If you ask for a steering response at speed, “you don’t know if the main actors are the steering or the engines,” said de Simone, while insisting that “it’s very natural. It’s always linked to what you ask for.” The chassis and power, he said, “are fused together.”
Ferrari admits that much of its cars’ driver appeal is linked to their powertrains. To enhance the interaction of the Luce, in Performance mode there are amplified sounds – taken directly from the motors and gearsets as they mesh, and amplified into the cabin. “The sound is authentic; the sound is real,” said de Simone. “You can see where it comes from. We didn’t want a fake, nostalgic sound.”
Ferrari’s famous steering column paddles remain, too, but instead of artificial gearshifts, such as in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, the left paddle increases regenerative braking, while also reducing the amount of available power.
There are five stages, with the most severe pulling 0.33g under throttle-off deceleration, “more or less the same as the engine braking in a 12Cilindri in 2nd gear,” de Simone said. The right hand paddle reduces that, and increases the amount of available power on full throttle. You can pull any ‘gear’ at any speed, but extra power – around 0.2g of additional acceleration – is released with each upshift, with the top setting liberating the full whack. “It’s not a fake gearbox. The power is cut in slices, not speed,” de Simone said. “We keep the interaction, to keep decision making active.”
The idea is that, in lower-speed corners, you’d want the additional retardation and can’t use all 1036bhp anyway. “It’s not easy to manage full power” on low speed corner exit, de Simone said.
Away from this manual mode, the automatic operation of the Luce has an “almost coasting” regenerative braking level, of around 0.05g, which is “the same as the Purosangue in 8th gear,” said de Simone.
Buying
UK prices for the Luce haven’t yet been confirmed, but it’s set to cost €550,000 in continental Europe, where it’ll go on sale early next year, with an estimate of £440,000 in the UK, plus or minus 10%, where it’ll arrive next spring.