Ferrari’s new dolce vita coupé
The convertible Spider harks back to a more elegant age, combining speed and style
When the Roma arrived in 2019, it was a welcome change of direction from Ferrari — a celebration of the glorious, glamorous days of the 1950s and 1960s. An elegant and sophisticated design that moved away from aggressive supercars and their relentless pursuit of performance towards simpler, carefree times. Think Marcello and Sylvia in the Trevi Fountain.
Now Ferrari has launched the convertible version, the Spider. In many ways it makes the Roma seem more playful and gets you closer to living la dolce vita. It effectively replaces the Portofino M, which was starting to sit a little uncomfortably in the Ferrari model line-up, having already been replaced by the Roma Coupé and only surviving as a convertible option until the Spider came along. Interestingly, the Roma Spider does not have a folding hard top like its convertible predecessors but instead gets a fabric folding roof. This suits its retro aspirations and gives the car a distinct point of difference as an out-and-out cabriolet compared to its folding-hard-top stablemates, which try to be both coupé and convertible. Fittingly, the alfresco Roma is its first front-engined soft-top since the 1960s.
The director of La Dolce Vita, Federico Fellini, favoured British cars over the home-grown variety for his film: for many the Triumph TR3 was worthy of equal billing with the main actors, Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg. Yet the leaky vinyl roof with plastic windows on that car would never cut the mustard these days in terms of noise and weather protection, whereas the Roma Spider’s five layers should prove as good as a hard-top for sound-deadening and keeping you dry. Raising or lowering takes just 13.5 seconds, and you can operate it at speeds up to 37mph. A clever addition is a patented wind deflector built into the rear bench seat that reduces buffeting for the occupants when the roof is down and replaces the ugly mesh screens seen on many soft-tops. You will lose the use of rear seats when the deflector is in use, but even though the Spider is still a 2+2, the two back seats are only suitable for children or very short trips for adults.
A stunning drop-top, the Roma Spider also looks good with the roof up, retaining the beautiful profile that was well received in the coupé. The roof is made from a unique fabric weave in colours to complement the body colour, which can be ordered in the special launch hue “Celeste Trevi”.
This is clearly not a Ferrari that chases performance. Track-day purists will bemoan the slightly softer set-up of the Roma Spider, but you would never buy this Ferrari to race. And don’t be fooled by this pretty “entry-level” model, as underneath the bonnet is pure modern-day Italian muscle. Not only will it get to 62mph in 3.4 seconds, but select Sport or Race via the Manettino dial on the steering wheel and this car is suddenly surprisingly raw and will catch out the unwary. The engine may not achieve the screaming aria of a normally aspirated V8, but without a roof you get unfiltered access to that 3.9-litre twin-turbo as it spools up to its 7,500rpm limit and the exhaust note has been improved from that of the coupé, giving you a fantastic soundtrack without the need for the JBL sound system.
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The soft-top Roma has fierce competition in the open-top GTs and supercars market, namely the Bentley Continental GTC and Aston Martin DB12, but the Spider driver will have no embarrassment pulling up alongside them. It’s a beautiful car.
Ferrari is known for relentlessly pursuing the future — when asked what his favourite model was, the brand’s founding father, Enzo, replied, “The next one.” Yet we can allow a company with such a rich heritage to look back occasionally and revisit its greatest hits. It may be the entry-level Ferrari, but for many it may be the only Ferrari they’ll ever want.
From £210,313, ferrari.com
