FirstDrive: Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano There's passion and then there's the 599. Nick Hall rides his perfect wave
A few short miles from Maranello, when the traffic died and the temptation to plant the right pedal to the floor proved too much, the sheer magnitude of Ferrari's achievement with the 599 GTB Fiorano struck home like the bullet it feels it could outrun.
Bar the Enzo, this is the fastest road car ever to emerge from those hallowed gates and it feels even quicker. A 0-62mph time of 3.7s and a top-end speed of 205mph are de rigueur in a top-line sports car these days, though the standing kilometre in less than 20 seconds and 124mph in just 11.4s would still impress if the car came with a roll-cage and competition number.
The nose harks back to the Ferraris of the 1960s with that broad grille and its profile is the 599's strongest suit with that long, bulbous front pinched in at the sides like a perfect hourglass.
And those subtle buttresses on the rear, barely visible from the full-frontal, aren't there for aesthetic appeal. They help that gigantic diffuser generate massive downforce that pins this machine to the floor that will become a part of everyday life.
Inside, swathes of carbon-fibre and sumptuous beige leather fill the cockpit and that gigantic Prancing Horse on the steering wheel is a constant reminder that yes, this is the premium driving seat.
And that's before I even fired it up, trickled out of town and floored the throttle for the first time.
It's an addictive adrenaline shot and, if this was my car, I'd hand over my licence at the first police station just to save time. Ferrari has worked on the harmonics and the note piped in to the cabin would make Mother Earth smile.
A simply obscene 612bhp and 608Nm erupts from the six-litre V12 that first saw service in the almighty Enzo with the force of Vesuvius blowing its stack. This car wrenches at your neck and twangs on heart strings. Considering this is the Grand Touring Ferrari, a refined replacement for the 575 that slots in beneath the barge-like 612 Scaglietti but is still built for the long haul, that's almighty performance.
The F1 Superfast gearbox, the latest technical masterpiece to be handed down from the Formula One team, helps the cause here. Having merged the acts of engaging the clutch and slotting the gear home, this car can change up or down in 100 milliseconds. There is a manual option, but this kit is so good that even Luddites should try it as the manual box simply couldn't keep pace. And this is just the start of the technical mastery. Yes, the F1-Trac system knew I was going to lose it long before I did, and, along with the variable Limited Slip Diff, took the appropriate measures to keep this approximately €330,000 beast on the road.
Effectively the car learns the road surface and tailors the level of slip at the rear to deal with the next patch of tarmac, depending on the bravery level with the Manettino switch on the wheel. From Ice through to Race, which lets the back end step out of line just enough for fun, the 599 GTB Fiorano comes with a set-up and attitude for every occasion.
You can turn off the nanny-state electronics, although one English journalist's impromptu meeting with a wall on the press launch should serve as stark reminder of the dangers. It's equipped with Delphi's Magne-Ride active damping system, which changes the viscosity of fluid in the shocks by increasing or decreasing a magnetic field. The full explanation reads like an astrophysics essay, but in short this car has active ride suspension without any of the mechanical parts and a response time of 1 millisecond.
You will never need to know this. All you need to do is marvel at the way it soaks up bumps that would have cracked vertebrae in an old-school F40 without giving up any of the roadholding ability of the most iconic sports cars.
In the corners, the 599 needs to push through the understeer to kick the tail out, but this makes for a sensationally forgiving car on the limit. The front-mid engine design with the gearbox in the rear provides near perfect weight distribution and the aluminium chassis that keeps the weight to a trim 1,690kg ensures that this car can carry sensational speed through the apex.
This is a Ferrari that you can use every day thanks to a new twin-plate clutch and a different approach to engineering without the cambelt. There are some typically Italian quirks, like a handbrake that won't hold the car without a two-handed tug.
But we can forgive this. The only unforgivable part was handing it back. Believe me, with the new 599, Ferrari has leapt forward, like a bullet from a gun.6-litre engine developing 620bhp and 608Nm or torque
0-100km/h: 3.7 seconds
0-200km/h: 11 seconds
Top Speed: 330km/h (205mph)
Price: over €330,000