SHEER PACE, UNFLAPPABLE POISE

A SHIMMERING RETURN OF THE CLASSIC ITALIAN GT, WITH A MODERN EDGE

- ANGUS MACKENZIE

The 2021 Ferrari Roma is an emphatic celebration of the Italian gran Turismo, a genre that in the 1950s and ’60s resulted in some of the most beautiful and desirable cars ever built in Maranello. But the Roma is not a carefully crafted homage to the past, a contrived pastiche of retro whimsy wrapped around 21st-century hardware. No, this Ferrari GT is in every way a thoroughly modern interpretation of a classic automotive concept, cleverly engineered and superbly executed.

First things first: The Roma is not a replacement for the Portofino, Ferrari’s other V-8-powered front-engine GT. It is an addition to the lineup, and with a price tag of $222,620, it’s by a fraction the least expensive new Ferrari you can buy. In the rarefied world of Ferrari-nomics, it’s a stone-cold bargain.

The Roma is an amalgam of existing Ferrari hardware and software, refined, repurposed, and renewed. The Roma’s platform is based on that of the Portofino, but it’s 70 percent new. Variants of the 3.9-liter twin-turbo V-8 under the Roma’s hood can be found in five other Ferrari models. The Roma’s eight-speed dual-clutch transmission is fundamentally the same as the one that made its debut in the SF90. It is the first Ferrari GT car to get Side Slip Control 6.0, which was unveiled on the race-face 488 Pista n 2018, and the first whose manettino dial allows you to select Race mode.