Ferrari's entry-level, eight-cylinder cabriolet may
not be the most hardcore of Prancing Horses, but the arrival of the new
Portofino should leave no doubt that it's a true Ferrari.
Ferrari has now revealed
full details of the heavily revised model upon its debut at the Frankfurt Motor
Show. And some of the smallest details speak the loudest of its improvements.
Even with only two doors, a four-seat hardtop
convertible is inherently one of the heaviest vehicles on the road, often
weighing as much as some SUVs. That's why drop-top four-seaters (or 2+2s) often
stick with soft tops. But Ferrari managed to trim an impressive 79 kg off
the Portofino's mass compared to the previous California T, bringing curb
weight down to 1,663 kg. That's a good 167 kg lighter than a BMW 430i
Convertible and with twice the engine, no less.
All the while, Ferrari increased output from the
award-winning 3.9-liter twin-turbo V8 to 600 horsepower and 762 Nm of
torque. With less weight to motivate, it'll rocket to 100 km/h in 3.5
seconds, to 200 km/h in 10.8 sec, and top out at over 320 km/h, taking just 33 meters to come
back to a standstill from 100 km/h (thanks to those giant carbon-ceramic brake
discs). Those figures put the Portofino, statistically speaking, out in front
of Ferrari's most notable turbo V8 supercar: the legendary F40.
The engineers in Maranelo also
managed to increase the chassis' stiffness by 35 percent, and though the more powerful
engine requires more cooling, the drag coefficient actually dropped by six
percent. Yet the design – extending into a more fastback profile – looks better than the California ever did.
