The Ferrari FF has Spunk and a Trunk

By Brian Melton

Driving the all-new 2012 Ferrari FF is akin to what being Superman must feel like. Perfectly well-mannered and civilized one second, then -- whammo! -- effortlessly flying through fiery meteor storms the next.

OK, so Maranello, Italy's latest supercar might not be able to handle flaming debris from outer space. But thanks to the combination of an innovative all-wheel drive system and advanced traction management, the FF easily handles what previous über-horsepowered rear-wheel drive Ferraris couldn't: torrential rain and snow.

View photos

As tested, our FF

As tested, our FF came in at $375,000. Our heartfelt thanks to Enver Kaba and

Nathan Dunning of Boardwalk Ferrari, who didn't call the police to report this huge slice of heaven as stolen when we drove it away with a giant you-know-what grin on our face.

Boardwalk Ferrari Plano

6300 International Parkway

Plano

972-447-5200

www.boardwalk

ferrari.com

Hang on, you say. This super ride looks heroic from the front and sides, but why does it have the profile of a...gulp...wagon? Has Ferrari lost its collective mind?

Well, if it has, what a way to go. The FF two-door is a four-wheel-drive four-seater, thus the appellation FF, for "Ferrari Four," which combines the peculiar European penchant for hatchbacky-wagons with the practicality of all-wheel drive, while keeping every bit of Ferrari's famed howling performance intact. The result is a road-scorcher that has you begging your better half to let you do the grocery shopping for a change because now you have a direct-injected, 6.3-liter V12 race car with 651-horsepower and an honest-to-goodness trunk.

Die-hard Ferraristas will no doubt recoil from the FF's hatchback profile, but give them two seconds behind the wheel and they'll get over it. The FF is all Ferrari, with swoopy headlights, cheerfully grinning maw and prancing horse logo. Huge power, crisp handling, supple leather-everything comfort, well-thought-out interior with room for 6-footers in the back (who sort of fall into place but, once there, complaineth not) -- it's all there, with absolutely no compromise. The justly famous "manettino" switch on the steering wheel, descended from Formula 1 racing, confirms the FF's AWD status: settings include Comfort, Sport, Track, Snow and Wet. All that power through all those wheels justifies what we're calling the OMG console handles, which the fainthearted can grasp for dear life through curves.

Gearheads will revel in the V12's placement behind the front axle, which distributes the FF's weight much like a mid-engine design and accounts for the vehicle's remarkable stability and grip. The seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox sits at the car's rear, helping achieve the FF's pretty-much-perfect 47/53 percent front-to-rear weight distribution. Interestingly, a second transmission with reverse and two forward gears sits at the engine's front, making the FF's revolutionary four-wheel drive system so revolutionary. The company's literature blathers on about technology-driven gear ratios and friction-reducing blah blah blah, but bottom line, it works, delivering enormous torque to all four tires that move the 4,100-pound FF from zero to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds.

Unlike most vehicles that claim to do everything well but rarely deliver the goods, the FF does everything exquisitely. And then there's that Ferrari-only bark under power -- sheer heaven.

The knuckleheads in Italy's government could do their country a big favor by handing over the reins of power to Ferrari. After all, if the tecnica guidata (technical wizards) in Maranello can build the world's greatest two-door, four-passenger wagon in the history of mankind, they can surely fix that whole debt mess, and probably in under 3.5 seconds, too.

Brian Melton is a Dallas-based freelance writer who regularly writes about fast cars for Indulge.

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