2014 Ferrari LaFerrari: The Prancing Horse to Rule Them All! - Ignition Ep. 111 - video Dailymotion

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On this episode of Ignition

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00:00 Introducing the LaFerrari.

00:03 Ferrari builds cars like this roughly once every decade.

00:06 And this one accomplishes three feats

00:08 of appropriate magnitude.

00:10 One, with 950 horsepower combined,

00:13 it's the most powerful Ferrari ever.

00:16 Two, it's the first hybrid Ferrari ever.

00:19 And three, it's named after the company.

00:22 And you thought the Enzo had shoes to fill.

00:25 As you'd expect, it represents the top tier

00:27 of Ferrari technology. The carbon fiber tub, for example,

00:31 is built by the same team that makes the Formula One cars.

00:34 And it's baked in the same autoclaves.

00:37 Our time behind the wheel took place over a brief day

00:40 at Ferrari's home court, the morning

00:42 at the 1.9 mile Fiorano development track,

00:45 and the afternoon on the mountain roads

00:46 surrounding the factory.

00:47 [ENGINE REVVING]

01:17 We only had roughly eight laps at Fiorano.

01:20 But it was impressive how easy the LaFerrari was to drive.

01:24 Not to say it was unintimidating.

01:25 You're certainly aware of the awesome power.

01:28 But the learning curve felt approachable.

01:30 [ENGINE REVVING]

01:33 So I've just done a lapping session in the LaFerrari.

01:37 And it's a hell of a car.

01:41 Yeah, there's pretty much ridiculous power everywhere.

01:44 But it's the power delivery that's so interesting.

01:50 The e-motor that's working on the differential,

01:53 the transaxle, just applies this immediacy to the throttle

01:58 response that I didn't believe that this V12 needed

02:03 before driving the car.

02:04 But now I'm a huge fan of it.

02:06 Because it just makes the engine feel so much more powerful.

02:11 Like right there, just that instantaneous throttle

02:15 response.

02:17 And this engine was already powerful.

02:18 But now it just seems even more.

02:21 The other really interesting thing is the steering feel.

02:28 It's kind of big.

02:29 Has a big area on the center to play with.

02:33 But once you start dialing in steering angle,

02:37 the gain is really quick in that it

02:42 seems to turn exponentially more aggressive the more you

02:46 turn the wheel.

02:48 Such that you're doing like a quarter turn

02:50 to basically do a 180.

02:52 Like I'm about a quarter there on a decently long corner.

02:58 It's crazy.

03:04 I can dive on the brakes at 260k there,

03:08 having done three laps in the car total.

03:11 And that's fine.

03:12 I do that without a problem.

03:15 I always forget there's a turn there.

03:16 This thing is phenomenal.

03:21 Woo-hoo!

03:22 And this car very much makes you feel good about yourself.

03:30 [ENGINE REVVING]

03:34 The LaFerrari looks deceivingly small.

03:37 It's actually longer and wider than the McLaren P1

03:40 and Porsche 918, though it's shorter in height than both.

03:44 It's a beautiful car in detail, from the side view

03:46 mirrors to the accentuated black body gap that evokes

03:49 all the great Ferraris--

03:50 288 GTO, F40, and F50, and so on.

03:54 My favorite part is the rear, how the black line

03:57 meets the taillights, how the exhaust pipes poke out

04:00 to the lower wings, and of course,

04:02 the F1 light at the bottom.

04:04 As a whole, it has this eye-catching and somewhat

04:06 alien aura, looking like a product of Ferrari

04:09 from the year 2025.

04:15 Ferrari claims 0 to 60 acceleration

04:18 takes less than three seconds, a cautious estimate,

04:20 especially compared to the McLaren P1 we tested.

04:24 I brought along our trusty V-Box to validate Ferrari's

04:26 performance claims, but the company

04:28 refused to let us test the car.

04:31 We'll have to wait and test one later.

04:32 So typically, when you do these things,

04:51 drive some Italian supercar on the road,

04:53 you realize it's just an exercise of frustration.

04:55 Roads are too tight, you have too much power,

04:58 and you can't really do anything that's fun.

05:00 It's very different in this car, and that's crazy.

05:08 This is a 950 horsepower Ferrari,

05:10 and I'm finding I enjoy it on the road a lot for reasons

05:17 like that.

05:19 Stability control's smart.

05:21 It gives me the amount of control I want.

05:23 The trans is shifting pretty much where

05:25 I'd want it to for this road.

05:27 I'm staying right in the torque.

05:30 I'm having a great time.

05:31 And this is a weird experience, considering

05:34 that Ferrari has spent so much time

05:36 on the ergonomics of this car, and they've got it right.

05:39 When has Ferrari ever cared about ergonomics?

05:42 And here we are in a car that nails it.

05:46 First, having no seat structure, the seats

05:49 just bolted right to the tub.

05:51 And that means your body's just part of what the chassis is

05:54 doing.

05:55 Your body's feeling everything.

05:57 You can sense every action of the car right

05:59 through the seat.

06:00 There's no structure to dampen out those forces.

06:04 It's quite an impressive feat that the car as a whole

06:07 feels so solid and controllable and easy to drive.

06:11 It's really amazing.

06:12 This thing drives so well on the road.

06:18 I almost prefer doing this than driving it on the racetrack.

06:21 So much fun to hustle this valuable, this powerful,

06:25 this technological of a car along a mountain road.

06:29 It's really good.

06:32 Of course, the LaFerrari would perform excellently

06:35 on the racetrack and roads it was developed on.

06:38 But even with that in mind, I didn't

06:39 want to stop driving it.

06:41 The performance was everything you'd hoped.

06:43 Stunning acceleration, consistent and powerful

06:46 braking, and high lateral limits.

06:49 But as spectacular as those parts were,

06:51 it was LaFerrari's sheer usability on the road

06:54 that impressed most.

06:56 As we were wrapping the day's shoot,

06:57 the thought entered my brain.

06:59 This may be the best road car I've ever driven.

07:01 There we go.

07:06 [ENGINE REVVING]

07:10 [LAUGHTER]

07:13 And you look over and you see some villa

07:19 off in the Italian countryside.

07:20 You go, oh yes, all is right in the world.

2014 Ferrari LaFerrari: The Prancing Horse to Rule Them All! - Ignition Ep. 111

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