UPDATE: Maranello’s hybrid hypercar has spawned a race-spec ‘XX’ version. Now with added video
Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Cheery Chinese New Year. This is the LaFerrari FXXK (yes, we know) – the track-only, experimental iteration of Maranello’s hybrid masterpiece – and if it hasn’t gone straight to the top of your festive wishlist, you may wish to check you haven’t perished on the inside.
The basics, then. The entirely-not-road-legal FXXK employs the same basic V12-plus-electric drivetrain as the road-going LaFerrari, but making even more power. 101bhp more power, to be precise, boosting total output to 1036bhp: 848bhp coming from the 6.3-litre naturally aspirated V12 (at 9200rpm, no less) and 187bhp from the electric motor. Combined torque stands at ‘over 664lb ft’.
The internal combustion engine has been substantially overhauled for track duty, with new camshafts, redesigned intake manifolds and, most intriguingly, mechanical tappets replacing the traditional hydraulic efforts (it’s because mechanical tappets are faster).
Ferrari also notes that the silencers on the exhaust system have been ‘eliminated’, an appropriately sinister word for a noise likely to cause lasting, wonderful aural damage.
Though there’s no word on a 0-62mph time, that extra power – along with some mighty trick-sounding Pirelli slicks, which feature embedded sensors feeding back information on longitudinal, lateral and radial acceleration – will mean a substantial decrease on the road-going LaFerrari’s 2.9-second benchmark. Fast. We also now know that it’ll lap Ferrari’s Fiorano test track in 1m 14s – five seconds faster than the standard, road-going LaFerrari.
Aero? You can’t handle the aero. The FXXK has sprouted a whole bunch of additional devices of downforce, innovations Ferrari says are derived from its expertise in endurance racing’s GT category. At the front lurks a deep, double-deck spoiler, with vertical fins that channel air over the car’s flanks, and boost the efficiency of the aerodynamic underbody.
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There’s yet more madness round the back, where a monster diffuser optimises air extraction from the underbody, and makes the FXXK a bugger to reverse-park.
Most interesting are those fin-winglet arrangements either side of the retractable rear spoiler. In ‘low-drag’ configuration (with the rear spoiler retracted), these winglets function as guide vanes, while boosting the spoilers efficiency in ‘high downforce’ mode.
Ferrari says it all adds up to 50 per cent more downforce than the standard LaFerrari can muster, the FXXK generating 540kg at 133mph.
The LaFerrari’s HY-KERS electric system has been overhauled for race duty, too, with four modes now selectable from the steering wheel manettino: Qualify (for maximum performance), Long Run, Manual Boost and Fast Charge. Speaking of that manettino, you’ll also be able to call up a newly calibrated version of Ferrari’s genius Slide Slip Angle Control traction technology, which will do a far better version of metering power to those 345-section rear tyres than your puny right foot will ever manage.
A point of order: this is not, officially at least, the LaFerrari FXXK. Ferrari refers to it simply as the FXXK, with no mention of the LaFerrari anywhere in its press bumf. The ‘FXX’ part you’ll be familiar with, while the ‘K’ refers to its kinetic energy recovery system. Any resemblance to a popular expletive is purely coincidental.
Like Ferrari’s previous XX models, the FXXK won’t qualify for any existing race series, with ‘client-test drivers’ (or ‘minted punters’ to the rest of us) feeding into a Maranello ‘test programme’ over the next two years.
Ferrari has confirmed that 40 cars will be built at a cost of €2.5 million each… and every single one has been accounted for. You can however, get some idea of what this track-focused monster sounds like, thanks to the video below.
So, this… or that P1 GTR? Waddyamean, both?
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