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Ferrari SF90 Stradale Does Amazing 9.6s Quarter-Mile, Beats McLaren 765LT

You can write a book on the variables that influence a quarter-mile run, such as surface, tires, density altitude, the amount of fuel in the tank, and others, but there are better things to do. You know, stuff like actually getting behind the wheel and going for it to see what happens in real-world scenarios. And the time has come for the Ferrari SF90 Stradale to demonstrate its abilities in an instrumented street test.
Ferrari SF90 Stradale Does Amazing 9.6s Quarter-Mile 5 photos
Photo: DragTimes/YouTube
Ferrari SF90 Stradale Does Amazing 9.6s Quarter-MileFerrari SF90 Stradale Does Amazing 9.6s Quarter-MileFerrari SF90 Stradale Does Amazing 9.6s Quarter-MileFerrari SF90 Stradale Does Amazing 9.6s Quarter-Mile
Take a look at the calendar. No, not that calendar, but a particular one on the Internet, which will tell you that we now live in the era of 9-second street-going cars. And we're talking about a road vehicle sharing the first half of its designation with the SF90 Formula One car, so nobody expected the Stradale to be anything less than a member of the said elite.

However, when you're out there at the bleeding edge, trying to extract all the possible performance, you enter a parallel universe where every tenth of a second is worth an eternity back here on Earth, so people want to know just where the Maranello machine sits on the 9s scale.

And, thanks to YouTuber Brooks Weisblat of the Drag Times channel, who recently tested the 1,000 PS (986 hp) Prancing Horse on the streets of Puerto Rico, we know that the machine can pull a 9.62s 1/4-mile, with its best "trap speed" sitting at 147.8 mph (237.9 kph). You'll find this in-the-name-of-science hooning at the 11:08 point of the first clip below.

Now, how do the numbers of the AWD hybrid Ferrari compare to those of the McLaren 765LT, which has been recently proven to deliver way more horsepower than its official number of 765 PS (755 hp)? Keep in mind that the British supercar doesn't have electric power for the front axle like the Fezza, which gives it a disadvantage as its launches, but also allows the thing to be friendlier to the scales.

The enthusiast tested both using the Draggy GPS-based performance meter, albeit while having driven his 765 Longtail back home in the US, so this is as close as we're going to get to a proper comparison (an actual drag race) for now. And the Macca's best figures sat at 9.88s and 146 mph (235 kph), as you can notice in the second clip below (you can skip to the 12:12 timestamp for the stopwatch hooning).

As for what happens on the prepped surface of the drag strip, no SF90 has been recorded engagin in such an adventure, but we can tell you that, with the help of Toyo R888R tires, the 765 Longtail becomes a 9.4s monster.

Of course, there are more affordable ways of enjoying a 9s street-legal car, such as the good old aftermarket path (check out the SF90 Stradale vs. twin-turbo Audi R8 rolling race at the 6:15 point of the first vid below). And that's without mentioning the electric assault coming our way later this year via the Tesla Model S Plaid.

Then again, we can also think of slightly more expensive proposals that are part of the 9s club, such as the Bugatti Chiron, but we'll stop the apples-to-oranges comparos here.

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About the author: Andrei Tutu
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In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist.
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