The new Ferrari Roma is Maranello’s first car in a long time that is actually fun to drive on UK roads, according to Jeremy Clarkson.
The Sunday Times writer has not been a fan of the dancing horse offerings in recent years. He called the company a “hatter” and said his cars were too big, wide and powerful to be used on the winding, bumpy roads of Britain.
While Clarkson viewed some of the recent Ferraris as excellent machines, the GTC4 Lusso T, which replaced the “cumbersome” V12 of the unattached model with a more exciting V8, was “wonderful” while the 488 Pista was “not brilliant”. . . It is way beyond that ”- many have also made his fear for his life.
In a memorable review for Top Gear modeling a tennis headband modeled on Andre Agassi, the writing and television host said the F12 would be better with “less power” and later said it was “white-faced” got out of the car and what it looked like when Parkinson’s onset ”.
The 812 Superfast is now even more powerful than the F12 – not a good thing – and in today’s review it compared the 812 GTS to trying to ride a cow through your local antique shop.
So the Roma should be the Ferrari that Clarkson has been waiting for. Its V8 is 177 hp less than the 812 GTS’s screaming V12, and the body is described as “small” more than once in the Sunday Times review. That’s even though the Roma is only 1mm shorter than the 812 Superfast and actually 3mm wider, which perhaps says a fair bit about its less angry street manners.
It is controversial that Clarkson also likes the appearance of the Roma. Various auto journalists have compared it to an Aston Martin, although Clarkson disagrees. He admits, however, that the Ferrari looks a lot like a Jaguar F-Type, but adds, “Isn’t that like saying about a woman, ‘The problem is, she looks like Alicia Vikander too’?
The most important thing about the Roma, according to Clarkson, is that when he got behind the wheel and stepped foot, he felt the “Ferrari magic,” a multi-sensory experience he likened to being immersed in a dopamine canister.
“It feels kind of different from other cars: lighter, sharper, better … it’s just so damn exciting,” he wrote.
According to Clarkson, the more moderate – but definitely not lacking – horsepower and torque levels are actually usable on the UK’s back roads, allowing you to dig further into the Roma’s reserves instead of paddling in the shallow area with Ferrari’s V12 cars as required, resulting in one “Car drives that tickles you”.
Thanks to its front-engined layout (classic Ferrari, he argues), it’s also more practical than some other Ferrari models, with a satisfactory trunk and rear seats that, while not suitable for adults, are “enough for smaller items”. Babies, for example ”.
He also had nothing against the fiddly Roma ergonomics, as some reviewers have done. However, he took serious problems with the seats that he said did not provide support and made him feel like he was sitting on them, not in them.
Additionally, true Ferrari-style options list charges excessive amounts for the smallest of things: a carbon rear diffuser costs £ 6,720; two-tone leather costs £ 4,800; Folding rear seats – standard on almost every car with more than two seats – weigh just under a thousand pounds. In fact, he said, even though the Roma starting price is £ 170,000, the car he drove was a whopping £ 230,000.
Mind you, it’s a Ferrari.
You can read Jeremy Clarkson’s full review of the Ferrari Roma on the Sunday Times website or in today’s Sunday Times Magazine.
* This is not the first Ferrari review in which Clarkson referred to the Swedish actress.
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