A true classic doesn’t sneak up on you; it grabs you by the shirt and slaps you in the face with its brilliance. It goes beyond what was previously possible yet it continues in the spirit of its forebears. When a car’s predecessors include such desirable hardware as the 1959 250 GT and the Testarossa, she must possess something special to be mentioned even in the same breath.
The Ferrari 599 GTB seems to have no problem with its heritage. The sportscar had an attitude of confidence, hugging the blacktop as it rolled up the pit lane. Ferrari introduced us to its latest GT in a most appropriate venue, the Fiorano test track right behind its factory in Maranello, Italy. The track is used to hone race cars including the F1 machinery, as well as their roadgoing cousins.
Elegant in gray and fiery in red, the 599’s sleek shape sports strong cues of its capabilities. The long hood hints at a massive engine and the bulging rear haunches, the means to put the power down to pavement. 20-inch tires look just large enough to properly fill the wheel arches. The cockpit section seems to have been folded into the mechanical bits, a concession that someone has to pilot all that metal, after all.
No blatant spoilers or wings for this car; all the functional aerodynamics are incorporated into the car’s body and undertray. We peered underneath to find a large venturi tunnel, capable of generating a stabilizing downforce of 70 kg at 200 km/h. Nonetheless, drag has been kept to a slippery 0.33, for top speed.
Behind the heavy doors is the cockpit of a luxury car. Leather trim covers the seats and dash, while carbon fiber graces the ultralight seat shells and the ventilation surrounds. Aluminum is the other dominant element here, the most conspicuous of which is a large “brace plate” for the passenger.
The driver’s seat engulfed like a long-absent lover. We pressed a switch to make it hug even tighter, in anticipation of severe sideways maneuvers. There’s plenty of room for two in here; in keeping with its luxury GT mission, no awkward bending or spindling is necessary to settle in. Front and center was a large red 10,000-rpm tachometer flanked by a 360-km/h speedometer and a digital screen that’s capable of displaying dizzying amounts of information, including car status, navigation, and circuit lap times. A small LCD display in the center indicates the current gear.
The red (can it be any other color?) “Engine Start” button on the steering wheel triggers a deep-throated growl that can only be a Ferrari V12. The 5.99-liter power unit is lifted from the Enzo limited-edition supercar. It produces 620 bhp and can rev to a screaming 8400 rpm, remarkable for such a big engine. We pulled on the right lever to shift into first, and pointed the car down the track’s main straight.
We punched the throttle to the floor, and our whole body is slammed backward into the seat. 0-100 km/h blinked by faster than we could say “Luca di Montezemolo.” As the engine spins rapidly to redline, LEDs on the steering wheel light up, prompting for an upshift. Shifting is by fingertip pull on either steering-wheel paddle. Upshifts take only an eyeblink: 100 milliseconds, nearly as quick as Ferrari’s single-seaters. Downshifts are even more enjoyable, with a sharp 12-cylinder bark as the computer blips the throttle. The transmission is essentially a robotized manual, and this robot can shift like Schumacher. The huge engine displacement and its configuration ensure smoothness at all times. Forget to shift and leave it two gears too high, and the car will still pull away with no complaint.
Many sporty cars are compared to go-karts, but this one is the real deal. Changes in direction are instant and direct. A drive on Fiorano highlights the incredible balance and precision of the 599. Nearly all of the V12’s substantial length is tucked behind the front axle line for nearly even weight distribution between front and rear axles.
Braking after a full-throttle blast down Fiorano’s 782 meter straight is eye-poppingly effective. Regularly shrugging off 300 km/h is the job of carbon ceramic discs at all four corners. This material allows the system to provide consistently powerful braking with no fade, lap after lap. Standing beside the car after the test drive, we could feel waves of heat emanating from the brakes.
How wildly the car can behave is controlled by the manettino. This small rotary switch on the steering wheel, similar to the five or six knobs on Michael Schumacher’s weekend car, controls the level of electronic assist. There are “safety” settings for ice and rain, and a default “Sport” for dry pavement. Discretion and the prospect of a 230,000-Euro repair bill kept us from switching it to full “CST Off,” but we did try the next-wildest setting, which was “Race.” “Race” allowed the tail to slide out under control of the throttle, as much as our cojones would allow. Traction control technology culled from the F1 cars helped keep the car pointed where we intended it to go and made us look more skilled than we deserved.
We’ve ridden in more outrageous supercars than the 599, and driven cruisers that are more luxurious. None combines both purposes with such deceptive ease. On city streets, we can coast along and admire all the people admiring us—or rather, our car. On circuits like Fiorano, we wring every last horsepower and millisecond out of that drivetrain. The 599 is equally happy either way.
Going full blast means no time to figure out which gear to be in, and no time to admire the Playstation scenery flashing by. It was just I and the machine, going as fast as hell. And right there was the classic moment, when the car’s various parts moved as one, and we understood what she was all about. We were slapped, rather hard as it turned out, and so smoothly that we felt the sting only as we walked away from the track.
By Jason K. Ang | Photos by Jason K. Ang
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