Around 20 years ago, Ferrari began producing Special Version cars that raised the performance of selected production models to new extremes. Today, many of these are part of the Maranello marque’s growing legend. Contemporaneously, the Prancing Horse also launched the XX Programme, which offers a group of expert clients the opportunity to become real track test-drivers at the wheel of cars, such as the FXX-K EVO, that are not homologated for road use.
Now for the first time, the programmes have been brought together in the SF90 XX Spider, the first Ferrari Special Version that draws on the both programme concepts to make it effectively a road-legal XX. While the SF90 XX Spider retains the Retractable Hard Top (RHT) of the SF90 Spider from which it is derived, it unleashes an extra 30 CV and boasts specifically designed software logics along with radical aero solutions, such as a fixed rear wing.
The SF90 XX Spider allowed the Ferrari Styling Centre to use the modifications made to the rear of the car to create an instantly recognisable architecture in which the flying buttress, a much-loved part of Ferrari tradition, seamlessly melds with the arrow theme of the front. The resulting visual effect extends the body forwards and develops a completely different connotation to the SF90 XX Stradale.
The car’s centre of gravity appears to be lower, too, particularly from the side.This is not just because of the roof, which has a wraparound windscreen that seamlessly melds with the side windows, but also because the flying buttresses are lower than on the SF90 XX Stradale. Like the roll-bars, the top is carbon-fibre and thanks to the renowned Ferrari Retractable Hard Top (RHT) mechanism, can be opened in a mere 14 seconds even while the car is moving at speeds of up to 45 km/h, allowing occupants to enjoy the car to the utmost in all kinds of weather.
The SF90 XX Spider has also inherited the SF90 Stradale’s signature PHEV layout, in which the V8 internal combustion engine is augmented by three electric motors, two on the front axle and one between the engine and gearbox. This configuration allows the car to unleash a maximum of 1030 cv (+30 cv more than the SF90 Stradale), setting a whole new performance benchmark for Ferrari. To make the V8’s sound even fuller and richer, the ducts of the hot tube system that transmits the combustion pulsations into the cabin were optimised.
The SF90 XX Spider delivers the most efficient aerodynamic performance of any road-going car in Ferrari’s history: in fact, it delivers double the maximum downforce of the SF90 Stradale. Its signature element is most definitely the fixed rear wing, which was thoroughly researched, tested and developed on the track-ready XXs. In terms of vehicle dynamics, the two most important new additions are the ABS ‘evo’, which guarantees even better performance and improved repeatability of braking performance in the dry, and the extra boost logic, on its debut outing, which improves lap times by delivering a short power boost coming out of bends.