The Campo de’ Fiori is a famous piazza in Rome where a horse market took place twice a week and it was a thriving area with many inns, hotels and shops situated there. But the only horse trading that occurred at my recent Cars & Coffee event was the telling of stories about our respective cars, but it had the liveliness of an Italian piazza, combined with good coffee and food.
The Ferrari Roma Spider made the perfect choice to share with all of those who attended the successful event at Wahlburgers in Bringelly. That’s because the Roma and it’s recently launched replacement the Ferrari Amalfi, are the best-looking Ferrari’s in the current model lineup in my opinion. My favourite elements would have to be the front wheel arches and the bulge in the bonnet that hints as to the power contained under it.
The attendees at the event agreed with me as well, with so many positive comments about the optional Turchese Molvedo paint finish that I lost count. Designed by the Ferrari Styling Centre headed by Flavio Manzoni this spider carries over the proportions of the Ferrari Roma with a soft top roof, something that hasn’t been seen in the Prancing Horse range on a front-engined car since the 1969 365 GTS4. This particular Roma Spider has been created by the Ferrari Atelier personalisation programme and has been inspired by the Ferrari 250 GT SWB California.
On a functional level, the soft top deploys in just 13.5 seconds and can be actioned at up to 60 km/h and it boasts acoustic comfort on a par with retractable hard tops. Its bespoke finish with a two-tone weave draws on a palette of four colours highlighting the refined, haute couture nature of the fabric and this colour is called Tessuto and has contrasting stitching in silver. In Australia though, I think convertibles only work in winter because it felt hot with the roof down even when the ambient temperature was only 22 degrees Celsius.
A new, patented wind deflector integrated into the backrest of the rear bench can be deployed by a button on the central tunnel, and it raises up creating ‘roof’ over the rear seats. Obviously, this means no one can be sitting in the seats when you do this, but the wind deflector does work very well. It reduces buffeting in the cabin below your head level so you don’t get a cold torso and legs. Unfortunately, any person over six foot tall will have their head poking out from the top of the windscreen though, but if you’re under six foot the cabin isn’t too breezy at all with the roof down.
The Ferrari Roma Spider’s cabin has an almost symmetrical layout and the result is that the passenger is like a co-driver. This Roma Spider was also fitted with the optional passenger screen to further enhance the experience of my lucky co-pilot and it can display the performance information or allow the passenger to select the music for your sunny top-down cruise.
To test out the cabin space in this 2+2 convertible I picked up my two teenage children from high school. Amusingly, this meant putting the passenger seat as forward as physically possible so one child could sit behind, somewhat up higher than the two front passengers. The school bags then had to go on the other rear seat, because the boot is tiny. We laughed and enjoyed the trip home like we were sitting in our very own Italian piazza on a sunny afternoon.
The quality of the cabin finish is what you would expect from Ferrari and it also has a beautiful aroma that you can even perceive when the roof is down. These seats are the Daytona Style and are upholstered with Iroko leather with Verde Bellagio stitching and the embroidered Prancing Horse on the headrests also finished in Verde Bellagio to match the exterior colour. Cockpit details are also finished in Verde Bellagio with the lower cockpit zone covered in Iroko Alcantara with Nero carpet on the floors.
The Australian spec Roma Spider comes with full electric seats with controls on the side of the seats for recline, forward/back and front and rear seat tilt. From the screen there is also adjustment for front leg extension, upper and lower lumbar support, seat base bolster and side bolster support. The driver’s seat has three memory positions that also store the powered steering column position and the side mirror position. In my Roma Spider I also had the optional heated and cooled seats, that both worked well, except the cooling was a little noisy when operating.
Local deliveries also come standard with the smartphone interface and a wireless phone charger located under the centre console bridge. The centre touch screen gives access to the audio controls, phone connection, satellite navigation and climate controls. To connect to Android Auto, you have to navigate via the steering wheel controls. The connection needs a USB-A cord with the port located in the rear of the cubby under the arm rest near the little light, so it is hard to see. There’s also a second USB-A at the front of the cubby and one 12V socket as well. In front of the arm rest there is one cup holder in the centre console, so I guess that means the passenger has to hold their own cappuccino?
This Roma’s steering wheel was covered with Iroko leather with LED shift lights at the top of the wheel that go from red to blue in F1 style. Ferrari still persist with the complicated design of their steering wheels with the headlights, blinkers, and wiper controls are all located on the steering wheel along with the fiddly touchpad controls used to navigate the infotainment options that are displayed on the digital driver’s dash. Waze being displayed in the driver’s dash has it good and bad point, good that it’s easy to see, bad because it’s hard to navigate using the steering wheel touch pads and when it’s on the dash the lovely big yellow taco disappears.
Press the start touch-button at the base of the steering wheel and you’re a greeted by a lovely gruff engine note from the sport exhaust pipes before the V8 settles into a smooth note of an Italian crooner that you can enjoy in surround sound with the roof down. From the steering wheel use the Manettino to select your drive mode with Wet, Comfort, Sport, Race, and ESC off available. Sport mode was my go-to for the weekend with the speed of the Roma Spider becoming increasingly addictive and my drug of choice.
Pull up on right hand column mounted paddle shifter to engage drive and as you chase the 7,500rpm red line on the big yellow taco the paddle shifters deliver ultra sharp changes through the eight-speed ‘box. When you have had your fill and finally come to a stop for a rest, you pull both paddles to engage neutral. On the centre console there are lovely tactile levers used to select reverse, auto/manual gear selection and launch control.
Under the bonnet is a 3.9-litre twin-turbo Ferrari V8 engine that produces 456 kW of power and 760 Nm of torque with 80% of that torque being available at just 1,900 rpm, with power sent to the rear wheels via an eight-speed F1 dual-clutch transmission. The Roma Spider can complete the 0-00km/h sprint in 3.2 seconds and 0-200km/h in under ten at 9.7 seconds and has a top speed of over 320km/h. The official combined fuel consumption being 11.4L/100km and for my weekend of fun I used 19.8L/100km.
The Roma Spider holds on very nicely through the corners and the Magneride dual mode shock absorber system delivers a comfortable ride even on the 20″ alloy wheels, finished in Matt Grigio Silverstone on this spider and wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres. Stopping power comes from the carbon-ceramic brake system and Aluminium brake calipers.
With the roof up the headroom in the rear seats is as tight as the leg room and they do have two ISOFix/two rear tether child seat restraint points, but you would really need to be keen to use them. The boot has a powered boot release with an external release, a button in the cabin and on the key fob. Due to the encroachment of the folding roof into the boot space its tiny barely fitting the tyre repair kit, battery maintainer, and car protection cover that come as standard.
The Australian standard inclusions on the Roma Spider include an advanced front driving camera, with the rear-view camera displayed in the driver’s dash and you also get front and rear parking sensors, auto headlights and auto wipers. The Roma Spider has blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning and there’s annoying bong when you just exceed the speed limit, which I discovered there were two solutions to avoid. I also found that the adaptive cruise control is fiddly to set using the touch pads on the steering wheel.
Ferrari’s extended seven-year maintenance programme is offered with the Ferrari Roma Spider and covers all regular maintenance for the first seven years of the car’s life. Regular maintenance (at intervals of either 20,000 km, or once a year with no mileage restrictions), original spares and meticulous checks by staff trained directly at the Ferrari Training Centre in Maranello using the most modern diagnostic tools are just some of the advantages of the Genuine Maintenance Programme.
My first ever official press car drive was in a Ferrari California T in 2017 and since then I have also driven the Ferrari Portofino and the Ferrari 296 GTS for good measure. Driving the Roma Spider provided that same special feeling of the history and tradition encapsulated in the Prancing Horse badge. It is priced from $520,300 excluding on-road costs and you can configure your Roma Spider on the Ferrari website or visit your preferred Ferrari dealer for more information.
| Pros | Cons |
| The glorious Ferrari V8 engine | Fiddly touch pads on the steering wheel |
| The top-down driving experience | The annoying bong when you just exceed the speed limit |
| The cabin finish | The tiny boot |
Photographs by Driven Women Magazine.