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AT A GLANCE:
2007 FERRARI 599 GTB FIORANO
ON SALE: November
BASE PRICE: $250,000 (est.)
POWERTRAIN: 6.0-liter, 620-hp, 448-lb-ft V12; rwd, six-speed electrohydraulically shifted manual
CURB WEIGHT: 3722 lbs
0 TO 62 MPH: 3.7 seconds (mfr.)
FUEL MILEAGE: 11.04 mpg (est.)
http://www.auto-talk.net/autonews/ferrari/carticle-0001028.php
When Honda introduced the Acura NSX in 1990, car enthusiasts weren’t sure what to think. The aluminum-bodied NSX mixed Honda virtues and supercar dynamics in an exotic mid-engine coupe. As supercars go, it was a quantum leap in comfort, ease of function and reliability.
The NSX wanted to change the way the world looked at supercars, but many—Ferraristi foremost—weren’t buying. They wanted to dismiss amazing fit-and-finish and user-friendly operation as kitchen-appliance values or a lack of character or pedigree.
Luca Cordero di Montezemolo knew better. So in 1993 the carefully groomed successor to Enzo Ferrari, firmly entrenched as Ferrari’s president and CEO, demanded his engineers create, in his words, “a V12 berlinetta reaching new levels of comfort, visibility and ergonomics without impinging in any way on what is legendary Ferrari.”
The embodiment of his vision is the 1996 550 Maranello, a landmark in Ferrari’s modernization. For the 550, thorough product development mattered as much as performance. So did luxury, lower maintenance and—sheez—reliability. Ten years later it’s hard to argue that the 550 Maranello embodies anything but good.
Now we are graced with a car that can bury the 550, or its evolution as the 575M, by any objective measure. The 599 GTB Fiorano is the latest in a line of front-engine V12 coupes dating to the 1953 250 MM, and the ultimate expression of Montezemolo’s vision to date. This 620-hp, auto-climate, Bose-equipped supercar is like none before it.Maurizio Manfredi, director of Ferrari V12 model development, says Montezemolo’s edict for the 599 was even tougher: enhanced daily-drive capability with track performance superior to the F40.
Yes, that F40. The last Ferrari developed under Enzo’s active management. The mid-engine, twin-turbo track special that was the Enzo (the car) of the late 1980s.
“We wanted emotional impact in an all-around car that satisfies almost everyone,” says Manfredi, apparently unaware of how strange that sounds coming from someone responsible for creating V12 Ferraris.
Emotional impact starts with design, and the 599 GTB is 100 percent Pininfarina, crafted under the supervision of former Ferrari design chief Frank Stephenson. It is wider and longer than the 575M, with 11 functional ports or air-management devices, compared to five. This new berlinetta is subtle, supple, sophisticated—pretty, really—but also quietly aggressive. Its subtlety is both a strength and problem. Every angle releases something new and interesting, but it lacks the immediate, faraway impact one experiences spotting an F40 or an Enzo for the first time.
Appearance aside, the 599 GTB is more aerodynamically efficient than any Ferrari built without separate wings, says Manfredi. Downforce front and rear is equal and increases with speed (good thing, with a top speed over 205 mph).
The 599 GTB’s wheelbase (108.3 inches) is nearly 10 inches shorter than Ferrari’s 612 Scaglietti. While this is technically a front-engine car, weight distribution is mid-engine. Both engine and cabin are moved rearward compared to the 575M, leaving 85 percent of the mass between the wheels. Weight is optimally distributed 47 percent front, 53 percent rear, according to Manfredi.
Aluminum bodywork covers an aluminum space frame comprised of 176 separate castings, extrusions and sheets that are MIG-welded, riveted and glued into a whole. The 599 weighs 100 pounds less than the 575M; curb weight is 3722 pounds.The 5999-cc, 65-degree V12 shares its architecture and compression ratio (11.2:1) with the Enzo’s engine and generates almost as much power: 620 hp at 7600 rpm, compared to 660. It is more compact than the previous-generation V12 in the 575M, with a lower deck height that brings the center of mass down roughly an inch in the chassis. Redline is 8400 rpm, with 448 lb-ft of torque at 5600 rpm.
Engineers went to great lengths tuning the V12’s sound, suppressing mechanical noise in favor of an appropriately Ferrari exhaust tone. Still, they seem proudest of their work on the Formula One-style electrohydraulic transmission controls. The 599 GTB will be offered with a conventional six-speed manual, but Ferrari expects to build 80 percent with the F1 Superfast gearbox.
This box uses the same control software as Ferrari’s F1 transmission, according to Manfredi. Twin clutch discs allow overlapping of the clutching and gear-change operations. The entire shift process—signal, clutch, gear change—occurs in 100 milliseconds, compared to 250 in the 575M. The “acceleration gap,” the period the engine is decoupled from the driveshaft, is 40 milliseconds, compared to 100 in the 612 and 15 in Ferrari’s F1 car.
The 599 must be the first Ferrari with suspension control also available on a Buick. It’s equipped with Delphi’s Magne-Ride active damping system, which works by changing the viscosity of fluid in the shocks by increasing or decreasing a magnetic field. Manfredi says MagneRide is simple, lighter and faster than active systems that adjust shock valving. It has no mechanical parts, and response time is one millisecond. Brakes? Big (13.9-inch discs front, 12.9 rear) and bigger (15.7/14.2) with the optional composite rotors that trim 30 pounds of unsprung weight. Buyers can choose from Bridgestone, Michelin, Goodyear or Pirelli tires. Michael Schu- macher should be so lucky.
The 599 cockpit shares more with a Rolls-Royce than an ’80s-vintage Ferrari, if you swap carbon fiber in for wood trim. Panels fit remarkably well, with hardly a seam visible; impeccably hand-stitched hides cover most surfaces in the custom fashion of an ultra-luxury sedan. Ferrari actually brags about the number of storage nooks to secure odds and ends.The 599 gets the manettino steering wheel introduced on the F430, with start button and a dial switch to adjust electronics. In the 599 there are five settings, each integrating transmission, suspension, traction and stability electronics, from “snow” to traction off. The driver can choose data displayed on an LCD next to the tach, including a track-time function.
It’s easy to get comfortable in the 599 GTB—comfortable enough to slip into lazy driving mode, if you allow yourself—because it’s not intimidating for long. There are no nose-high sills or pillbox windows to limit forward visibility. The ride can be comfortable, and this is the tamest 620 hp you’ll ever encounter: mellow at part throttle, tractable and not the least bit finicky, with torque everywhere, whatever the gear. Yet the beast is only a jab of the right foot away.
Ferrari’s numbers speak for themselves—0 to 62 mph, 3.7 seconds; 0 to 124 mph, 11 seconds—but they don’t tell all. Floor the accelerator and the variable valve timing instantly slides to free-breathing mode and the 599 GTB sings, strong, loud and unmistakable, in stark juxtaposition to trundle-about mode. The F1 Superfast shifts up—whap, whap, whap!—as if Schumacher himself were doing the work.
Yet within the 599 GTB’s inherent civility there exists a dangerous element, call it a potentially bad case of sneak-up. There’s tremendous acceleration out of bends, a head-spinning load of grip and not much in the way of warning signals—like body lean or steering skip—that you might get in lesser cars. In novice or stupid hands something could go wrong before the driver gets a clue. This potentially insidious quality would be the most outrageous trait built into the 599 if the electronics were not so quick to intervene.
In sport mode the stability electronics are conservatively programmed. There is not much slide in the back, and the 599 will push more readily than it will oversteer. One lap around Fiorano in race mode is not enough to determine how much more rope that setting offers, but it is enough to screw up.
Even the slickest electronics obey the laws of physics. Out of a medium-speed right the driver took too much speed too soon. First two, then four wheels hit grass, and the 599 GTB seesawed left-right-left. By fluke, electronic management or both, it got four wheels back on asphalt without swapping ends. The worst of it was sod on the pavement, but different circumstances might have produced different consequences.
Steering is the only niggle. It is light and almost a bit vague, definitely not the laser-guided stuff of Ferrari’s recent V8s. It is not as quick as might be expected, either, and the steering wheel is big. In slow corners real hand-over-hand turning is required.
The F1 Superfast gearbox is impressive. More than shift speed, it’s how pleasantly it works as a full automatic. At a casual pace, it is far less jarring than Ferrari’s first F1-type transmissions, and is one more element to make this supercar a potentially expensive commuter.Standard equipment includes automatic headlights, a rain sensor, Bluetooth phone connection and an electrically adjustable steering wheel. Options run the gamut from custom appointments to off-the-shelf items like a nav system and 11-speaker Bose audio with DSP, noise-level compression and an iPod connection.
The 599 GTB will be available in the United States by November, price targeted in the $250,000-to-$260,000 range with F1 Superfast. Ferrari will send 250 cars a year (slightly more than the 575M); the first year is sold out.
Waiting lists a year or longer are the norm in Ferrari’s big markets. The company sold 5400 cars in 2005, unheard of in Enzo’s day, and Monteze-molo is widely lauded as one of the industry’s best minds. Obviously the world embraces his vision of the supercar.
Sure, there are those who say Montezemolo’s vision will never produce cars with the emotion of Enzo’s best—that the NSX ruined everything that was good about exotic high-performance cars. These people probably cannot afford Ferraris anyway.
Source: AutoWeek, The Inside Track
Thoughts?
2007 FERRARI 599 GTB FIORANO
ON SALE: November
BASE PRICE: $250,000 (est.)
POWERTRAIN: 6.0-liter, 620-hp, 448-lb-ft V12; rwd, six-speed electrohydraulically shifted manual
CURB WEIGHT: 3722 lbs
0 TO 62 MPH: 3.7 seconds (mfr.)
FUEL MILEAGE: 11.04 mpg (est.)
http://www.auto-talk.net/autonews/ferrari/carticle-0001028.php
When Honda introduced the Acura NSX in 1990, car enthusiasts weren’t sure what to think. The aluminum-bodied NSX mixed Honda virtues and supercar dynamics in an exotic mid-engine coupe. As supercars go, it was a quantum leap in comfort, ease of function and reliability.
The NSX wanted to change the way the world looked at supercars, but many—Ferraristi foremost—weren’t buying. They wanted to dismiss amazing fit-and-finish and user-friendly operation as kitchen-appliance values or a lack of character or pedigree.
Luca Cordero di Montezemolo knew better. So in 1993 the carefully groomed successor to Enzo Ferrari, firmly entrenched as Ferrari’s president and CEO, demanded his engineers create, in his words, “a V12 berlinetta reaching new levels of comfort, visibility and ergonomics without impinging in any way on what is legendary Ferrari.”
The embodiment of his vision is the 1996 550 Maranello, a landmark in Ferrari’s modernization. For the 550, thorough product development mattered as much as performance. So did luxury, lower maintenance and—sheez—reliability. Ten years later it’s hard to argue that the 550 Maranello embodies anything but good.
Now we are graced with a car that can bury the 550, or its evolution as the 575M, by any objective measure. The 599 GTB Fiorano is the latest in a line of front-engine V12 coupes dating to the 1953 250 MM, and the ultimate expression of Montezemolo’s vision to date. This 620-hp, auto-climate, Bose-equipped supercar is like none before it.Maurizio Manfredi, director of Ferrari V12 model development, says Montezemolo’s edict for the 599 was even tougher: enhanced daily-drive capability with track performance superior to the F40.
Yes, that F40. The last Ferrari developed under Enzo’s active management. The mid-engine, twin-turbo track special that was the Enzo (the car) of the late 1980s.
“We wanted emotional impact in an all-around car that satisfies almost everyone,” says Manfredi, apparently unaware of how strange that sounds coming from someone responsible for creating V12 Ferraris.
Emotional impact starts with design, and the 599 GTB is 100 percent Pininfarina, crafted under the supervision of former Ferrari design chief Frank Stephenson. It is wider and longer than the 575M, with 11 functional ports or air-management devices, compared to five. This new berlinetta is subtle, supple, sophisticated—pretty, really—but also quietly aggressive. Its subtlety is both a strength and problem. Every angle releases something new and interesting, but it lacks the immediate, faraway impact one experiences spotting an F40 or an Enzo for the first time.
Appearance aside, the 599 GTB is more aerodynamically efficient than any Ferrari built without separate wings, says Manfredi. Downforce front and rear is equal and increases with speed (good thing, with a top speed over 205 mph).
The 599 GTB’s wheelbase (108.3 inches) is nearly 10 inches shorter than Ferrari’s 612 Scaglietti. While this is technically a front-engine car, weight distribution is mid-engine. Both engine and cabin are moved rearward compared to the 575M, leaving 85 percent of the mass between the wheels. Weight is optimally distributed 47 percent front, 53 percent rear, according to Manfredi.
Aluminum bodywork covers an aluminum space frame comprised of 176 separate castings, extrusions and sheets that are MIG-welded, riveted and glued into a whole. The 599 weighs 100 pounds less than the 575M; curb weight is 3722 pounds.The 5999-cc, 65-degree V12 shares its architecture and compression ratio (11.2:1) with the Enzo’s engine and generates almost as much power: 620 hp at 7600 rpm, compared to 660. It is more compact than the previous-generation V12 in the 575M, with a lower deck height that brings the center of mass down roughly an inch in the chassis. Redline is 8400 rpm, with 448 lb-ft of torque at 5600 rpm.
Engineers went to great lengths tuning the V12’s sound, suppressing mechanical noise in favor of an appropriately Ferrari exhaust tone. Still, they seem proudest of their work on the Formula One-style electrohydraulic transmission controls. The 599 GTB will be offered with a conventional six-speed manual, but Ferrari expects to build 80 percent with the F1 Superfast gearbox.
This box uses the same control software as Ferrari’s F1 transmission, according to Manfredi. Twin clutch discs allow overlapping of the clutching and gear-change operations. The entire shift process—signal, clutch, gear change—occurs in 100 milliseconds, compared to 250 in the 575M. The “acceleration gap,” the period the engine is decoupled from the driveshaft, is 40 milliseconds, compared to 100 in the 612 and 15 in Ferrari’s F1 car.
The 599 must be the first Ferrari with suspension control also available on a Buick. It’s equipped with Delphi’s Magne-Ride active damping system, which works by changing the viscosity of fluid in the shocks by increasing or decreasing a magnetic field. Manfredi says MagneRide is simple, lighter and faster than active systems that adjust shock valving. It has no mechanical parts, and response time is one millisecond. Brakes? Big (13.9-inch discs front, 12.9 rear) and bigger (15.7/14.2) with the optional composite rotors that trim 30 pounds of unsprung weight. Buyers can choose from Bridgestone, Michelin, Goodyear or Pirelli tires. Michael Schu- macher should be so lucky.
The 599 cockpit shares more with a Rolls-Royce than an ’80s-vintage Ferrari, if you swap carbon fiber in for wood trim. Panels fit remarkably well, with hardly a seam visible; impeccably hand-stitched hides cover most surfaces in the custom fashion of an ultra-luxury sedan. Ferrari actually brags about the number of storage nooks to secure odds and ends.The 599 gets the manettino steering wheel introduced on the F430, with start button and a dial switch to adjust electronics. In the 599 there are five settings, each integrating transmission, suspension, traction and stability electronics, from “snow” to traction off. The driver can choose data displayed on an LCD next to the tach, including a track-time function.
It’s easy to get comfortable in the 599 GTB—comfortable enough to slip into lazy driving mode, if you allow yourself—because it’s not intimidating for long. There are no nose-high sills or pillbox windows to limit forward visibility. The ride can be comfortable, and this is the tamest 620 hp you’ll ever encounter: mellow at part throttle, tractable and not the least bit finicky, with torque everywhere, whatever the gear. Yet the beast is only a jab of the right foot away.
Ferrari’s numbers speak for themselves—0 to 62 mph, 3.7 seconds; 0 to 124 mph, 11 seconds—but they don’t tell all. Floor the accelerator and the variable valve timing instantly slides to free-breathing mode and the 599 GTB sings, strong, loud and unmistakable, in stark juxtaposition to trundle-about mode. The F1 Superfast shifts up—whap, whap, whap!—as if Schumacher himself were doing the work.
Yet within the 599 GTB’s inherent civility there exists a dangerous element, call it a potentially bad case of sneak-up. There’s tremendous acceleration out of bends, a head-spinning load of grip and not much in the way of warning signals—like body lean or steering skip—that you might get in lesser cars. In novice or stupid hands something could go wrong before the driver gets a clue. This potentially insidious quality would be the most outrageous trait built into the 599 if the electronics were not so quick to intervene.
In sport mode the stability electronics are conservatively programmed. There is not much slide in the back, and the 599 will push more readily than it will oversteer. One lap around Fiorano in race mode is not enough to determine how much more rope that setting offers, but it is enough to screw up.
Even the slickest electronics obey the laws of physics. Out of a medium-speed right the driver took too much speed too soon. First two, then four wheels hit grass, and the 599 GTB seesawed left-right-left. By fluke, electronic management or both, it got four wheels back on asphalt without swapping ends. The worst of it was sod on the pavement, but different circumstances might have produced different consequences.
Steering is the only niggle. It is light and almost a bit vague, definitely not the laser-guided stuff of Ferrari’s recent V8s. It is not as quick as might be expected, either, and the steering wheel is big. In slow corners real hand-over-hand turning is required.
The F1 Superfast gearbox is impressive. More than shift speed, it’s how pleasantly it works as a full automatic. At a casual pace, it is far less jarring than Ferrari’s first F1-type transmissions, and is one more element to make this supercar a potentially expensive commuter.Standard equipment includes automatic headlights, a rain sensor, Bluetooth phone connection and an electrically adjustable steering wheel. Options run the gamut from custom appointments to off-the-shelf items like a nav system and 11-speaker Bose audio with DSP, noise-level compression and an iPod connection.
The 599 GTB will be available in the United States by November, price targeted in the $250,000-to-$260,000 range with F1 Superfast. Ferrari will send 250 cars a year (slightly more than the 575M); the first year is sold out.
Waiting lists a year or longer are the norm in Ferrari’s big markets. The company sold 5400 cars in 2005, unheard of in Enzo’s day, and Monteze-molo is widely lauded as one of the industry’s best minds. Obviously the world embraces his vision of the supercar.
Sure, there are those who say Montezemolo’s vision will never produce cars with the emotion of Enzo’s best—that the NSX ruined everything that was good about exotic high-performance cars. These people probably cannot afford Ferraris anyway.
Source: AutoWeek, The Inside Track
Thoughts?