Ferrari Roma review

• What is it?
• So what does the Roma do?
• Who’s going to buy the Roma then?
• If you say so. What else?
• What's the verdict?
• What is it like to drive?
• Tell me about the engine.
• How’s the handling?
• What is it like on the inside?
• Surely Ferrari is the king of clever electrical systems in cars?
• Is it practical?
• What should I be paying?

Overview

What is it?

This is Ferrari’s, erm, compact GT, variously described by the company’s marketing people as ‘an F1 car in evening attire’ and a 2020 reboot for that ineffably Italian idea of la dolce vita. To the rest of us who don’t speak ‘branding’, it’s a two-door, 2+2 seater coupe with a front-mid mounted twin-turbo V8 driving the rear wheels. Think of it as a baby 812 Superfast.

Now, you might surmise that Ferrari has been in the gran turismo business pretty much since day one, when Enzo Ferrari cottoned on to the fact that the world’s high-net worth individuals (they were plain rich back then) would pay handsomely for house-trained versions of his beloved racing cars.

Ferrari’s GT cars are the foundations upon which the House of Enzo was built, but the template drifted with 1975’s mid-engined 308 GTB and no-one really fancied the louchely chiselled 365 GT4/400i.

So what does the Roma do?

The Roma represents a renaissance for a Ferrari that embodies understated luxury rather than shrieking its potential from terracotta-clad rooftops, that posits elegance ahead of razor-sharp handling smarts.

It’s supposedly the Ferrari for people who don’t really ‘get’ the Italian powerhouse, who wouldn’t describe themselves as keen drivers, and who prefer to fly under the radar. Given the state of the world right now, a less shouty Ferrari might be just the ticket.

Who’s going to buy the Roma then?

Maranello expects 70 per cent of Roma customers to be new to the brand, and the siren’s call is done via a body whose design espouses the modish idea of reductionism and purity.

Ferrari’s design director Flavio Manzoni is quietly, astutely revolutionary in his thinking, and for all the call-backs to Fellini movies and Sophia Loren, the Roma is a progressive looking, beautifully proportioned car. The front wings crest emotively, and the sheet metal resolves in an ever more sharky front end.

The LED headlights and partly blanked off mesh grille are both controversial but vault the Ferrari ‘face’ into the 2020s. You’ll get used to it.

If you say so. What else?

The body sides have an aeronautical, fuselage feel, and the rear lights use new tech to minimise their size and presence. No signature round lights here. Note also the vortex generators upfront and deployable rear spoiler, which has a Low Drag, Medium Downforce and High Downforce setting but mainly stays out of the way (the Roma’s aero balance is superior to the Portofino’s).

This is also a car that suits sober colours. There was a time when every new Ferrari was launched exclusively in rosso corsa. This is a different Ferrari for a different era.

Whatever times we’re in though, a Ferrari still needs to drive like a Ferrari…

On its current form, it was unlikely Ferrari was going to get the Roma wrong. There’s something seductive about a small(ish) Ferrari with a V8 engine mounted in the front, as opposed to the middle – just as they were in the company’s earliest days.

But don’t be fooled: something of an assassin still lurks within. This stunning gorgeous GT wants to be a full-blooded Ferrari fightstar when it grows up. We liked it more in its native Italy than on the best English and Welsh roads. If the surface isn’t warm and dry, the Roma can feel quite fraught if you’re really going for it. Most modern Ferraris are set up in with these stunt plane reflexes, but we thought the Roma might exploit that gap in the market for a slightly less highly strung Ferrari.

We’d also like the interior to calm down: more intuitive controls are badly needed for the HMI, and the touch-sensitive switchgear needs a rethink before it’s safe to use on the move. Even after days behind the wheel, we struggled to accomplish simple commands. And that’s not ideal when there’s well over 600bhp attacking the rear wheels.

Then again, is it a bad thing that the Roma always demands your attention? It’s not in Ferrari’s nature to make a car that’s as relaxed as a Bentley Continental. Perhaps Maserati will give that a go with the next GranTurismo. What we have here is possibly the best looking Ferrari on sale, and most of the thrills you’d get from the big bad 812.

Driving

What is it like to drive?

The advance buzz on the Roma suggested a hotter Portofino. Ferrari insists not. Accordingly, 70 per cent of the components are entirely new, and it incorporates the latest weight reduction and production techniques.

Chief test driver Raffaele de Simone singles out the chassis engineers for particular praise, which is significant because while the Roma is apparently less frantic than other Ferraris (812, we’re looking at you), the hard bits underneath point the way forward for Ferrari. Not that any car powered by a 3.9-litre twin turbo V8 making 612bhp is ever going to be anything less than extremely vivid.

Tell me about the engine.

In the Roma, the engine receives new cam profiles, a revised catalytic converter and gas particulate filter, a reworked exhaust that uses an oval-shaped flap rather than a traditional silencer, and more aggressive valve lift profiles on intake and exhaust. So it’s more thermally efficient but also more sonically satisfying, too. This was already one of the world’s cleverest engines, and the biggest issue the fortunate end user faces is simply being able to tap into its huge potential.

All vestiges of laggardly old-school turbo behaviour have been completely eradicated, the hardware magic matched by Variable Boost Management software which adjusts torque delivery to suit whichever gear you’re in. Throttle response is instant, and if it doesn’t deliver the extraordinary sensory highs of, say, Lamborghini’s V10, it’s pretty damn close.

In the Roma, of course, that sort of emotional overload wouldn’t be appropriate anyway, and the result is a car that is as seductive at whispering in your ear as it is giving it the full 7,500rpm V8 baritone roar. There’s a new gearbox, too, derived from the eight-speed dual-shift one in the SF90 Stradale.

It’s improved in every measure: lighter, faster shifting (15 per cent on upshifts, 21 per cent on downshifts), more efficient, and better integrated with the engine software. We tested the car in Piedmontese wine country, where the topology and road surfaces are very similar to the stuff you’d find near Maranello. Which is to say, often bloody awful. Throw in an apocalyptic downpour and the scene’s set for a sweaty-palmed, often eye-popping few hours.

How’s the handling?

Ferraris crave dry tarmac, and need proper heat in the tyres to do their best work. A combination of slippery surfaces and heavy rain meant a rare case of selecting Wet mode on the manettino. It works extremely well, though that flickering traction light is a reminder of how much work the software’s doing.

Comfort, Sport, Race and ESC-Off (are you sure?) complete the quintet, backed up by something called the Ferrari Dynamic Enhancer – which adjusts brake pressure on whichever wheel needs it and works only in Race mode – alongside the regular stability control and V6.0 of side slip control. Ferrari has gone truly, bewilderingly digital, but beneath it all is a deeply satisfying car to drive, both quickly (0-62mph in 3.4secs, 0-124mph in 9.3secs) and not-so-quickly, with wonderfully linear steering, fantastic composure, and terrific brakes (the pedal feel is better on the Roma, too).

Perhaps more relevant to the people who’ll actually end up buying the thing is that its steady-state motorway manners are pleasant. That said, you’ll have to manage the Roma more than say, a Bentley Continental GT. Its flighty-fast steering and sharp reflexes mean the Roma demands more of your attention more of the time, especially when a momentary tickle of the throttle warps you forward so rapidly.

You’ve got to be awake on a British road, particularly in the wet or cold, to stay on top of the Roma, and ultimately when it’s not on warm Italian autostrada we wonder if the Roma is as relaxing as it ought to be for a languid front-engined GT. Especially as the interior is also fighting for your attention…

Interior

What is it like on the inside?

OK, this is where things get tricky. Like that bit in The Matrix where Neo is consumed by those malevolent algorithms, the Roma jettisons regular switchgear in favour of capacative multi-touch controls. Look, we know everyone’s doing it but that doesn’t make it right. There’s nothing wrong with the main instrument display, a 16in curved HD screen that can be personalised, and which you navigate using a touchpad on the right-hand spar of the steering wheel. Interestingly, there’s a quasi sci-fi whooshing sound as you move between the different displays.

The touchpad on the left spar operates the adaptive cruise control. Meanwhile, the indicators, wipers and manettino are on the wheel as has been the case for about the past 15 years on Ferraris, but still feels a bit wrong. This Ferrari also uses cameras and ADAS and all that stuff. Also a bit wrong.

Surely Ferrari is the king of clever electrical systems in cars?

When it comes to superhero mode drift control and clever traction control, yes. But here, Ferrari has got too clever for its own good. The problem areas are the hidden engine start/stop button, the touchpad to adjust the door mirrors, and the button that opens the door. We would prefer to interact with a proper, machined piece of metal or physical button for these, please.

And while we’re on this subject, can we have a manual volume control for the audio and similar for the climate set-up? Both of these nestle within the domain of the 8.4in central display, which means you’re destined to do a lot of finger prodding, much of it in vain.

The central display screen itself looks like it should detach, but obviously doesn’t. Ferrari says all this stuff is in service to the ‘eyes on the road, hands on the wheel’ mantra, and its biometric tests empirically prove there’s a reduced distraction as a result. We say different. Especially as the central screen is somewhat laggy and suffers badly with reflections when you’re driving away from the sunshine. Happily, Romas from 2022 onwards have the option of Apple CarPlay.

Is it practical?

The cabin itself has a nice ebb and flow to it, and is meant to involve the passenger more in the experience. The drive controls in the centre console mimic the old open gate of manual Ferraris, but it’s not just a design conceit: three-point turns beside an Italian vineyard are much easier to perform. Fingerprints quickly smear the area, though.

The interior can be had in full-grain Frau leather or Alcantara. Don’t spec a light-coloured dashboard top: it reflects badly in the windscreen. Even tan is a no-no.

It’s a lovely place to sit, no question, but again, the question of whether or not the Roma truly wants to be a GT raises its head. There’s little in the way of drink storage, and nowhere especially convenient to tuck a large smartphone. The back seats are best used as a generous luggage shelf, though that’s no different to the likes of the Aston Martin DB11.

Buying

What should I be paying?

The Roma costs just shy of £175,000, which includes a four-year warranty (for UK customers) and seven-year Genuine Maintenance package. Ferraris aren’t cheap to run so this is helpful. Fuel economy sits at 11.2l/100km (around 25mpg), and CO2 emissions are 255g/km, but few Roma owners are going to lose sleep over either of those.

More interesting is the matter of depreciation; some seasoned Ferrari watchers reckon the company is simply making too many models these days (they’re not going to like it when the Purosangue SUV lands…), although residuals generally settle at a higher level than rivals.

On which note, the Aston Martin DB11, Bentley Continental GT, Mercedes-AMG GT and in particular the latest Porsche 911 Turbo are all phenomenally desirable cars. As is a three-year old Ferrari GTC4Lusso or F12 Berlinetta, likely not to have the sort of mileage that would put anyone off, both naturally aspirated and boasting that magic extra quartet of cylinders. Even Ferrari newbies might like to cast their eye around.

Keyword: Ferrari Roma review