Ferrari has officially confirmed that a track-only XX version of its LaFerrari hyper car is being developed by the newly established Sporting Activity Department of the company. The revelation was made by Antonello Coletta, the Head of Sporting Activity Department at Ferrari Racing Day in Sydney. The LaFerrari XX will be the fifth XX-badged car in the Italian car maker’s history and is expected to be ready in the first quarter of next year.
Speaking to Drive, Antonello Coletta said, “Now we are working on the new hypercar for the circuit, the LaFerrari XX. It will be more or less the same (power) but it will be completely different the handling, because it’s normal that the handling is different for the circuit and the road. The power is a lot; enough! It is very hard to improve the power. The difference will be the slick tyres, the aerodynamics, the electronics, the suspension, the shock absorbers.”
Rumours of a hardcore track-focussed version of the LaFerrari have been doing rounds since the car was launched, but a test mule was spotted only recently in Italy. The heavily camouflaged car had the similar overall structure as that of a LaFerrari, but housed large wings at the front and the rear as well as an air intake on the roof.
Though Ferrari had earlier admitted considering re-entering LeMans, Coletta said that the LaFFerrari XX had nothing to do with that. With Formula One introducing several regulation changes, Coletta admitted that Ferrari wouldn't be able to concentrate on another high-profile racing series. Instead, it will continue to focus on Formula One and other GT racing series with its 458 Italia supercar.
Ferrari has so far developed four XX cars- FXX, FXX Evolution, 599XX and 599XX Evolution. While the first two were based on Ferrari’s previous hypercar, the Enzo, the other two were based on the 599 supercar. XX cars are developed to be driven only in tracks and come with several strings attached. While owners have the privilege of owning and driving one of the world’s most exclusive cars on Ferrari’s track days, they aren’t allowed to take their cars home. Being a track-only car, we can expect many changes in the LaFerrari’s aerodynamics and driving dynamics of the car as well as quite aggressive weight saving measures all around. The LaFerrari already produces more than 950bhp and 900Nm of torque and it will be interesting to see how Ferrari will improve these figures.