2023 Ferrari Roma review

The Ferrari Roma probably does need a sort of introduction. I think we’re solid on the Ferrari bit, but the Roma arrived during The Event We’re All Sick of Hearing About.

Fundamentally if the Portofino is dressed for the beach, ,then the Roma is dressed for the evening. I’m sure Maranello would like me to evoke images of rolling into Casino Square in Monte Carlo but I can’t stand casinos, so I’m going to suggest stepping out of one straight onto the red carpet at L’Opera de Paris.

Where the Portofino’s logline is “barefoot luxury”, the Roma’s is “la nuova dolce vita” or the new sweet life. The Italian sounds great and clearly references the 1960 Frederico Fellini film, the kind of satire that unintentionally produces unironic images of glamour and romance despite the main character not quite winning in his quest for happiness.

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We might forget that last bit because while most of us will agree that money can’t buy us happiness, it can buy you a $409,888 (before on-road costs and options, oh the options) Ferrari Roma. Companies like Ferrari exist to put a smile on your face and anyone with that kind of cash is not going to be worried by that price. I’ve never seen a furrowed brow in a Ferrari dealer, at least not one on a customer.

Obviously, that’s just the starting price. Some years ago Ferrari dropped the price of its 488 by forty grand because it turned out that its customers are a picky bunch and didn’t necessarily want the spec as it was being delivered in Australia, and were spending forty grand on options anyway.

So why not make it eighty and really get the spec they want? I sometimes lie awake at night thinking about that.

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I don’t normally get too excited about the specification of a car – I might say nice things about a particular colour of, say, a Mazda (yes, Soul Red, obviously). But when I clapped eyes on this Roma, I don’t mind telling you I thought it was the most beautiful combination of colours and materials I’ve seen on a car.

Like many of the options, the Minerale Verde paint was both off-catalogue and Just The Start. The Roma bears a complex design that is something of a departure for the brand, not in proportions but in detail.

It’s particularly colour sensitive (or at least I think so), but this hue absolutely makes a pretty car even prettier. Photographs don’t always do the Roma justice but in this colour, it rocks.

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Ferrari helpfully supplies each of its cars with a plaque in the boot detailing the fitted options. Looking at the interior pictures you can see leather the colour of pebbles washed for years by the pounding surf, subtly offset by the piping and stitching. The colour continues on the dash, infiltrating the carbon inlays and, unfortunately, causing a strong reflection in the midday sun.

Part of the reason I’m telling you all this is not just to get misty-eyed but to give you a glimpse into the depth of detail you can go to when buying one of these cars. If you don’t like any of the standard colours, Ferrari will happily find one you do like and charge you a Kia Rio’s ransom for it.

As I say, when you’re already half a million deep just getting a Roma on the road, what’s another eighty-odd grand in options?

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What it does come with before you start ticking boxes is a spectacular mechanical package. The front-mid mounted 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 has a staggering 456kW (620 metric horsepower), developed between 5750 and 7500rpm. Those rpm figures are unheard of in most turbo engines.

Torque is 760Nm from 3000–5750rpm. Or it is when you’re in seventh and eighth. Like the Portofino and California T before it, the engine management system limits torque depending on the gear. Just between you and me, you won’t notice.

If I'm perfectly frank, I think Ferrari is pulling a BMW-style swifty here. As with the German company’s twin-turbo bent eight, I think it’s hugely likely the official Ferrari torque figure is out by about ten per cent. Don’t panic – I reckon it’s delivering somewhere north of 800Nm, based purely on the ferocious performance.

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This is hunch-based, obviously, so don’t go telling everyone I have an inside line. Or a dyno.

Ferrari says it has applied a zero turbo lag philosophy on the V8. While it doesn’t have the crispness of the old naturally aspirated V8 – or the bonkers V12 – it more than makes up for it with its flat-plane crank, which delivers an incredible noise and a bark on the upshift that even my attention-shy wife is very, very keen on.

It’s the same engine as the Portofino and F8. Like the former, it’s pushed right back against the firewall in front of your feet with the block lying behind the front axle line to contain the weight wholly within the wheelbase.

Nearly half of the engine bay is taken up with the required cooling, the long nose affording plenty of room for the fans and intake system. They’re plastic in this car, but don’t hesitate to option carbon fibre for it all.

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Ferrari’s signature crackle red finish on the cam covers looks wonderful and the Roma does without the Portofino’s big engine bay brace, so your view is largely unhindered.

Crammed in behind the engine is an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission (doppio frizione sounds so much better) based on the SF90 Stradale’s, being a few kilograms lighter than the seven-speed that came before it while offering the extra ratio.

Power is sent to the rear wheels via an active electronic differential. A proper one, which talks to a new system called Ferrari Dynamic Enhancer (FDE).

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The Roma’s long doors are light and the door handle disappears into the body as you push it, making it a much nicer-looking unit without being fiddly. Once you’re in, you’re sitting properly low. So low that the rear vision mirrors create a properly hefty blind spot that will hide a HiLux if you’re not paying attention.

Why do I say that? Oh, nothing, just an example. Thankfully, the mirrors do provide pretty good rearward vision and Ferrari has fitted blind-spot monitoring to reduce the half-million-dollar car jitters.

This car has one of the most obnoxious cold starts I can remember. Fire this up in an enclosed space at your eardrums’ peril. I’m not saying I don’t like it, it’s just properly loud. I wondered if there was a way to turn it off, for about a second, but it produced so many smiles I quickly forgot.

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Our test car had carbon-fibre segments on its steering wheel, with the boy-racer shift lights in the uppermost section of the squared-off rim. The wheel is a bit crowded because there are no stalks, just completely unobstructed access to two huge paddles.

Don’t get the carbon-fibre paddles though; they don’t feel that nice to the fingertips and aren’t the tactile delight of a lovely cold alloy. They do look good, though.

It took me a while to work out how to run the lights and wipers, but thankfully I didn’t have much use for the latter. The volume controls for the JBL sound system are also on the back of the wheel.

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The centre console hosts a portrait mode screen that I thought could do with a bit more work. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with it, but it’s not as nice as the screen in the Portofino. Then again, nor does it take up so much space.

You can also get Apple CarPlay which is – annoyingly – not wireless, so the wireless charging pad won’t get used very much. The centre console bin is a tight fit for a larger phone and longer cable too.

Also a tight fit are the rear seats. A friend came by for a ride with his five-foot (150cm) tall wife and she was never so pleased to be “petite” (her word). It was still touch-and-go and I sat a little further forward than I would otherwise (the huge range of movement in the steering column was extremely helpful here) but she made it. They don’t call it a two-plus for nothing, so there’s truth in advertising there.

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The boot is pretty small, too, which is weird given it doesn’t have a roof to fold into it. Some of the space is eaten up by the mechanism for an active wing that deploys at 100km/h. Ferrari says it can provide up to 95kg of downforce at 250km/h while only adding four per cent of drag. In its mid position, it generates just under a third of that figure while only adding one per cent of drag.

Further aero trickery underneath the car includes a pair of vortex generators to ensure high-speed stability, which is handy for a 320km/h car.

Mirror blind spot aside, when the Manettino dial on the steering wheel is set to comfort, the Roma is an easy car to drive. Once you get used to the huge length of bonnet in front of you – it looks and feels like the 812 Superfast when you’re in the chair – you’ll find it perfectly easy and unintimidating.

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The steering is light but chatty enough – a Ferrari trick – and you’ll just be tickling the throttle as you mosey about. The gearbox is very cooperative at low speeds, which is not something that dual-clutch units are famous for. There’s even a confidence-inspiring Wet setting that further dials things down.

Pile on a bit of throttle, though, and you get a feel for what this car can do. Torque floods the rear tyres from 3000rpm, with a purposeful snarl from the V8. It all gets angrier and progressively looser as you work your way from Comfort through to Race.

Race is not for mucking about and it makes its first appearance on this type of Ferrari in the Roma. A bunch of acronyms steadily become more aggressive as you work your way up and it’s here the FDE activates. In concert with Side Slip Control (SSC), the Roma’s visual character – elegant, sophisticated – is absolutely put to the sword.

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What is a fast and capable coupe in the lower modes suddenly turns into not just a headbanger but a mosh pit full of them. The steering becomes more alive and you realise just how much the 285/35 rears are struggling with the sheer volume of twist and power.

The chassis doesn’t complain, though, it eggs you on to kicking over speakers and smashing guitars, gearchanges and the horizon coming at you as the huge digital tachometer swings towards the 7500rpm redline. This kind of power takes an enormous amount of getting used to – or a heck of a lot more talent than I have.

Windows down on a twisty road, you hear eight pistons spinning the flat-plane crank, tyres protesting under a full throttle, pausing for a millisecond’s breath when you shift up and the two turbos shrieking as they turn heat into yet more power. Not many companies on Earth can make a twin-turbo engine sound this good. Maybe two.

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The Roma covers the 0-100km/h sprint in just 3.4 seconds and takes just another six to reach the double ton. For context, your average SUV is still thinking about 100 approaching in 9.3 seconds. The Roma is long gone.

But it’s the way the power and torque are always there, launching you at the next corner with unbelievable ferocity. It’s hard to comprehend just how much force is going through the driveline. Not that you’re thinking too hard about it and as the car squirms about, cheerfully hanging out the tail in a controlled, easy arc with little provocation.

It’s lively in the dry in Race so I can’t imagine what kind of lunatic would use that mode in the wet. You get a lot of slack from the stability systems that remain on guard, just at a more respectful distance. In fact, you never even really notice these systems once you’re out of Comfort, so finely tuned they are for a wide variety of driving talent and purpose.

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And like all good sports cars, if you don’t like that, switching the Manettino back to Sport tidies it all up if you’re not that confident. While this car will be fun on the track, it will be because you’re playing with on the throttle, giving it attitude and finding its limits with gentle slides, all easily reined in with steering and throttle. Where an F8 will whistle past with its precision, you’ll be having way more fun.

It’s all backed by a massive set of carbon-ceramic brakes that not only keep your diamond-polished alloys immaculately clean but provide epic stopping power, with 390mm discs up front and 360mm at the rear. The stopping power is immense but the pedal feel is excellent, despite this material's notoriety for being not much chop when cold.

Plenty of owners will never want or need this kind of braking power but given the Roma’s ability to bend space and time under a full throttle, they’re there if you need them.

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They’re also quite handy when people forget to drive while they’re rubber-necking at you. Or giving you the thumbs-up. This is one Ferrari that people are happy to see.

And speaking of happy, the Roma comes with a seven-year warranty and a seven-year maintenance program, the theory being you won’t have to worry about service costs for the period of the warranty.

The Roma is built for people who want to be comfortable, drive a refined sports car and, obviously, be seen.

But it’s also an incredible amount of fun, never taking itself too seriously while always putting a smile on your face. I can’t imagine ever getting tired of the Roma.