The very tight rear seats are as before, and as in most rival cars, are only suitable for small children. Behind these, the reasonably sized 273-litre boot will swallow a couple of carry-on suitcases. If you want to fit a set of golf clubs in there, you’ll have to drop the rear seats.
Ferrari says it has listened to its customers and made a few big changes to the digital interfaces. First and foremost, the haptic steering wheel buttons have been replaced with physical controls. These should make the complex menu structure in the instrument cluster easier to navigate. There’s also a physical red starter button in place of the former touch control – word has it that it was a particularly unpopular element in this era of Ferrari.
The other is a switch to a more mainstream horizontal display on the dash borrowed from the 12Cilindri. This fits underneath the new dashtop that’s also much closer in style and layout to the Amalfi’s sibling, delivering a more open feeling to the cabin than the Roma’s tighter, more intimate design.
Chassis, engine and power
Under the new skin Ferrari has focused on widening the remit of the existing hardware through a couple of new technical features. The first is a new ECU which is able to better integrate all the various chassis systems, while the new braking system should see a breakthrough in terms of feel and consistency, it’s claimed. Other elements including the springs and dampers have also been replaced, giving the Amalfi a greater range of abilities between sports car and GT than the Roma.
The heart of any Ferrari is its engine, and the existing 3.9-litre V8 has been re-engineered to produce slightly more power at 631bhp, and 760Nm of torque. This is sent through the existing eight-speed dual-clutch transmission to the rear wheels, with an electronically controlled differential helping to meter it all out.
Ferrari Amalfi rivals
These changes have come at an opportune moment, with the GT class about to be hit by a plethora of updated models. Aston Martin’s more powerful DB12 is already an impressive customer, but a new S model is only a few months away, likely packing even more power than its current 671bhp. Bentley is also working on an even faster variant of the already brilliant Continental GT Speed, and Porsche is on the cusp of introducing a new hybrid-assisted 911 Turbo at the sportier end of the spectrum.
So when the Amalfi arrives in the first quarter of next year with a starting price likely to be around £200,000, it’ll have quite the array of new rivals.
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