Picture this: you’re behind the wheel of one of the most powerful Ferraris ever built, but instead of a pristine drag strip stretching ahead, you’re staring down a roughly 1/8 mile long aircraft carrier deck with the Mediterranean Sea waiting at the other end. This was exactly the challenge Italian driver Fabio Barone faced when he set out to break his own Guinness World Record for the fastest speed achieved by a car on a boat. He piloted his Ferrari SF90 Stradale to 101.9 mph aboard the Italian Navy aircraft carrier Nave Trieste, with the Top Gun theme blaring out over loudspeakers. The previous record stood at 94.5 mph.
Unlike traditional drag racing with runoff areas, Barone had zero margin for error with less than 774 feet of deck space to play with. Missing the braking point by even a second or two would send both the car and the driver into the ocean. To make things even more difficult, the deck of the vessel was wet and had to be manually dried before the record attempt. Without sufficient traction, there would’ve been no chance of the SF90 being able to put down all of its 986 horsepower, break the record, and come to a stop before turning into a very expensive Italian watercraft.
The SF90 Stradale gets that headline power figure from a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 engine with three electric motors. It accelerates 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds, runs the quarter-mile in 9.5 seconds at 148 mph, and reaches a top speed of 211 mph, given enough room. Extrapolating, it would cover an eighth of a mile in approximately 6.2 seconds at 115 mph.
Barone’s run differed drastically from standard eighth-mile strips, which provide 660 feet of acceleration distance plus additional runoff area. The Trieste’s flight deck offered a similar distance but with catastrophic consequences for any miscalculation.
However, the SF90 and the record attempt were in safe hands. Barone has served as president of Passione Rossa, one of the most important Ferrari client clubs, for over two decades. Known as the Red Baron, he has a handful of speed records to his name, including some recreations of historic challenges on public roads. In 2015, he set a record on Romania’s Transfăgărășan road through Transylvania.
The following year, he tackled China’s Tianmen Mountain Road with its 99 bends, climbing from 200 to 1,300 meters. In 2018, he claimed another record in Morocco’s Dades Valley canyons, cementing his position as the overall record holder for dangerous road speeds.
This aircraft carrier attempt required both mechanical precision and considerable nerve, as Barone had essentially one opportunity to execute perfectly. Too conservative meant falling short of the record, too aggressive meant running out of road. This record demonstrates the SF90’s ability to achieve remarkable speeds in extremely short distances. When Barone stopped just meters from the carrier’s edge, he proved that the most challenging automotive records often involve precision and timing rather than pure top speed.
