- First videos of the Ferrari F80 hypercar driving around a race track has surfaced online.
- The clips give us our first listen to the twin-turbo V-6 powertrain.
- We prefer the sound of Ferrari's V-12.
Ferrari revealed its latest flagship hypercar on Thursday, the F80. But unlike its three predecessors, there's no V-12 in the engine bay. Instead, the F80 comes with a twin-turbo V-6 adopted from the company's Le Mans-winning race car, along with three electric motors. While that's great for performance, it leaves the F80 lacking in the sound department.
Ferrari showed the F80 over the weekend at Imola in Italy to showcase the car's looks and performance to the public. The NM2255 YouTube channel captured the hybrid hypercar doing flybys and drifts on track, giving us an up-close view to listen to that V-6. And honestly, it's not much to write home about.
To me, the F80's engine sounds much like the V-6 in the lesser 296 GTB. Honestly, it sounds a bit more muffled here, with only hints of high-revving excitement coming through the exhaust exit. In the first flyby shot, the F80 sounds like nothing at all, almost as if it were running on fully electric power.
While sound ultimately isn't the most vital feature in a car like this, it's still an important factor. To hear it sound like this is a bit of a disappointment, especially considering the heart-racing, high-revving shrieks from the V-12s that came before.
That being said, you can't really blame Ferrari for going in this direction. Both its Formula 1 cars and its Le Mans race cars use V-6 hybrid powertrains, so it only makes sense for the company to have its top-level street car adopt the same engine format.
My opinion doesn't really matter, of course. All 799 examples of the $4 million hypercar have been sold to owners who are more than happy to have them. Grumpy purists like me aren't totally out of luck, either. Ferrari still sells a couple of V-12-powered cars: The Daytona SP3 and the 12Cilindri. Either of which I think I'd have instead of the F80.
