Ferrari Australia expects the new Ferrari 849 Testarossa Spider to outsell its coupe sibling locally, despite the convertible carrying both a higher price and a substantial weight penalty.
The 849 Testarossa Spider is priced from $1,015,589 before on-road costs and options in Australia, making it $82,941 more expensive than the coupe ($932,648 plus ORCs).
Australian deliveries are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027, approximately six months after the coupe starts arriving here.
Once on-road costs and Ferrari’s extensive catalogue of personalisation options are added, CarExpert estimates a well-specified Spider could cost around $1.2-$1.3 million on the road, depending on where it’s registered.
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That isn’t an official drive-away figure, as Australian pricing isn’t yet available for 849 options.
Despite the price difference, Ferrari Australia expects the Spider to account for the larger share of local 849 Testarossa sales.
Ferrari says this isn’t simply a case of the same customer deciding whether they want a fixed roof or a folding one. According to the Italian automaker, coupe and Spider buyers are two surprisingly distinct groups, with “very low overlap” between them.
Speaking at the 849 Testarossa Spider’s international media launch in Tenerife, Ferrari characterised the coupe customer as a purist who places greater value on minimum weight, and maximum structural stiffness, aerodynamic performance, and circuit capability.
That customer is also more likely to drive alone and take their car to a track. Meanwhile, the Spider customer still wants much the same performance, but is less concerned about extracting the final fraction of the car’s capability on a circuit.
Instead, Ferrari says these buyers place greater value on open-air driving, comfort, day-to-day usability, and sharing the experience with a passenger.
“You buy one car, but you have two cars,” a Ferrari product representative told media.
With its two-piece retractable hardtop closed, Ferrari argues the Spider offers the weather protection and refinement of a coupe. Press a button and the roof can be lowered in 14 seconds, even while the car is travelling at speeds of up to 45km/h.
Ferrari says this dual character is why Spider versions currently tend to sell more strongly than their corresponding coupes.
The distinction between coupe and Spider customers also affects how they configure their cars. Ferrari says the amount spent on options as a percentage of the car’s price tends to be slightly lower on Spiders than on coupes, although it didn’t provide specific figures.
More significantly, customers spend their money on different things. Coupe buyers are more inclined to select what Ferrari describes as functional performance options such as high-performance materials and lightweight components designed to strip kilograms and improve circuit capability.
A Spider buyer is more likely to prioritise equipment that improves comfort and usability, such as electrically adjustable seats and other touring-oriented features.
The car driven by CarExpert in Tenerife provided a useful example. Its specification included full-electric ventilated Daytona-style seats, neck warmers, adaptive cruise control, a premium sound system, wireless phone charger, and suspension lifter.
It was hardly short of performance-focused equipment, either, with carbon-fibre components fitted to the front spoiler, rear diffuser, engine bay, doors, sills, dashboard, centre tunnel, steering wheel, and several other areas. But it was fundamentally configured as a comfortable road car rather than the lightest possible version of the 849 Testarossa Spider.
Ferrari has nevertheless attempted to minimise the traditional compromises associated with removing a supercar’s roof. It says the coupe and Spider were developed in parallel from the beginning, rather than completing the coupe first and transforming it into a convertible later.
Around 90 per cent of the two cars is shared, with approximately 10 per cent being specific to each body style. Spider-specific elements include the roof, the bodywork covering the folded roof, structural components, rear deck, rear glass arrangement, and aerodynamic features required to manage airflow with the roof both raised and lowered.
Ferrari says it wanted buyers to choose between the coupe and Spider based on how they planned to use the car, rather than because one version was more attractive than the other.
That’s why the two retain broadly the same exterior design, even though the Spider’s roof-down configuration gives its prominent twin-tail rear bodywork a more dramatic appearance.
The coupe remains the logical choice for an owner chasing the lowest possible mass and the final degree of track performance.
Ferrari’s argument is that the Spider offers an advantage its owners can enjoy on every suitable drive, while surrendering little of the coupe’s extraordinary real-world performance.
Priced at more than $1 million before options, neither version can be described as a rational choice. Ferrari believes more Australian customers will decide the ability to turn one car into two is worth both the extra $82,941 and the additional 90kg.