a very neat trick up its sleeve, the sound of the engine from the bay is sent to the cabin for making the drive exciting.

 The Assetto Fiorano is a track focused SF90. What makes it faster than the standard SF90 is the racing derived Multimatic shocks and light weight carbon fibre parts on the underbody. It also employs a lightweight titanium exhaust system which saves 30 kgs compared to the Standard road car.

The SF90 is a great car, the performance is of the roof and the styling of the car is very futuristic which makes it worthy to be part of the hyper-car squad. Coming into the market 6 years later compared to its competitions from the likes of McLaren and Porsche releasing their hybrid hypers in 2014, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale is still a car to watch out for.