The Ferrari Roma (Type F169) is a grand touring, high performance Italian sports car created by automobile manufacturer Ferrari. The latest coupé from Maranello features harmonious proportions and elegantly balanced volumes which are very much in line with Ferrari’s front-engined grand touring tradition. Timeless and sublimely refined, from a technical point of view the Ferrari Roma introduces a series of unparalleled features that put it at the top of its segment in terms of performance and driving enjoyment. All of which make the Ferrari Roma the most powerful and fun to drive mid-front-engined V8 2+ in Ferrari history. Not forgetting either the fact that the concept is underpinned by everyday driveability and superb on-board comfort. It is a mid-size, two-door, 2+2 hardtop coupé. It has a front mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout. Based on the Ferrari Portofino, the car is an ultra high performance turbocharged V8 model placed between the Portofino and the F8 Tributo in Ferrari’s range of sports cars. The Roma name comes directly from ancient Roman mythology. The vehicle was christened in honor of Italy’s capital city and was originally introduced online on November 13, 2019. Official public unveil of the car took place the next day in Rome.
The Ferrari Roma’s design took inspiration from the concept of sporty elegance celebrated in the most legendary grand touring Ferraris of the 1960s, front-engined cars with simple yet elegant forms and a 2+ fastback coupé design. The Ferrari Roma shares many of these characteristics and embodies an extremely modern design language; its pure, refined styling and perfect proportions cleverly conceal the car’s power and sportiness. The sober, spare front of the car creates an overhanging shark nose effect. The wide front bonnet and sinuous wings flow into one another, in line with Ferrari’s traditional styling cues. The designers sought to preserve the minimalist elegance of the car’s forms by removing any vents or superfluous decorations; for instance, engine cooling is guaranteed by surfaces locally perforated only where strictly necessary, creating a new interpretation of the grille concept. In addition, the car was designed without the Scuderia Ferrari side shields, reflecting the approach taken with the road cars of the 1950s. The two linear full LED headlights, which lend the front of the car a distinctive character, are traversed by a horizontal light strip that brings a sense of tension to the car, in a nod to the iconic Ferrari Monza SPs. The leitmotif of the entire Ferrari Roma design is its purity, as evidenced by the active rear spoiler integrated into the rear screen.
A new architectural concept for volumes and forms was developed for the Ferrari Roma’s cabin. The idea was to create two separate spaces or cells, one each for driver and passenger, in an evolution of the Dual Cockpit concept introduced on other cars in the range. The strikingly innovative look of this dual cockpit was achieved by extending the philosophy applied to the dash to the entire cabin. A cleverly balanced combination of elegance and sportiness brings a sense of exceptional refinement and unique character to the interior, thanks to a spare, modern design language that underscores the formal purity of both lines and volumes. Thus, the cabin is defined by elements that develop organically and as one around the whole concept of space and its perception. Unlike the Prancing Horse’s sports cars, which are typically more driver-oriented, the Ferrari Roma’s cabin has an almost symmetrical structure which produces a more organic distribution of both spaces and functional elements. Created by paring back the volumes and underscored by piping along their edges, the two cockpits are cocooned in a wraparound volume and extend from the dashboard all the way back to the rear seats, organically incorporating the dash, doors, rear bench and tunnel.
The Ferrari Roma’s 620 cv engine belongs to the V8 turbo family voted International Engine of the Year for four years in a row. The main innovations on this version of the Ferrari V8 are new cam profiles, a speed sensor which measures the turbine revolutions and allows the maximum revs per minute to be increased by 5,000 rpm, and the introduction of the Gasoline Particulate Filter to comply with the strictest Euro 6D anti-pollution standards. Ferrari engineers worked hard to optimize the GPF, a closed matrix filter which traps particulate matter produced during thermal engine combustion, thus guaranteeing that it would not compromise driving pleasure. Like all other turbocharged Ferraris in the range, the Ferrari Roma delivers almost instantaneous throttle response (in line with the Company’s zero turbo lag concept) thanks to its flat-plane crankshaft, more compact in size with lower rotating masses to improve fluid-dynamics; compact turbines which have a lower moment of inertia; the twin-scroll technology that increases the pressure of the exhaust pulses for maximum power; and the single-piece cast exhaust manifold with equal length pipes to optimise pressure waves in the turbine and reduce losses.
The Ferrari Roma boasts Variable Boost Management, a control software developed by Ferrari that adjusts torque delivery to suit the gear selected, delivering increasingly powerful pick-up as revs rise, whilst optimising fuel consumption. As the car goes up through the gears the amount of torque delivered by the engine increases all the way up to 760 Nm in 7th and 8th gear. This has allowed Ferrari to use longer gear ratios in the higher gears, which helps keep fuel consumption and emissions down, while adopting a steeper torque curve through the rev range in the lower gears for a feeling of smooth, consistent pick-up. By tradition, every single Ferrari engine has its own particular soundtrack that makes it unique. The Ferrari Roma is no exception to that rule. To achieve this goal the geometry of the entire exhaust has been redesigned thanks to the elimination of the two rear silencers, which significantly reduces backpressure in the tailpipes; a new geometry for the by-pass valves, machined to an oval shape which reduces exhaust backpressure and improves sound quality; and the proportional continuous and progressive by-pass valve control, depending on the driving situation.
The car’s new 8-speed dual-clutch gearbox is more compact and 6 kg lighter than its 7-speed predecessor. As well as reducing fuel consumption and emissions, shifts are faster and smoother thanks to the use of low-viscosity oil and a dry sump configuration to minimise fluid-dynamic efficiency losses, which makes the car even more responsive on the open road, but also especially comfortable in town and during stop & start driving situations. The gearbox is based on a dual-clutch oil bath architecture and is derived from the new 8-speed gearbox introduced on the SF90 Stradale. The main modifications made with respect to the latter are longer gear ratios and the introduction of a reverse gear (which is not used in the SF90 Stradale gearbox as the electric motor is used for this). The new clutch module is 20% smaller but delivers 35% more torque than that of the previous 7-speed. The transmission software strategy has been evolved thanks to a more powerful ECU and better integration with the engine management software. This has made the shifts quicker, smoother and more consistent.
