By Alexandra Cheney
This story originally appeared in the November/December 2017 issue of Elite Traveler.
It’s less of a throaty roar and more of a whoosh, the sound Eurofighter Typhoons create overhead as they blow by. These particular fighter jets belong to the Italian Air Force’s 4th Wing from Grosseto and were present in Fiorano to initiate an auction in honor of Ferrari’s 70th anniversary. They too sport the Prancing Horse insignia; it’s on the fuselages.
A stone’s throw from Ferrari’s home in Maranello, Italy, this auction presented, among other heritage vehicles, car number 210, the last and final La Ferrari Aperta. The fastest open-top road car ever produced by the Prancing Horse, the limited-edition special series model La Ferrari Aperta is a celebration of the company’s seven decades of existence. And it’s a hybrid.
Under the scalloped hood, a 6.2-liter V12 engine accompanies an electric motor that implements Ferrari’s Formula 1 energy recovery and deployment techniques. Cumulatively, that’s 950 horsepower, with 0-60mph in under three seconds. Fear not, that legacy purr remains intact in what Ferrari bills as an “absolutely extreme car.” Although it is considered a spider version of the La Ferrari hypercar coupe, the La Ferrari Aperta insists upon its own list of standalone features.
To maintain an equivalent drag coefficient, the entirety of the car’s carbon-fiber structure has been tweaked. Terms like torsional rigidity and beam stiffness come into play. For its butterfly doors to spring open correctly, the angle of the door was shifted, creating space for a carbon-fiber vent in the front fender. That conversely affects the new front duct on the hood and includes the addition of vortex generators underneath.
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Ferrari introduced the La Ferrari Aperta at the Paris Motor Show last October and with it, the announcement that all 209 had been presold for $2.1m each. The 210th sold for $9.96m in September 2017, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to charity.
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