Prancing God: Ferrari's New F80 Hybrid Is the Best Car I've Ever Driven

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21 hours ago

Like a brilliant comet, a true supercar from Maranello—such as the new Ferrari F80—appears very rarely, but when it does, the automotive world can't look away. The luminous F40 debuted in 1987, followed by the F50 in 1995, the otherworldly Enzo in 2002, the eponymous LaFerrari in 2013, and now, arriving in early 2026, the inimitable F80.
To call this 1,184 hp street-legal Prancing Horse magnificent feels like an understatement. In two decades of professional driving, I've never piloted anything so sublimely capable of devouring pavement; it borders on menacing. That's no surprise, given that it unleashes more power than any road-going Ferrari to leave the factory in history and distills everything the marque has learned in nearly 80 years. The proof, as always, is how it feels on the road—as if every insight and innovation is seamlessly deployed.
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Developed alongside Ferrari's endurance-focused 499P—which makes 670 hp and recently won its third consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans—the F80 required a few more years of R&D. As the automaker points out, it's easier to build a car for motorsport than for the market. Like the 499P and the 296 GTB, the F80 carries a compact 3.0-liter 120-degree V-6. But unlike the others—or any production car apart from the Porsche 911 GTS—it uses energy derived from the battery to power two massive electric turbochargers spinning at 160,000 rpm. Supplementing the engine's 888 hp are three electric motors—one located on the left cylinder bank and two at the front axle.
Straight-line performance is staggering: zero to 125 mph in a claimed 5.3 seconds, and zero to 60 in a mere 2.0. Launch control is a wild ride, equal parts fun and brutal, as all that boost sends the V-6 screaming. Driving the F80 quickly and efficiently means tracking the shift lights atop the steering wheel: After seven red lights, two final blue flash near the 9,000 rpm mark—your cue to pull the upshift paddle. Miss it and you'll bump into the rev limiter at 9,200 rpm.
After taking five handwritten pages of notes on the aerodynamics, I feel confident saying that aside from the Aston Martin Valkyrie, nothing harnesses the wind like this Ferrari. It produces 1,014 pounds of downforce on the front axle and 1,300 on the rear at 155 mph—a speed I approached repeatedly while lapping Italy's 2.62-mile Misano circuit. To ensure that the F80's aero performance stays consistent, four 48-volt active dampers complete a cycle every 25 milliseconds to maintain ride height and prevent body roll. It may sound strange that the car doesn't lean or compress, but when cornering at these velocities, even slight changes in downforce would be disruptive.
Plenty of modern hypercars are absurdly quick, but few offer this level of control: It invites, even demands, that you attack a road or a circuit with total confidence—and attack is the right word. I've driven the Valkyrie, which struggles with low-speed stability, and Rhys Millen's 2021 Bentley GT3 Pikes Peak car, which shares similar aerodynamics but lacks the same power. Both require aggression, but the F80 is in another league. Simply put, it's safe to say that it drives better than anything I've ever experienced.
The only disconcerting thought: I may never drive it again. And unless you're already among Ferrari's most favored few, you likely won't either—all 799 examples have been presold starting at $3.73 million apiece.
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