The name Testarossa first appeared in 1956, on the 500 TR — a sports racer with a red-painted cylinder head and a competition record that still provokes conversation among people who know what they are talking about. It returned in 1984 on the car that defined a decade’s visual grammar of excess: the flat-twelve, side-straked berlinetta that appeared on bedroom walls across the Western world and became, for a generation, the shape that the word Ferrari conjured first.
Ferrari is not in the habit of reviving names lightly. When it does, the weight of the decision is proportional to the mythology being invoked. By that measure, the 849 Testarossa — revealed in early 2026 and almost immediately overshadowed by the Luce — carries a name that demands more scrutiny than it received.
The designation explains itself: eight cylinders, four litres. A mid-rear mounted, twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre flat-plane V8, producing 819 horsepower and 621 lb-ft of torque on combustion alone — the most powerful V8 Ferrari has fitted to a road car, breathing through the largest turbochargers the marque has ever used in production, with bearings derived from the F80 and heat shields borrowed from a GT3 race car. Three electric motors contribute a further 217 horsepower, bringing the combined system output to 1,036 horsepower. Power reaches all four wheels through an eight-speed dual-clutch transaxle.
The figures Ferrari quotes are: 0–60 mph in 2.2 seconds. 0–124 mph in 6.3 seconds. Top speed in excess of 205 mph. A Fiorano lap in 1:17.5 — one and a half seconds faster than the SF90 Stradale it replaces. Braking from 100 km/h to rest in 28.5 metres. These are numbers that require the driver to meet the car at least halfway. The optional Assetto Fiorano package adds dedicated suspension, lightweight materials, and aerodynamic solutions that push downforce to 415 kilograms at 155 mph — territory that brings track architecture closer to road architecture than most owners will ever explore.
What the 849 Testarossa is not is a reinterpretation of the 1984 car in any visual sense. Top Gear noted the bemusement at launch was directed as much at the name as at the car itself, with a considerable number of observers lamenting that the flat-twelve and the side strakes of the original belong to a chapter that cannot be reopened. That is both a fair observation and an irrelevant one. Ferrari named this car after a principle — the red head, the highest-performing engine in the range — not after an aesthetic. The original Testarossa was radical for its moment. The 849, with its hybrid V8 producing figures that would have been science fiction in 1984, is radical for its own.
The EV mode, should the driver prefer a moment of restraint, offers up to 16 miles of silent, front-wheel-drive electric motoring at speeds up to 81 mph. It is a civilised footnote in a car that has very little interest in civilisation at full deployment.
The world will remember 2026 as the year Ferrari went electric. The 849 Testarossa is the more interesting car.