October Hot Car – 2017 Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta

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What is better than driving your super sports car on a nice summer day? Perhaps feeling the breeze in your hair in your convertible sports car. The problem is, not every car gets a convertible version. Ferrari’s last halo car the Enzo never received a convertible variant, so owners are left to simply roll down the window like the rest of us not driving a seven figure car. Perhaps enough Enzo owners talked to Ferrari, because with the newest iteration of super car out of Maranello the LaFerrari, Ferrari made sure to hint at a drop top version, and the time has finally come for all to gaze upon it.

Called the Aperta as many of it’s predecessors, the Laferrari is now offered in true targa fashion with a removable hard top, as well as carry on soft top. Now you may be thinking, what other wonderful changes has Ferrari made, and sadly there is not much more to report that varies this car from the coupe. Some aero bits on the front splitter and under body were changed, and the door hinges were updated to allow for the doors to rotate up and out much as the coupe previously.

The car retains the wonderful V12 of the standard LaFerrari along with the HY-KERS (Hybrid Kinetic Energy Recovery System) which paired together are good for 950 Horse Power and 516 lb-ft of torque. The car is promised to do 0-60mph in 2.8 seconds, and carry the same top speed at “over 217”, so officially the performance on paper shows as unchanged.

Previously, manufacturers have struggled to make an exact copy of coupe variants and successfully turn them into convertibles or targa without sacrificing performance. While performance loss is usually expected, when you don’t have to sacrifice anything, and deliver your customers a incredible car, you will probably limit production, and raise the price and that is precisely what Ferrari did. Base price is up from the coupes $1.7M to a reported $3.4M, and production numbers are reported to be less than 75 units set to be delivered world wide. As you can imagine, even among Ferrari’s elite buyers with notable collections, there are still not enough to go around. This sparked rage in one prominent South Florida Ferrari collector who is suing the company because his reputation as a collector is diminished by not being offered a car. Expect deliveries to begin shortly, and more public appearances to follow the motor show circuit this season.

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Matt Wetzel is a twenty-year-old automotive photographer based in Buffalo, NY.

To see more of his work visit www.facebook.com/mattwetzelphotography