Ferrari just launched a completely new car!

The famed Italian sports car maker is set to expand its market range

Ferrari has dropped an all-new car, privately launching it at a client event in Rome – and it had to be Italy’s storied capital because the car itself is named Roma. But breathe a sigh of relief as the latest car to wear a Prancing Horse badged and which is not a direct replacement of edition of an existing model in its illustrious range is not an SUV. At least not yet!

Instead they’ve quietly revealed a stunningly pretty 2+2 sports coupe with svelte delicate lines, voluptuous curves and a shark-nose front, sporting a rather traditionally sculpted grille, come-to-bed headlights, bulging front fenders, a profile reminiscent of a scaled-down Scaglietti, curvy rear wheelarches and a short rear with exquisitely slim taillights. From the front three-quarters there is some similarity to the Aston Martin Vantage.

Inside is a high-tech twin-cockpit driver-focussed cabin that features Ferrari’s now trademark passenger-side digital display. No image of the rear seats has been revealed.

Tucked away inside that low bonnet is a 3.8-litre turbocharged V8 producing 611bhp and 760Nm of torque – it’s from the same series of engines that you’ll find in the 488, F8 Tributo and Portofino. This gives it a 0-100kph (0-62mph) time of just 3.4 seconds and a 0-200kph time of 9.3. Top speed is over 320kph (about 200mph). It’s mated to a new 8-speed DCT gearbox debuted on the SF90 Stradale – the plug-in hybrid based on the F8 Tributo to be launched next year.

The car weights 1472kg, is 4656mm long, 1974mm wide, 1301mm high and with a wheelbase of 2670mm. So it’s a slightly bigger can than the Vantage and for that matter an AMG GT. But it is quite a bit shorter than a Maserati GranTurismo.

It is fractionally longer, wider, but lower, and with exactly the same wheelbase as the new Portofino – which suggests it could be sharing some of its underpinnings with that car. No bad thing, as that’s a great drive.

Ferrari says: “the car is a contemporary representation of the carefree, pleasurable way of life that characterised Rome in the 1950s and 60s,” claiming it revives the concept of ‘la Dolce Vita’ which means ‘that sweet life’.

Not much more detail has been revealed at this stage, expect prices higher than the £170,000 Portofino due the Roma’s superior performance.