Flog a Day-Old Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano? You Don’t Need to Ask Me Twice!

It isn’t often that someone offers to let me drive their 612 horsepower supercar, much less one delivered within the last 24 hours. Evidently, my clean living has finally paid off, because that is exactly what happened.

The Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano is the latest in a classic line of high-performance front-engine sports GT vehicles that includes icons like the 212 Inter, 250GT SWB, 275 GTB/4 and 365 GTB/4 Daytona. It bears the name of the company’s test track in Maranello, which is a great indication that its capabilities have been meticulously honed via plenty of tire-smoking test laps.

The 599 appears much different in the flesh compared to the pictures. Many enthusiasts and journalists have questioned the 599′s looks based on photos (including me) but I am happy to report that the car is amazingly elegant and muscular. Pictures simply do not pick up the intricate details, such as the chiseled rear buttresses and wheel wells that add to the overall muscular stance. Continue reading…   

The Rubino (ruby red) paint is deeper than Lake Tahoe and more vibrant than a Wall Street bar at happy hour. As impressive as the aluminum body is, the underside is even more extraordinary. Air dams, diffusers and other trick designs make this car one of the most aerodynamically stable in history.

Opening the door I find that unlike Ferraris of the past, there’s no need to drop, tilt, spin, hover and shimmy to get behind the controls on this car. Just sit and throw the legs around. Even a lady in a skirt can enter and exit gracefully.  Buckets are extremely supportive, but headroom still is a tad tight for those of us who shop in the XL-Tall racks.   

The interior looks and feels fantastic. Carbon fiber and aluminum accents are everywhere. Circular vents appear to have been frenched-in like hot-rod taillights. Even the switchgear adheres to visual trends without sacrificing ergonomic quality.

I faced a large yellow-faced tachometer in the center of the cluster, which was flanked by a traditional white-on-black 220 mph speedometer and a computer screen displaying information like fuel and coolant temperature. Absent from the console is the traditional metal shift gate. This 599 uses the race-bred sequential manual box, which is shifted manually via paddles sprouting from behind the steering wheel. Or the car can be driven in fully automatic mode.   

Pushing the red steering wheel-mounted “Engine Start” button fires up the 5.99 liter V12 with little fanfare. Engine idle is quiet. Pulling into traffic in automatic transmission mode I found the car as relaxing and quiet as a Lexus.

Turning the steering wheel-mounted switch to the race setting changes the car’s whole character. Under full throttle the V12 derived from the Enzo brings its 612 hp and 448 lb-ft of torque online. Exhaust butterfly valves open to emit a symphonic crescendo. Tugging the right paddle brings instantaneous jolting upshifts near the 8250 rpm redline. Before the owner and I knew it, the speedo read 130 mph, but the feeling of stability exceeds any standard commuter car at 45 mph.   

We stopped to test 0-60. Squeezing the throttle to the floor, the car’s massive tires bit and launched us like the Millennium Falcon hitting hyperspace. Even with two people in the car and cold tires, the accelerometer read just 3.55 seconds–almost a full second faster than a Hemi ‘Cuda or L88 Corvette could do it.  It’ll also do the quarter mile in 11.3 and top out at 205 mph, but neither I nor the owner cared to be read the riot act by our wives for testing these numbers ourselves!

The 599 GTB isn’t a handful in corners like big block American muscle, either. The steering wheel feels great in my hands, and unlike Ferraris of yesteryear, the effort is light at slow speeds and stiffens up as the car accelerates. DB Cooper is easier to find than body roll in corners. Credit the 50-50 weight balance generated from pushing the engine well behind the front wheels, which technically classifies the car as front-mid-engine.   

With such elegance, comfort and ease of driving, sports car purists could easily accuse the 599 GTB of lacking a Y-chromosome. While it delivers plenty of feel through the steering wheel and otherworldly brakes, there’s a noticeable lack of seat-of-the-pants connection to the speed. The 599 isn’t raw, edgy or exhausting like the majority of classic exotics I’ve piloted. It is so well-engineered that the driver’s capabilities are almost irrelevant in achieving near-mythical results, which might be a letdown to sports car purists.

Grab the reigns, plant the throttle and the 599 GTB delivers all the goods–and then some.  It just might be the best multi-purpose sports cars ever, capable of transporting two people across country in luxury and comfort, and then onto a track where it can clean the clocks of lesser Lamborghinis, Porsches and Ferrari F40s.