SF90 Stradale

At seven in the morning, Porto Cervo's piazzetta is still asleep, and the SF90 Stradale glides through it without a murmur: eDrive mode, pure electric, a thousand horsepower lying dormant. Twenty minutes later, on the state road climbing into the Gallura hinterland, the twin-turbo V8 wakes and the landscape changes tempo. No other supercar commands this dual register, and it is precisely what Sardinia asks of a car: discretion along the quaysides and hotel driveways, ferocity once the road opens up.

All-wheel drive — with two electric motors dedicated to the front axle — turns Sardinian tarmac into an ally: the SF90 fires out of the hairpins on the SS125 Orientale Sarda with traction that pure rear-drive machinery can only dream of. To pick the right route, we have gathered the island's ten most beautiful roads to drive in a supercar; and for those staying on the Costa Smeralda, our Ferrari rental in Porto Cervo delivers straight to your hotel or the marina.

Launch is a physical event: 0–100 km/h in 2.5 seconds means your body arrives a beat after your mind. The eManettino on the steering wheel lets you choose the car's character — eDrive for total silence, Hybrid for touring pace, Performance and Qualify to unleash all 1,000 hp — while the eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox stitches the ratios together so quickly the soundtrack never pauses for breath.

The 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 has a darker, denser voice than Ferrari's naturally aspirated engines, a rolling bass note that ricochets off the granite walls above the Gulf of Orosei. The brake-by-wire system is remarkably easy to modulate and the steering is direct without being nervous: the SF90 is devastatingly fast yet never hostile, and among the supercars available for rent in Sardinia it stands as the absolute technological summit.

The SF90 is also available on request as a Spider, with a retractable hardtop that disappears in a matter of seconds: the natural choice for anyone tracing the coast road between Cala di Volpe and Romazzino with the sky for a roof. The coupé, for its part, offers a more cocooning cabin and that extra edge of rigidity you come to appreciate when the pace rises on the inland passes.

In either configuration, this is a plug-in hybrid capable of 340 km/h, with two seats and no more, and a cockpit dominated by the vast curved display ahead of the driver. Our fleet runs to more than 100 models and 150-plus versions, yet the SF90 remains the most ambitious request of all: those who book it usually know exactly why.