Ok, so you thought you just had to get a mid-engined supercar to hack the pace? Well, here's a challenger with front engine - but one that is mounted well back, and which has the power to compete with the best supercars and exotic cars.
A few facts to put the Ferrari F599 GTB Fiorano into perspective. On the road, it leaves even the mighty F40 behind. Around Ferrari's test track at Fiorano, the F599 is nearly as quick as an Enzo. Behind the wheel, it is a whole lot easier to drive than either of them. Is this the ultimate front-engined exotic car?
An exotic car that grips like glue
When I tell you that the F599 also grips like glue, indulges your failings of skill and soaks up bumps almost like a Lexus, you'll begin to sense the scale of the achievement. It is this ability to handle with the precision of a surgeon-s knife while re-casting 3D bumps and squirms into the 2D continuity of a smooth racetrack that sets it apart from the average supercar, if such a thing exists. It takes out the fight, the interference, and lets you concentrate on the pace and the balance. Electronics and magnetorheological dampers do the rest - see our full article on the F599 for the technicalities.
That's not to say the F599 cuts you off from the world beneath the tires. Quite the opposite: you can feel the forces you want to feel, encouraged by a traction and stability system which makes you feel heroic instead of admonishing your pushing of the dynamic envelope. For such a big, potent beast to feel so benign is extraordinary.
Utterly fantastic engine limited to a stunning 8,400 rpm
It's the engine you notice first once you're driving. This 607 bhp, 6.0-litre V12 sounds utterly fantastic, a multi-layered howl firing back at you before the pop-crackle of the gearchange.
Then you change gear, the F1-Superfast sequential paddle-shift snicking into the next ratio quicker than ever before. It works by overlapping the gear selectors-movement with the disengaging and re-engaging of the clutch, saving vital milliseconds, yet it can also make the F1 shift smoother than before if you-re sympathetic with the throttle.
Cunning electronics predicts when you're getting near trouble
Away from the open roads and into the mountains, the F599 shows just how lithe and compact such a wide, hefty car can feel. As well as those instantly-adaptive dampers there is F1-Trac, a stability system which uses a -map-of the F599's known capabilities and measures how close the driver is sailing towards them. Then it predict what's about to happen instead of just reacting to slippage, so it doesn't need such a wide safety net.
This lets you have huge fun in corners without feeling the system intervening all the time, helped by steering whose sensitivity and accuracy tells you everything that's happening under the front tires despite the power assistance.
The F1-Trac's degree of intervention, and the suspension's operating range of firmness, are both set via the manettino on the steering wheel, a rotary knob. Race is better on dry roads as there-s more F1-Trac freedom). You can also switch everything except ABS off.
A few laps of Ferrari's Fiorano test track proved that race-mode is quicker and much tidier than off-mode unless you're called Schumacher, and F1-Trac shows how good traction and stability systems have become. Anyone of reasonable competence can cover ground even more quickly than an expert in an old F40, venue permitting.
Of course, the sheer pace of the F599 helps here. Headline figures are 205mph and a 3.7-second 0-62mph time, which make the F599 virtually as quick as a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. But the Ferrari is a much more satisfying drive because you can bond and flow with it in a way alien to the Anglo-German car. And next to the SLR, the 170,000 purchase price is almost cheap. Full technnical infomration and more pictures are available at
Ferrari F599GTB Fiorano.
