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Shades of La Dolce Vita pervade the new Ferrari Roma

It’s as though Ferrari has answered our prayers – just yesterday, we criticised the lack of true automotive elegance in its current range and today, the prancing horse has revealed the Roma, a classically beautiful front-engined V8 that’s gunning for the Aston Martin Vantage and the Mercedes-AMG GT…

Ferrari just pulled revealed its fifth new model of 2019, the stunning Roma, a car its maker has somewhat confusingly billed a 2+. The front-engined V8 sits between the drop-top Portofino and the GTC4Lusso and has been designed to compete in a market segment that includes the Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Mercedes-AMG GT and the Porsche 911 Turbo. 

Beneath the gorgeous surface resides the same platform as the Portofino, but power of the 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 has been upped from 592bhp to 611bhp, the eight-speed DCT gearbox has been borrowed from the extreme SF90 Stradale and there’s an entirely new – and thankfully simple – interior (about time). Performance is, as you’d expect, a step up on the Portofino with which it shares its platform, thanks predominantly to its uprated engine and 73kg weight reduction. The sprint from 0–62mph is dispatched in 3.4sec and it’ll do 198mph flat-out. 

The greatest thing about the Roma in our opinion, however, is simply the way it looks. It’s smooth and minimally elegant fastback body is almost entirely devoid of fussy aerodynamic interruptions – something we couldn’t really say of any Ferrari since the 456. 

There are definite shades of the Monza roadster in the pronounced nose and we love the modern reinterpretation of the classic ‘egg-crate’ grille. Ironically, we think it looks a lot like the Touring Superleggera Berlinetta Lusso we featured yesterday and cited as the only truly elegant modern Ferrari – that’s us told. There’s no word on pricing or delivery dates, but we’ll keep you posted. For now, simply rejoice in the news that there’s a new Ferrari town and it’s an absolute beauty. 

You can find hundreds of classic and modern Ferraris listed for sale in the Classic Driver Market.