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patrick_y
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Test Drive; Ferrari 599 GTB

I had the pleasure of driving my first Ferrari recently, the Ferrari 599 GTB. Allow me to say that the car is very beautiful, the interior is top notch, and overall the car is a modern marvel.

I have a very informal, disorganized, and very concise itemized review of the Ferrari 599 GTB. Should you have any specific questions, feel free to inquire.

Some specifics;
Engine; very good linear power response, is designed to stay in the high rpms, when you're on the highway, you'll probably leave it in 5th gear even while doing 80 mph because of the higher horsepower and torque at the higher RPMs. In around town driving you rarely leave 3rd gear, RPMs are around 4000 range (and the car feels very comfortable in this RPM range). The car really has tremendous power, downshift a gear to accelerate and before you know it, you're already at 100 mph. There's also series of shift lights on the steering wheel that light up progressively once the RPMs hit the higher range.

Transmission; this is the most daunting part about the car, the transmission isn't exactly always consistently smooth. This car has a dual clutch system and is not like the dual clutch system on other cars such as the Audi TT DSG nor the BMW M3 DKG where the gearshifts are buttery smooth. Some of these gearshifts are longer than expected, some are quick, some are smooth, some are jerky; the car was driven with the "Manettino" switch in "SPORT" mode. The control offered by this system is excellent; you are often looking at the tachometer with the transmission gear displayed within it. I hardly ever looked at the speedometer, I only looked at RPMs and gear range.

Suspension; surprisingly comfortable, I would say more comfortable than even some Mercedes-Benz sedans that I've been in.

Steering; excellent weight, excellent communication, a little bit softer dead center than a Porsche with a very tiny bit of play or wiggle room on center. Overall, a good ratio; but since I wasn't driving in really windy roads, I couldn't determine the full merits of the steering.

Brakes; excellent, fade free, superb pedal feedback, and just fantastic brakes. No faults whatsoever.

Comfort; the car seems to be designed for larger people than myself, sitting in the car wasn't especially comfortable since the seat size seemed to be too big. I understand that some Ferrari cars come with larger seats for taller people. It is possible the car I test drove was equipped with larger seats. The car also has adjustable bolster support, which could have helped me feel more comfortable in the seat. The seating position is not as natural feeling as one in a Porsche for a person of my stature, furthermore, the blindspot on the driver's side prohibited me from seeing anything when I turned my head for merging.

Should any of you have specific questions, feel free to inquire. I've driven several cars from Porsche, Maserati Coupe Cambiocorsa, Aston Martin V8 Vantage, so I may be able to provide opinions in a comparison. This is the first time I've ever driven a Ferrari car.

Overall, I'm very happy with my Ferrari experience, but I'm not super-impressed. The car takes a lot longer to get used to than other cars, for instance I've driven Maseratis and Porsches which I was acclimated with very quickly and started driving those cars very vigorously in less than five minutes. With this Ferrari, despite a 15 minute drive, I still wasn't fully able to understand its behavior except for in straight-line acceleration. Personally, I was actually more impressed with the Tesla Roadster!

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