The Ferrari Roma Spider has a top speed of 199mph, which must be really annoying for owners. Imagine having to tell people your £200k-plus, 612bhp grand tourer runs out of puff a single mile per hour short of joining the 200 club?
Luckily, German tuning company Novitec has you covered. It’s just unveiled its take on the Roma Spider, which sees power from the car’s 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 lifted by up to 82bhp, and resulting in 694bhp and a top speed of ‘over’ 202mph. That should shut up particularly smug owners of the Aston Martin DB12 Volante, which can hit 202 as standard. Show-off.
That power bump – the most potent of three packages offered – comes from a new ECU and uprated catalytic converters, tweaks that also provide a lift in torque from 561 to 651lb ft. In addition to the higher top speed, the 0-62mph time drops from 3.4 to 3.2 seconds.
No modified supercar worth its salt doesn’t have some visual changes to back up the extra grunt, so Novitec offers those too. The most obvious changes come up front: there’s a new carbon splitter, while a bare carbon grille replaces the unusual body-coloured piece the Roma gets as standard. Carbon trim extending below the headlights completes the tweaks here.
Carbon fibre, as with basically every high-end modified car these days, is a running theme. It’s also used for the new side skirts, rear diffuser and impressively restrained lip spoiler on the rear deck.
Perhaps the closest the Novitec Roma Spider gets to gaudiness is with the company’s new NF11 wheels, which measure 21 inches in diameter up front and a fairly enormous 22 at the rear. The car rides 35mm lower than standard, too, thanks to Novitec’s sports springs, while cars originally equipped with MagneRide adaptive suspension can have a front axle lift fitted to counter this newfound lowness.
While this demo car keeps a relatively tame interior spec, Novitec says it can “fulfil the most unusual wishes” when it comes to cabin design and trim. Given the direction some modified supercar owners go, we’d rather not imagine the results of this.
There’s no confirmation of how much this entire transformation will cost, but all the new performance, suspension and visual parts can be bought individually, should you want to mix and match. Really, though, you should prioritise that performance upgrade – we imagine you’re really sick of being laughed at for your puny 199mph car.