By JASON K. ANG
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 your predecessors include such desirable cars as the 1959 250 GT and the Testarossa, you 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.
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Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano | | 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. Twenty-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. Peer underneath and you’ll see 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.
Pull the heavy door open, and you’ll find the cockpit of a luxury car. Leather trim covers the seats and dash, while carbon fiber graces the ultra-light seat shells and the ventilation surrounds. Aluminum is the other element here, the most conspicuous of which is a large "brace plate" for the passenger.
The seat engulfs you like a long-absent lover, and it feels nearly as good. Press a switch and it hugs you 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.
In front of you is 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.
Press the red (can it be any other color?) "Engine Start" button on the steering wheel, and you hear 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. Pull on the right lever to shift into first, and point the car down the track’s main straight.
Punch the throttle into the floor, and your whole body is slammed backward into the seat. 0-100 km/h goes by faster than you can 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 eye blink: 100 milliseconds, nearly as quick as Ferrari’s single-
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