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Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano
Symphony in F
While we fiddle with our petty iPods back in the office, Jason Ang makes sweet music with a Ferrari supercoupe on the car's home track. The bastard...
Photography by Jason Ang
The first four notes of Beethoven's 'Fifth' and the first bar of Bach's 'Tocatta and Fugue' are an indication of what's to come—a warning to brace yourself and a reminder that you're about to experience something completely different.
I felt something of the sort as we approached Ferrari's Fiorano test track. What led us there was the sound. The air was being split with the roar of a racing engine. It was as thrilling as any symphony. Tucked away in the middle of a small town 170km southeast of Milan, the circuit is at the end of a sleepy lane of pizzerias and small shops. Suddenly, a huge red sign displayed: “Pista di Fiorano. Shell. Vodafone. Bridgestone.” It was like finding a secret robot base on a bird-shaped tropical island.
Then with a deep rumble, our purpose for coming drove up to the pit lane: Ferrari's new supercar. The 599 GTB had an attitude of confidence, hugging the blacktop as it rolled up. Our car was rendered not in fiery red but in elegant gray. The 599's sleek shape sports strong cues of its capabilities. The long hood (with its F1-shaped power bulge) hints at a massive engine, while the bulging rear haunches are its means to put the power down to the pavement. Its bumper is deep and low, inset with a wide-grinning central air intake flanked by two snorting nostrils. Twenty-inch tires look just large enough to properly fill the wheel arches.
The design brief was short if not simple: To exceed the performance of the F40 while incorporating the creature comforts of the 575. That's like telling Lockheed's engineers, “Build me an F-16 fighter but with two seats—in business class.” To achieve this, Ferrari pushed the envelope in design, materials and performance hardware. The chassis is made entirely of aluminum, using a rigid space frame on which the body panels are hung.
The engineers were so confident with the chassis that they spent months just tuning the sound of the V12. The 5.99-liter power unit was lifted from the Enzo limited-edition supercar. It produces 620hp and can rev to a screaming 8,400rpm, remarkable for such a big engine. If we could only place it on a pedestal for viewing; it seems to have been designed for that, too. This masterpiece in metal, with its interlaced air-intake fingers and red camshaft covers, is as breathtaking as a Bernini sculpture. All aluminum, it incorporates an F1-style integral sump to lower the center of gravity. A short-stroke design enhances piston durability and allows that soaring redline. The result is 103 normally-aspirated horses per liter, good for a power-to-weight ratio of no less than one horsepower per 2.6kg, not quite beating the F40's stat of one horsepower per 2.3kg.
Underneath is a large venturi tunnel, capable of generating a stabilizing downforce of 70kg at 200kph. Nonetheless, drag has been kept to a slippery 0.33cd for top speed.
The seat engulfs like a long-absent lover. In anticipation of severe sideways maneuvers, I pressed the bolster switch to make it hug even tighter. 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. Behind the seats is a large luggage shelf, complete with leather tie-downs. In front and at the center is a large red 10,000rpm tachometer flanked by a 360kph 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 you're in.
Luxury car is the second job function on this car's business card. There's a standard high-powered audio system that's iPod-ready. But who needs U2 when you have Signore V12 at your command? 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. Hair prickles up; hands tighten on the steering wheel. A pull on the right lever shifts into first. I pointed the car down the track's main straight.
I punched the throttle into the floor, and my whole body was slammed backward into the seat. Zero to 100kph goes by almost as fast as I could say “Luca di Montezemolo”—3.7 seconds. As the engine spins rapidly to redline, LEDs on the carbon steering wheel light up. Upshifts take only the blink of an eye—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 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 complaints.
The F1-SuperFast transmission is essentially a robot six-speed manual, and it can shift like Raikkonen. The technology itself is derived from Formula One racers. To cut down the shift time to a bare minimum, the system can start to shift gears even before the clutch has fully disengaged.
Virtually all of the V12's substantial length is tucked behind the front axle line for nearly even weight distribution between the front and rear axles. For better acceleration and braking, the weight distribution mimics that of a mid-engined car— 47 percent up front and 53 percent at the rear.
Braking after Fiorano's 782-meter straight is eye-poppingly effective. Carbon-ceramic brake discs the size of family pizzas are capable of scrubbing off 300kph speeds, lap after lap. After our drive, we felt waves of heat coming from the brakes.
| Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano |
| We say: It's everything you like about a Ferrari supercar. And it's iPod-ready! All that's left is to find a rich heiress. |
Price: P14.3M (price as tested)
Engine: 5.99L DOHC V12
Power: 620hp
Torque: 608Nm
Transmission: 6-speed semi-A/T
Layout/Seating: RWD/2
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The 599 has double wishbones on all four wheels. The semi-active suspension system uses magnetically-sensitive fluid within the dampers to instantly adjust its response, thus reducing the car's body movements. How wildly the car behaves is controlled by the 'manettino'. This small rotary switch on the steering wheel, similar to the five or six controls on Kimi'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 P14.3-million bill kept us from switching it to 'stability and traction control off,' but I did try the next best setting, which was 'race'. This is for track use and it speeds up the gearbox to its maximum setting. It allowed me to power the tail out with heavy throttle, as much as I dared. Traction control technology culled from F1 cars helped keep the car pointed to where I intended it to go and made me look more skilled than I actually was.
I've ridden in more outrageous supercars than the 599, and driven cruisers that are more luxurious. None combines sport and luxury with as much ease. On city streets, I can coast along and appreciate all the people admiring me—or my car, that is. At Fiorano, I wring every last horse and millisecond out of that drivetrain. The 599 GTB is happy either way.
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Top Gear Philippines - August 2007
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