2011 Ferrari 599GTO
Ferrari raises its street-performance ante. Again.
So you still think the hottest
street-legal Ferrari of them all is the Enzo? Listen up—we have an
update. There’s a new champ in Maranello. It’s not as outrageous as the
Enzo, but it’s more powerful, more sophisticated, more agile, and even
faster. Ferrari calls it “the most extreme sports car” it has ever
produced. At a company where fabulous is the starting point for pretty
much every new project, that’s saying something.
Ferrari’s
challenge (besides, you know, actually engineering the car) was in
choosing a name for the beast, which is based on the 599GTB Fiorano.
There isn’t much to set the new car apart visually from the GTB, just
additional aero elements at the front, aggressive rear air diffusers,
and other various airflow management touches that add up to double the
high-speed downforce of the “regular” 599.
The
corporate brain trust looked down the corridor of Ferrari immortals and
came across the 1962–64 GTO, and resurrecting the name just made sense.
(Less influence came from the mid-engine, twin-turbo V-8 GTO of 1984,
which was based on the 308.) And the 599GTO was born.
GTO Then and Now
Although
much has changed since 1962, there are some fundamental similarities
between the legendary original and this revival. Both cars are
front-engine, rear-drive designs, and both have excellent weight
distribution, with essentially all of the powerplant’s mass riding
behind the front axle’s centerline. Both sport a small aero upkick on
the rear decklid, dubbed a “nolder.” Both cars are propelled by aluminum
V-12 engines, and both generate compelling noises as the revs climb
toward the redline. But of course there’s a little more muscle behind
the crescendos coming from the 599GTO’s quadruple tailpipes.
Fed
by six two-throat Weber carburetors—remember carburetors?—the 3.0-liter
SOHC V-12 that powered the original GTO was rated for 300 hp at 7400
rpm and 250 lb-ft of torque. Feeding power via a five-speed manual
gearbox to a limited-slip live rear axle, it was capable of a 5.8-second
run to 60 mph and a top speed of 144 mph.
This
was very hot stuff in the early ’60s and isn’t exactly slow even today.
But it’s tame compared with what happens when you set the new car’s manettino
(the steering-wheel-mounted dial that controls a number of vehicle
functions such as traction and stability control levels and shift
response) to “race” (the middle position of five) and summon all the
horses lurking under the 599GTO’s hood.
There
are 661 horses on hand in this version of the 599’s V-12, up from 612
in the 599GTB, and they come quickly when called. As the engine shrieks
its way to its 8400-rpm peak, you’re squashed into the racing-style
bucket seat, with each upshift through the six-speed gearbox giving an
extra little shove.
Split Second Defined
To understate things, those upshifts don’t take long. With a manettino
setting of race or higher, the single-clutch automated manual takes
just 60 milliseconds to go from one gear to the next, according to
Ferrari. That’s about twice as fast as the gearbox response in the GTB
Fiorano, and beyond the hand speed of any human operating a traditional
manual.
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The oversize shift paddles, which are fixed
to the steering column rather than rotating with the wheel, make
actuating cog swaps a pure joy, and you find yourself wishing there were
a few more gears. At the top end of sixth, flat out, the GTO will be
traveling at just over 208 mph, so maybe there are enough gears after
all.
Ferrari forecasts a 0-to-62-mph time
of 3.35 seconds, quicker than the Enzo. After considering power, mass,
phase of the moon, and position of the planets, our tech guys forecast
something a little quicker—3.1 seconds—since the GTB Fiorano we tested
in September 2008 made the sprint in 3.3.
Power Mining
The
GTO’s power increase over the GTB was achieved largely by improved
intake and exhaust flow, the latter carefully tuned to emit sounds that
are louder and distinctly more nourishing to the tifosi spirit. The howl of the GTO at full chat: fantastico!
Other
elements of the GTO V-12 include a new 180-degree (flat) crankshaft
design with throws designed to twirl more freely, extensive
friction-reducing measures that Ferrari says make it 12 percent more
efficient than the GTB’s V-12, and improved digital control of the
ignition system, which monitors and adjusts every combustion event.
Surprisingly, the profiles of the cam lobes are unchanged.
This
may sound like a lot of effort for a car whose production—which is
beginning as we speak—will be limited to 599 copies, but much of the
work had already been done for the more radical 599XX,
a car with no street-legal pretensions whatsoever. In XX trim, Ferrari
engineers have managed to extract 720 hp from the V-12. Elements of that
transformation compatible with contemporary emissions regulations were
used on the GTO project.
Benign Rocket
Anyway,
fast and powerful are traits you’d expect of a car wearing the storied
GTO badge. What you might not expect is how eagerly—and forgivingly—this
latest GTO applies that power and speed to a given stretch of straights
and curves. The fundamental mechanical elements of the dynamic upgrade
versus the standard 599GTB Fiorano and the more aggressive Handling Gran Turismo Evoluzione (HGTE)
version are stiffer spring rates and a heftier rear anti-roll bar.
There’s also more grip. Ferrari estimates about 1.25 g, thanks to bigger
contact patches from 285/30 front and 315/35 rear Michelin rubber made
from a new compound. These Pilot Super Sports are a little stickier than
the very sticky Pilot Sport Cups.
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The combination of more grip, standard (and
huge) carbon-ceramic rotors, and Brembo’s new ceramic pads yields superb
braking power, with ABS standing by should the driver overpower the
tires. During our visit to Italy’s fast 3.1-mile Mugello racetrack, a
couple of test drivers managed to jump on the brake pedal hard enough,
and at a high enough speed, to reach the ABS threshold. This author was
never in danger of having this occur, although I did feel my eyeballs
trying to dislodge themselves during a couple of late-braking episodes.
Manettino Magic
As
with the 599GTB, a set of auto-adjusting magnetorheological shock
absorbers provide wonderfully precise damping as well as astonishingly
comfortable ride quality on public roads. But the element that gives
this supercar an exceptional degree of user-friendliness is how well the
GTO takes care of its driver at high speeds via the five settings
offered by the manettino (Italian for “little hand”), that small dial mounted on the lower right corner of the steering-wheel center.
As
we said, the dial governs traction control, stability control, and
shift responses. Its lowest setting is for inclement conditions. Next is
sport, which raises the stability control threshold considerably. In
race, the threshold goes higher still, and shift time is reduced to that
magical 60 milliseconds. The next step cancels traction control, and
the final position shuts down all the electronic assistance.
This
last step is for those who are, yes, brave and accomplished but also
hold title to the car. I certainly didn’t qualify on the last part and
so confined myself to moving the manettino to the fourth click on
my final set of laps. At that level, the system allows a lot more
sliding around before it kicks in, but it ultimately steps in and
restores some sense of order.
The 599GTO
is a well-balanced package, almost as willing to change direction as the
mid-engine F430 or 430 Scuderia. There’s a hint of mild understeer,
easily corrected with the throttle, and if the steering isn’t quite as
tactile as that of some sports cars, it’s as accurate as a surgical
tool. What all this adds up to is a sporting machine of an exceedingly
high order, one that recently wrested Ferrari’s production-car lap
record at its 1.9-mile Fiorano test track from the Enzo, turning in a
time of 1:24.0 versus 1:25.0.
The Bottom Line
The
basic get-in for a 599GTB Fiorano is almost $317,000. Adding the HGTE
package costs just over $30,000. But that would still leave you a little
over 100 grand in your pocket against the 599GTO, at an estimated
$450,000. Does that seem high? The Enzo was some $200,000 north of that,
and the 29 copies of the 599XX went for $1.5 million each.
What
the 599 prospective GTO owners can look forward to is supercar
performance that matches the software wizardry of a car like the Nissan
GT-R, but without imposing robotic and passionless precision. The GTO
will take care of its driver to the extent the driver finds comfortable,
but its soul is omnipresent.
However, if your name isn’t on the list of future owners, these concerns don’t concern you. All 599 examples are already spoken for.
If this seems like favoritism, consider that no single Ferrari begins
its gestation without an owner’s name on the build sheet and that the
company began inviting carefully selected GTO prospects to visit its
headquarters in early January. So, yeah, it’s pretty much favoritism. View Photo Gallery
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