- There’s not an electric motor in sight
- The handling is, well, iconic
- As for the more pedestrian stuff…
- But is it beautiful?
Pretty much every auto journalist I’ve talked to initially thought that Ferrari’s latest SP3 Icona was intended as an homage to the 1968 to ‘73 365 GTB/4. Except, of course, that there’s absolutely no resemblance to the famed Daytona — which, Ferrari absolutely maintains, was never officially named “Daytona,” insisting instead that that sobriquet was bestowed upon it by the media — the 365 being a shark-nosed, front-engined grand tourer while the new SP3 version of the Daytona is a classic cabin-forward, mid-engined supercar. The only thing they share is that both are (were) available in red.
Rather, the icon this Icona is trying to emulate — or rather, the iconic moment it is based on —is the 1967 24 hours of Daytona Race. You might remember — and, if you don’t, just watch James Mangold’s 2019 Oscar-winning Ford v Ferrari — that Ferrari got its ass kicked at Le Mans in 1966, the might of Maranello succumbing to Michigan muscle in the form of Ford’s famed GT 40 Mk II.
The response from Ferrari was immediate. Aerodynamics, never an Enzo priority, suddenly became important. Ditto the brakes. They even found a way to liberate another 30 horsepower, adding a second intake valve to the big 4.0-litre V12’s cylinder head. Come the next spring at the world’s most famed oval — the 24 hours of Daytona — Ferrari dominated, taking all three podium spots and even, cue yet another famous scene from the Matt Damon classic, all three Ferraris queueing up on the last lap for a photo finish. It was, in the literal sense of the word, il Commendatore’s middle-fingered salute to Henry Ford II, the wound of 1966 seemingly still fresh enough in Maranello memory that the icons the SP3 Daytona is supposedly saluting are the Bandini/Amon 330 P3/4 that finished first as well as the 330 P4 and 412 P that rounded off the podium.
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
There’s not an electric motor in sight
Hybrids have been getting all the attention in Maranello lately as Ferrari — and the rest of the world’s supercars — try desperately to marry electrification while still retaining the aural allure of internal combustion.
Except for the SP3. With nary a lithium ion in sight — save for the giant 60 amp-hour battery needed to turn over 12 94-millimetre, 13.5:1 high-compression pistons — the Daytona is spark ignition at its purest. The 6.5-litre V12 is essentially lifted from the 812 Competizione, but thanks to the revised intake and exhaust plumbing necessitated by its relocation amidships, there’s 10 more horses on hand.
That makes for a total of 828-hp in all, and pretty much all of them are only available when the engine is screaming. Max power is somewhere around 9,250 rpm and the F140HC will hit to 9,500 if you get the wheels spinning in the lower gears. And since all 12 of those pistons are right behind your ear, you’ll hear pretty much every last decibel of the combustion process. That includes some very period piece popping and banging on over-run, a soundtrack deliberately programmed into the Daytona’s “Race” mode as further reminder of the golden age of internal combustion when the mixtures were rich and the mufflers weak. If aural delight is what you’re after, the SP3 is just about the most exciting Ferrari since the 458.
And doesn’t it fairly shift its butt as well. 100 kilometres an hour takes but 2.85 seconds, and the top speed is somewhere around 340 kilometres an hour. That makes it just slightly speedier than Ferrari’s new 296 GTB, a car that sports but six cylinders — turbocharged, of course, but reinforced by a torquey 123-kilowatt electric motor. If anything, the “lesser” 296 probably gets out of the “hole” a little more adroitly than the big SP3, but once the big V12 starts singing, that’s all she wrote. No matter where its future lies — and even Ferrari admits the future is electrified — the most iconic of Maranello powerplants is the V12. The SP3’s does not disappoint.
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
The handling is, well, iconic
For a while there, it looked like Ferrari was going mainstream with its chassis development, the hyperactivity of the incomparable 458 giving way to the 488’s McLaren-like stability. Oversteer was banished, steering ratios were stiffened and, well, the cars became a little benign — hardly an attribute that conjures up phantasms of Prancing Horses past.
Not the SP3 Daytona. Like a 458 on anabolics, the big V12 jumps at apexes like a politician to a photo op. The steering is light, instantaneous and oh-so precise. Given its head — and those 828 horses — the rear end will step out nicely, but the front end remains glued to the road. Oh, to be sure, there’s enough electronic traction minders to ensure that enthusiasm doesn’t trash 2.2 million worth of greenbacks. Based on the LaFerrari’s carbon fibre tub, the chassis is the very definition of rigid, an absolute necessity if you’re heading for the evil side of 300 km/h. Sadly, I can’t tell you if it is faster than the 296 or regale you with tales of pushing the Pirelli PZero Corsas — 265/30ZR20s at the front and 345/30ZR21s at the rear — to their limit ‘cause even though I was able to circumnavigate Germany’s famed Hockenheimring, we were under a strictly-enforced 70 kilometre an hour curfew. Maybe next time, when the parents aren’t around.
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 ‘Icona’ Photo by Ferrari
As for the more pedestrian stuff…
The 2023 SP3 Daytona will set you back — as if you could still buy one — some US$2,218,935. That works out, at August 1st exchange rates, to around $2.85 loonies, give or take a Fed rate hike or two. If you’ve already ordered one, you’re looking at May of next year of 2023 for earliest delivery.
Like most modern Ferraris, the SP3’s cabin is fairly civilized (which is almost certainly the biggest departure from the icons it’s based on). The seats are fairly comfortable despite lacking any adjustment whatsoever (like a true race car, the driving position is modified by altering the location of the brake and throttle pedals). There’s even a “bumpy roads” setting for the adjustable suspension, something those iconic ’67 racers certainly didn’t enjoy.
Ferrari’s latest infotainment system, including a superb navigation system, is onboard and no you won’t, like those aforementioned P3 and P4s, cook in your own juices, the air conditioning system quite capable of cooling even Europe’s recent heat wave. Indeed, about the only thing that remains as a Ferrari-ism — I’d say a typical Italian idiosyncrasy, but the progressive police would surely get after me — is that the outside mirrors require the patience of Job to adjust. Iconic it may pretend to be, but thoroughly modern the SP3 is.
But is it beautiful?
Like all tributes to classics past, the SP3, despite its outrageous performance and unquestioned abilities, will live and die by its visuals. That is to say that the only way it becomes iconic is if its shape, under the guidance of Ferrari design chief Flavio Manzoni, stands the test of time. In crudest of terms, this is a Ferrari built for the catwalk and it will be long judged on its beauty.
So, does it pass muster? Well, yes and no. I would tell you that pictures really don’t do it justice, not even the ones so professionally rendered for this article. To my mind, every time I look at this car in pictures, all I see are those seemingly outlandish strakes that adorn both front and rear fascias. Maybe they add to the aerodynamic profile — the SP3 does generate about 500 pounds of downforce above 200 km/h — or maybe there’s some aesthetic principle involving venetian blinds and Ferraris I’m not getting. But, in pictures, the predominance of those horizontal lines — especially in the rear — pop out.
In the flesh, however, they seem to fade to insignificance, their awkwardness overshadowed by the almost perfect lines of the cabin’s wraparound windshield and its muscular haunches. It’s these last that best capture the essence of those 330s past, their organic shape an antidote for the rigidly scientific wedges that supercars have become. Throw in a little whale tail spoiler action lifted from the long-bodied iconic 512 M, and you really do have all the important styling cues of the glamourous 1970s.
And that, in the end, will determine whether, in 20, 30, or even 40 years, the SP3 Daytona is itself an icon.
Keyword: First Drive: 2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 'Icona'