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Road Test: Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano (2006-) |
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Written by http://www.channel4.com
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by: John Simister
Let
some numbers set the scene. Maximum speed over 205mph. 0-62mph in 3.7
seconds, 0-124mph in 11 seconds, standing-start kilometre in under 20
seconds. The V12 engine, derived from the Enzo Ferrari's, delivers
620bhp - 40bhp down on the Enzo's figure but who's complaining? - and
can rev to a manic 8,400rpm.
Oh, and CO2 emissions are 490g/km - so no cheap road tax for the 599 GTB Fiorano, then.
The
599 replaces the 575 Maranello. It weighs 50kg less thanks to its
aluminium chassis and body (made by Scaglietti, like those of the F430
and 612) and it features terrific new technology, some of which has
filtered down from Formula One.
Specifically, it has F1-Trac (a new
traction and stability system), F1-Superfast (a yet-quicker gearshift
system in the F1 paddle-shift gearbox) and magneto-rheological
suspension dampers. These contain a fluid which becomes more viscous if
a magnetic field is applied around the damper. Result:
near-instantly-reacting adaptive dampers with no moving parts. Taken
together, these three technologies make for a stunningly satisfying
drive.
Other technical stuff? That drive
experience is helped by placing 53% of the weight over the rear wheels,
achieved by setting the engine well back in the chassis with the
gearbox, in usual Ferrari front-engine style, mounted at the back and
linked to the engine by a rigid tube. A twin-plate clutch reduces
rotational inertia which helps those ultra-speedy gearshifts, and a
dry-sump engine lubrication system lets the engine sit very low in the
chassis. All four camshafts have variable valve timing and are driven
by a single chain instead of the belt used in the 575 Maranello engine.
As
with most Ferraris, the 599 was styled by Pininfarina. The shape is
aerodynamically very efficient, with up to 160kg of downforce at speed,
of which 50kg comes from the airflow directed around the distinctive
flying buttresses either side of the bubble-shaped rear window. It's
also very striking, with its air-exits behind the front wheels slicing
into the doors, wedge-shaped sills feeding into rear brake-cooling
scoops and a two-bladed rear diffuser that terminates the flat
underfloor.
Inside, there's leather and carbonfibre and a steering
wheel whose built-in buttons start the engine and select your preferred
chassis mode. So, let's find out some more... oh, and by the way, the
599 name comes from the engine capacity divided by 10.
RELIABILITY AND QUALITY RATING:***
The
599 is clearly beautifully built out of expensively engineered parts
and it looks as good under the bonnet with its crackle-finish cam
covers and intake pipes as it does in the cabin, where leather and
carbonfibre collide in a meeting of function and luxury.
But there
are a few snags that may well have been confined to our early test car
(chassis number 165 according to the prominent underbonnet plate). The
handbrake wouldn't hold on a hill without a huge tug; the electric
window switches were easily displaced from their mountings in the
doors; there was a buzz behind the driver's head; the seats creaked;
and a rubber bonnet seal became displaced as we reached the limit of
our speed-daring on the autostrada near Maranello. Details, all easily
remedied.
As
for reliability, this is a complex car but a very thoroughly engineered
one. The chain-cam engine will be less of a worry than the
previous-generation belt-drive unit and the previous nightmare of
F1-shift Ferraris, a fragile clutch, shouldn't be a problem now. Its
twin-plate design runs cooler and will consequently last longer.
IMAGE RATING:*****
Our
first sight of the 599 GTB Fiorano was a tiny bit troubling. In the
glare of the Geneva show stand it looked overstyled and too wide, but
as is so often the case, it all comes together when you see the Ferrari
a) outside and b) moving.
The nose has echoes of early-60s Ferraris,
with its side intakes and grid-like grille; the side view is all muscle
and dynamism; and the tail is stark and simple with single, instead of
paired, rear lights made up of myriad LEDs. The 599 has huge presence,
but the sight and the sound of it stir admiration much more than envy
(especially in Italy). It looks particularly fine in the new metallic
red, Rosso Monza.
And the sound... Imagine a Ferrari Formula One car
of a decade ago, when they had V12 engines and didn't rev to quite such
stratospheric heights, then drive the 599 at 8,000rpm through a tunnel.
You're right back there at the trackside.
Clearly
the Ferrari oozes expense and prestige, but the sense of occasion,
style and high-power engineering transcends all that. It's just a
lovely object, to be enjoyed by all who encounter it.
DRIVING RATING:*****
Ferrari
CEO Amedeo Felisa says his company's cars are being driven more and
more by the customers. So, he says, the 599 had to be a car to use, not
just to be put away.
Its pace is greater even than that of the
mighty F40 of 1987, but it's very easy to drive. Too easy? No, because
to get the best out of it calls for tidiness and commitment, but anyone
could get into a 599 and drive it competently.
There will be a
manual gearbox version, but Felisa expects the great majority of 599s
to have the electro-hydraulic manual auto F1-Superfast shift (Superfast
is an old Ferrari model name, incidentally). Only with that system can
you make the most of the car's potential, he says.
You sit low,
behind that long, power-bulging bonnet and, at first, both the steering
wheel and the accelerator pedal seem too vertical. These feelings soon
fade once you're moving, though. Low-speed manoeuvring is easy, thanks
to the unexpectedly glassy cabin and a fine view out, and in the
unlikely event you want to use the six-speed gearbox in automatic mode
it works pretty smoothly. The increased computer power that has helped
hone the Superfast part of the shift is also used to smooth out the
jerks and surges that used to plague these gearboxes in auto mode.
Really,
though, you want to use manual mode with its two
steering-column-mounted shift paddles - right up, left down. How
quickly they shift the gears depends mainly on where you've set the
'manettino' knob on the steering wheel. As in the F430, this lets you
select ice mode (gentle shifts, no first gear, restricted revs),
low-grip mode (soft damping, quicker but still-soft shifts), sport mode
(the normal one), race mode (faster shifts, firmer damping, much more
tail-sliding freedom but still a safety net) and a final position with
everything bar the ABS and brake-force distribution switched off. Each
mode triggers a different set of data on the LCD panel to the left of
the giant rev-counter, but a button on the back of the steering wheel
lets you change to a different data screen.
In
sport mode, the transmission upshifts automatically at the rev limit:
in race mode or beyond it does not. The fact is that for a skilled
driver on a dry road, race mode is the best because you can enjoy the
599's fabulously progressive power oversteer without fear of
overcooking things. In this setting the dampers do make the motorway
ride too restless, but when you're in the mood for a rousing drive, you
relish the tight control they bring. In fact, they react so quickly
that they can even counteract tail-squat on acceleration and nose-dive
when braking.
The stability system, called F1-Trac and used on the
F1 cars, uses a 'map' of the 599's known capabilities and measures how
close the driver is sailing towards them. That way it can predict
what's about to happen instead of just reacting when it happens, so it
doesn't need such a wide safety net before activating. So you can have
huge fun in corners without feeling the system intervening all the time
and just concentrate on getting the best out of the big, heavy car that
feels so unfeasibly agile.
The steering helps here: at first it
feels too light, but as you learn to feel its sensitivity and accuracy,
the way it tells you everything that's happening under the front tyres
despite the power assistance that lets it be so quick in its responses,
you almost stop noticing the steering and instead seem to bond directly
with the wheels.
So, what about F1-Superfast? When you're in race
mode or beyond, accelerating hard with the engine revving freely, it
goes into its Superfast mode - which means gearshifts achieved with
just a 40 millisecond pause in acceleration. It achieves this by
starting to move the gears out of or back into engagement before the
clutch has fully disengaged or re-engaged, made possible by close
computer control of engine torque and thus the ability of the gears to
shift without crunching. The F1 gearbox has a slightly different
synchromesh design from the manual 'box to help this to happen. You'd
think that such fast shifts would be abrupt and snatchy, but if you
ease the throttle momentarily on the upshift you can make the shift
both amazingly quick and completely smooth. And when you're going more
gently, this is the best Ferrari paddle-shift system yet.
Incidentally,
you might remember that the Ferrari F430 has its own miracle stability
system, the e-Diff. Its operation is more obvious and abrupt than
F1-Trac's, so deemed less suitable for a front-engined GT. The Formula
One cars, however, have both systems.
PERFORMANCE RATING:*****
Of course it gets five stars. Not only is the pace sensational, it's fabulously accessible.
You
can select a 'launch control' mode for the perfect getaway, which lets
the engine rev to its peak torque level (448lb-ft at 5,600rpm) before
engaging the clutch for an ultimate getaway, but you don't have to rev
the engine to anything like its 7,600rpm peak power speed to hurl the
599 along at an awe some pace. The engine revs with huge glee and total
smoothness, lighting a sequence of steering-wheel LEDs and emitting a
fabulous, multi-layered V12 howl as it does so (it's a lot to do with
the third and sixth harmonics, apparently), but it pulls hard from
surprisingly low revs and idles perfectly.
It's the sort of
performance that, when you're planning an overtake, alters the art of
the possible. Those figures again: 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds, 0-124mph in
11 seconds, over 205mph all-out if you can find somewhere to do it. And
the 599 feels rock-stable at big speeds, nailed to the road with never
a missed heartbeat as you load yet more asphalt in an endless mountain
autostrada bend. Sometimes, though, you can't resist a downshift with a
high-speed auto-blip of the two throttles, and then full throttle to
another part of the space-time continuum.
And if something gets in
your way, big brakes will haul you down to real-world speeds without
worry. Our test car had the optional carbon-ceramic brakes - the
lighter discs reduce unsprung weight and improve the ride, too - and
although far from quiet, with obvious friction-rubbing sounds, they
proved extremely effective. The pedal action proved a touch soft when
going for broke around Ferrari's Fiorano test track (from which the 599
gains the rest of its name), but the brakes never faded.
By the way,
although Enzo-based, the 65-degree V12 engine has some modifications
for its new role. The cylinder heads have a different water feed,
mainly because the engine is front- rather than mid-mounted, and the
connecting rods are steel rather than titanium. Also, the variable
valve timing is fed from the normal oil pump instead of having its own,
separate, high-pressure supply.
SAFETY AND SECURITY RATING:*****
There's
no EuroNCAP rating just yet and crash-testing a Ferrari must be a
painful business, but the 599 is designed to perform well in a crash.
The aluminium structure has a 34% greater torsional stiffness than the
575's steel one and high-strength aluminium is designed to reduce
side-impact intrusion. There are four airbags (two front, two in the
doors) and the first crash test result at the factory exceeded all
current worldwide regulations according to Ferrari. The 599 also meets
ACEA Phase One Car-to-Pedestrian impact standards.
Then there's the
F1-Trac system. This is a massively fast car, but it's good to know
that there are systems on board which help you avoid the accident in
the first place.
As for security, there's the usual automatic
immobiliser system and various annoying beeps to remind you to extract
the ignition key.
RUNNING COSTS RATING:**
Even
a Ferrari owner must blanch at the cost of filling up a 23-gallon tank
and, with a combined official fuel consumption of just 13.3mpg, that's
going to happen quite a lot.
This is the downside of Ferrari
ownership, along the cost of insurance, but at least the 599 is likely
to hold its value for some time to come - there are plenty of orders
placed already.
Good news on the maintenance side is that there's no
cambelt to change and the new twin-plate clutch should outlast the old
single-plate one, whose replacement could be needed with depressing
regularity.
COMFORT AND EQUIPMENT RATING:*****
You
could forgive a car like this for being a touch harsh and hard-edged at
times, but actually it's pretty civilised, even when the driver's
having maximum fun.
The seats are very supportive (various designs
are offered, mainly with carbonfibre shells) and the leather trim is
lovely. If you think there's too much naked carbonfibre as standard -
it forms the centre console and air-vent housings, and a good part of
the door trims - you can have it trimmed in leather instead.
Indeed,
there's a Carrozzeria Scaglietti personalisation programme which is
effectively an options list, including 20" wheels all round instead of
the usual 19" fronts and 20" rears plus various brake-caliper colours
and myriad trim options.
There's also the Allestimenti Speciali
programme, which enables buyers to have bespoke modifications
individually devised (no doubt at vast cost) with Ferrari, provided
they stay within Ferrari's safety and quality standards.
Back to
that civility. The 599 cruises quietly enough to allow conversation,
with surprisingly little wind noise, and the air con works well. Best
of all, though, is the ride, thanks to those magnetic dampers,
co-developed with Delphi to build on an idea first seen in the
Chevrolet Corvette. For a car with such low-profile tyres to absorb
ridges and ruts with such suppleness, yet still have such taut sinews
when needed, is remarkable.
The 599 GTB never gets flustered, it
just devours the road and sucks its driver into the experience.
Marvellous.
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