Editor's Letter: Everyday Parade

From the April 2023 issue of Car and Driver.

Driving a Ferrari is like being in a sleeker, faster-moving homecoming parade. But what if the parade happens every day? Just as peacocks live outside the zoo, Ferrari owners run to Trader Joe’s for frozen hash browns and Japanese lilies, right? What’s that like, I thought, as I tossed my tote bag onto the passenger’s seat of the SF90 Spider.

First off, expect attention and questions. Even in jaded L.A. there’s curiosity about the usual things: how much, how fast, why me? How much? It’s $577,870. But that’s just for the steak; sides add $81,231. How fast? Ferrari asked that we not hook up our gear to the low-mileage Spider, so we don’t have the numbers, but the coupe version of the SF90 is the quickest car we’ve ever tested, with a 2.0-second 60-mph time.

Part plug-in hybrid and part supercar, the SF90 is the right animal for L.A., where eco-awareness is as important as who you wear. In Electric mode, the SF90 is tugged around by its front motors. With the top down you can hear the sci-fi whir it emits to warn the few people walking in L.A. If a theremin-playing front-drive Ferrari offends you, switch to Hybrid or Performance mode, and the 769-hp 4.0-liter V-8 shouts itself awake as if roused from a nightmare.

Can I get a ride? Strangers, friends, and neighbors all ask. Of course, I oblige. Each passenger lets out a combo of scream and whimper in response to Qualify mode’s 986 horses. More seasoned riders, like the PR guy who wanted a go, kept their cool in the moment. The Nixonian expletives came later.

Aspirational

What do you do for a living? L.A. is for dreamers, and the Ferrari speaks to them. The SF90 became the centerpiece of social-media photo shoots, but it also inspired better souls. At a Starbucks (by the way, the SF90’s cupholder is terrible and will crush any paper cup), a father and his seven-year-old daughter were posing when I walked up. “Work hard at tennis and you could own one of these one day, Anaia,” he said after she plopped down behind the wheel.

You wanna race? Like the biggest guy in a bar, the SF90 draws unwanted challenges. You might lose, but only because at freeway speeds the automatic mode won’t downshift to the lowest possible gear, so be sure to grab the paddles if you want to answer the challenge of every Dodge Challenger.

Did you take the 101 to the 405? In the stop-and-go, the SF90 trundles along without any thermal drama. Even after hours in traffic, you arrive free of pain, fatigue, or agita. Ride comfort is excellent thanks to the MagneRide dampers. Think $600K Corvette, gaining me a new respect for the Corvette.

Why me? I wanted to look at daily life with a hypercar to provide consumer advice, which is: Get the nose lift. Every errand has a parking lot, and the lift raises the front enough to avoid costly scrapes. Speaking of errands, the SF90 did carry what I needed from Home Depot to do a tile job. But, distracted by what might be happening to it in the Trader Joe’s parking lot, I forgot the hash browns.

Editor-in-Chief

Tony Quiroga is an 18-year-veteran Car and Driver editor, writer, and car reviewer and the 19th editor-in-chief for the magazine since its founding in 1955. He has subscribed to Car and Driver since age six. “Growing up, I read every issue of Car and Driver cover to cover, sometimes three or more times. It’s the place I wanted to work since I could read,” Quiroga says. He moved from Automobile Magazine to an associate editor position at Car and Driver in 2004. Over the years, he has held nearly every editorial position in print and digital, edited several special issues, and also helped produce C/D’s early YouTube efforts. He is also the longest-tenured test driver for Lightning Lap, having lapped Virginia International Raceway’s Grand Course more than 2000 times over 12 years.