Ferrari has shown its Portofino the door. The company’s entry level retractable hardtop roadster was looking like a minister without portfolio after Ferrari unveiled the Roma Spider last Thursday, and now Maranello has confirmed that the Portofino will be dropped to make room for the newest Roma.
Although the Portofino M features a retractable hardtop and the Roma a more traditional fabric top, and the two have wildly different styling, there was simply too much crossover for the two cars to have existed together. Both are powered by a 612 hp (620 PS) 3.9-liter, twin-turbo V8 driving the rear wheels through an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission and feature two small rear seats.
Even before the arrival of the Roma Spider, the Roma and Portofino seemed like slightly awkward bedfellows. The Portfofino, unveiled in 2017 and updated as the Portofino M three years later, was styled like a mini 812 Superfast, while the Roma, which was built from the same platform and running gear and released in 2019, features softer, more elegant lines that recalled glamorous GT Ferraris of the 1950s.
Related: Ferrari Roma Spider Combines Soft Top Fun With A 612 HP Twin-Turbo V8
The Portofino isn’t a bad looking car, but the Roma is, to most eyes, better looking, and by looking different to any other car in the lineup, it had its own identity, rather than simply looking like a slower, cheaper version of Ferrari’s more desirable models. What always seemed slightly awkward though, is that the coupe (the Roma) had the more laid back design while the convertible (the Portofino) was the more aggressive design.
Now that anomaly has been corrected. Ferrari told Road & Track and has also confirmed to Carscoops that the Portofino M is being axed to make way for the convertible Roma. The Roma Spider marks the first time Ferrari has used a fabric convertible roof on one of its front-engined cars since the 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spider went out of production in 1973. The new car’s roof can be lowered in 13.5 seconds, which isn’t particularly rapid by convertible standards. Fortunately, it performs better against the clock in other tests: zero to 62 mph (100 kmh) takes 3.4 seconds.
