Ferrari F80: Another Reason Maranello Should Fire Flavio Manzoni

When the LaFerrari was introduced a decade ago everyone was left jaw-dropped, nobody expected it to look that beautiful and drive so visceral at the same time. Sure P1 came close, but that V12 howl sent everyone giggling while the former had everyone left questioning their driving skills. 

The record-setting 918 Spyder, on the other hand, had a bit of both Laf and P1 in its blood. It had a 9000 RPM V8 and did 60 mph in just 2.2 seconds! But it lacked the curb appeal of offerings from Woking and Maranello.

So after a decade, I am sure everyone was waiting for another 9000 RPM Nirvana paired with a hybrid system that would justify its existence to cope with ever-harder emission laws and to surpass the modern levels of performance set by bargain underdogs like Taycan Turbo GT, Model S Plaid, the 765 LT, Revuleto, Ferrari’s own SF-90 and the bargain of the century, 1065 hp Corvette ZR1.

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The Ferrari F80 looks like an AI Designed Lego Set 

The same stuff you are about to buy for your children as Christmas approaches. The so-called self-confessed guru of design Flavio Manzoni has once again proved that having a fancy Italian name doesn’t make you a good designer.

The Laf had absolutely bang-on proportions with its blend of the curvy buttresses, sloping angle, and a rear end that would give Kim Kardashian a run for her money. It invoked a feeling that only men would understand.

The F80 looked like it was designed by Manzoni using Chat GPT after he made a deal with La Ferrari owners to design a car so bad that the depreciation on their V12 hypercars would be practically zero even after a decade. Mission accomplished.

F80 looks nothing like the bad-ass F80 concept that wowed us with its massive intakes and absolutely out-of-this-word styling

The square part behind the fender is an eye-sore and an afterthought, I am sure a company worth billions of dollars has the means to come up with something a bit more subtle.

There are way too many meshes which makes the F80 look like a chicken coop. I get it they are probably there to protect the radiators but the implementation could have been better. 

The side profile of the F80 looks decent and provides some relief as what you'll probably see next, the rear end. It has so many busy elements that make it look a bit cartoonish, something that a 5-year-old with crayons would design. It is a blend of SF90's lights and the giant middle wing looks like an Enzo inspiration.

Ferrari has recently developed an unfortunate habit of just putting a couple of dashes instead of some genuinely good-looking rear light signatures, like the ones in the 812 Superfast and Daytona SP3. 

Italians might argue that all these off-putting bits and bobs are for aerodynamics and the claimed 2300 pounds of downforce the F80 produces. So how do Valkyrie and RB-17 make an intentionally limited 2400 pounds of downforce, while looking unashamedly alien and much more prettier?

Flavio’s needless obsession with a chunky black bar on the hood (which also has an S-Duct, btw) has made the F80 look like a one-off version of the equally hideous 12 Cilindiri.

Look closely and you will see a pattern forming here. Manzoni’s desire to ruin modern V12 Ferraris like Laf and 812 with successors like stupidly named 12 Cilindri and butt-ugly F80 stand in stark contrast to what Italian marque once stood for, passionately design exotics that owners would want to drive every day and fans would dream of owning one someday as they admired posters of scarlet red prancing horse on their walls. 

The only wall where I would want to see posters of 12 Cilindri and F80 is the one at my local police precinct, titled “Wanted-Damaged or Crushed”

9000 RPM V6 Deserves Some Respect

After ranting about the F80s styling It suddenly occurred to me that due to “Architect of Doom” Manzoni’s BS design, the rather insane and applause-worthy engineering behind the F80 could be overlooked, something as a former engineer myself is a bit sad, tbh.

The F80 by a V6 and a trio of electronic motors. The V6 is derived from the Ferrari’s surprisingly successful LMDh program. The twin-turbocharged V6 is a 120-degree unit with titanium connecting rods, a single-piece crankshaft, bigger gears, and GDI, producing an eye-popping 888 hp. That near 300hp/liter power-to-liter ratio is simply awesome. The engine is mated to an inconel exhaust system which will do its best to make the pussy sounding V6 “Roar”.

The V6 will be assisted by a trio of Halbach array electric motors. The latter means that magnets are arranged in such await that the magnetic flux or power is considerably better than other formations using the same amount of magnets. A single motor is situated inside the engine with 94 hp of output while the two front motors with 140 hp make the F80 an all-wheel drive car.

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The F80 does not have an EV-only mode and will always use the engine to some extent depending on the mode you have selected, to recharge the batteries, power the wheels, or both. The motors are powered by an 800-volt 2.28-kWh battery. The single DC converter in F80 can convert the voltage in 12V, 48V, and 800V formats for multipurpose usage without any additional weight penalty.

The V6 packs an incredible amount of motorsport-derived engineering that only 799 customers around the world will experience.

But one thing that keeps bugging me is that if Ferrari can manage to keep the 6.5 L 800 hp V12 alive for years to come in cars like Purosangue and 12Cilindri, why not put it in F80 and call it a day? There are plenty of other car makers who have had bespoke V12s and V16S created for their boutique cars that comply with emissions, so why couldn’t Ferrari do it?

The F80 has an F1-inspired Pushrod suspension setup like the one on Mustang GTD, 3D printed suspension components like the ones used in Czinger 21C, and Multimatic sourced spool valve dampers with electric motors that eliminate the need for any sway bars.

Ferrari has also debuted their first carbon fiber wheels shod with Michelin Cup 2 Rs all around on the F80.

The interior is just what you would expect from a 1200 hp track-focused hypercar, tight, barely practical, and full of carbon fiber and control switches. Another “why would they do it?” feature you would find on the F80 is the Roma-inspired capacitive touch switches.

F80 Can Do 60 MPH In Just 2.1 seconds, So what?

The F80 chiefly competes with the more powerful and lighter Mclaren W1. It can do a 2.1-second 0–62 mph, 0-124 mph in 5.75 seconds, and a top speed of 200 MPH+. I reckon that the F80 will be the first Ferrari to breach the sub 2 second 0-60 mark as the SF-90 can already accomplish that feat in just 2.0 Seconds, as per the C&D test. All hail the engineers, not the designers.

These numbers may have meant something a decade ago but these days cars like the Taycan Turbo GT(0-60 mph in <2.0 sec), Model S Plaid(1.99 sec 60 mph/200mph for just 100K), Lucid Air Sapphire(1.77 sec 60 mph with 8.91 sec in 1.4 mile!!!), and Corvette ZR1(233 MPH top speed) will give F80 owners nightmares in most performance aspects, and guess what, they cost less than 1/10 of what Ferrari F80 does

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The F-Shi#ty represents the best your $3.1 million can get in terms of the state-of-the-art drivetrain and driving dynamics but aesthetics-wise, something that has been a core value at Ferrari since its inception, the F80 fails miserably and represents a lot more questionable design choices that prancing horse will make in near future. But rich “CAR GUYS” don't care as they wait for their deliveries and flip this monstrosity of a hypercar for 2X the price, something Ferrari knows and has decided to just live with.

There are cars like the GMA T.50, Tourbillion, and plenty more that put driving experience first and foremost rather than jump on the needless desire to set the fastest lap record at Nurburgring, the latter is the reason why F80 turned out to be such a disappointment which only now Porsche can resolve if they ever decide to launch a 918 spyder successor with demonic flat-12. Wishful thinking indeed.

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