Ferrari FF Test Drive: The Fourth Dimension

This is truly a different Ferrari: the FF can fold the seats like a station wagon, carry four people and do controlled drifts in the snow. And at the same time, it creates new dimensions in the dynamics of the road.

Try to firmly press the index finger of one hand to the thumb. Now snap your fingers. No, we are not going to associate you with certain types of music and the corresponding rituals that are performed while listening to it. We're just trying to give you at least a vague idea of ​​how easy the new Ferrari is to launch from corners. The purebred Italian stallion, despite its own weight of 1,8 tons, seems light as a feather - the company's engineers have achieved something truly impressive.

Love at first sight

If you love to drive, you can't help but love the FF - even if the look of this car reminds you of fancy sports shoes. The truth is that the live model looks much better than the photo. Any doubts about Pininfarina's shapes are dispelled as soon as you come face to face with this impressive car with its typical branded fender flares, distinctive chrome front grille and wayward rear end contours.

Thanks to FF, the Ferrari brand reinvents itself without changing its ancient traditions. Here is what the head of the company, Luca di Montezemolo, says about this: “Sometimes it is important to break with the past. FF is the most revolutionary product we can and want to own right now.”

White square

Ferrari Four, abbreviated as FF. The essential thing behind this abbreviation is not so much the presence of four seats (and there are really so many of them), as, above all, the all-wheel drive system. Already at the March Geneva Motor Show, the system in question was demonstrated, and engineers from various companies fussed over the modern design, counting gears and questioning looks, wanting to know only one thing: does this miracle really work?

Si, certo - yes, of course! The red beast, as if destined to achieve the ideal trajectory of its movement, behaves in a turn as if it were moving along imaginary rails. The new steering system is extremely simple and requires minimal steering, even in tight corners. Drivers of the Ferrari 458 Italia already know this almost surreal feeling of driving. What they can't experience, however, is that Ferrari can now recreate near-perfect handling on slippery surfaces, including snow. It is only in long corners that the steering feels unnecessarily light. “We have already seen this,” Montezemolo laughs, “and we have taken care to increase the resistance of the government by ten percent.”

AI

Scuderia decided their technology would work without the front-to-rear center differential, which is typical of most AWD vehicles. The seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, typical of Ferrari, is based on the transmission principle and is integrated into a common unit with a rear torque vector differential, while the front wheels are driven by a pair of multi-plate clutches that are directly coupled to the engine's crankshaft. This so-called power transmission unit (or PTU for short) intervenes with the transmission only when there is a risk of loss of traction by the rear wheels. Which, by the way, happens quite rarely: 95 percent of the time the FF runs like a classic rear-wheel drive beast.

Thanks to an electronically controlled rear differential and PTU system equipped with two judges in wet carbon, the FF can continuously vary the traction transmitted to each of its four wheels. In this way, the tendency to excessive bending or dangerous bending is minimized, but if any of these tendencies are still present, ESP comes to the rescue.

The FF's weight distribution also creates strong preconditions for exceptional handling: 53 percent of the car's total weight is on the rear axle, and the center-front engine is mounted well behind the front axle. The mechanical training of this car is simply amazing, the Ferrari F1-Trac computer quickly calculates the thrust of the four wheels and masterfully distributes the power. Only when the front wheels touch the asphalt and the rear wheels are on asphalt with poor traction does the car show very little vibration.

Full of fun

A good, but terribly expensive toy, skeptics will say. But who cares about such things at Ferrari, which creates a new dimension in the behavior of sports cars on the road? Driving with the accelerator pedal has been interpreted in a qualitatively new way. If you hit the right moment, the FF will be able to pull you out of any corner at breakneck speed, without even the slightest danger of instability. In fact, the car can do it so quickly that everyone instinctively reaches out to turn the steering wheel a little. The car's monstrous power naturally doesn't come by itself - the new 660-horsepower twelve-cylinder engine accelerates at speeds that could almost hurt your cervical spine, and its sound is like the anthem of the Italian motor industry.

We are entering the tunnel! We open the windows, gas on sheet metal - and here the spectacular performance of twelve pistons floods the radiant heavy aroma of genuine leather. By the way, atypical for Italians, the latter is well done.

The FF roared loudly twice, and on late stopping before a corner, the Getrag transmission returned from fourth to second gear by milliseconds; the red shift indicator flashes nervously when the tachometer needle reaches 8000.

Adult boy toy wants to go crazy. But the pilot has another, no less interesting alternative. We switch four steps higher - even at 1000 rpm 500 of the maximum 683 Nm are available - the distribution of thrust in different operating modes is almost like a turbo engine. However, the FF engine does not have a turbocharger; instead, he swallows huge portions of fresh air with an enviable appetite - like an Italian who eats his favorite pasta. At 6500 rpm, the FF reacts with the fury typical of naturally aspirated engines of this caliber and behaves like an enraged king cobra during an attack.

The rest doesn't matter

The 6,3-liter V12 shines not only with its power; Although it is 120 horsepower more powerful than its 5,8-liter predecessor in the Scaglietti model, it now has 20 percent lower Euro standard fuel consumption: 15,4 liters per 100 kilometers. There is also a start-stop system. In fact, real Ferraris would prefer to tell such stories to their wives - they themselves are unlikely to be particularly interested in such details.

Sensations in FF are available for up to four people. They can all be placed in comfortable single seats, have fun with the multimedia entertainment system if you wish and, above all, be happy to test how a supercar like the FF can soak up road imperfections with Mercedes expertise – thanks to a finely tuned chassis with adaptive dampers. . Let's not forget about the large amount of luggage that can be collected in the cargo hold.

The only question that remains is: is it worth paying 258 euros for such a car? It's amazing how FF works, the answer is short and clear - si, certo!

text: Alexander Bloch

a photo: Hans-Dieter Zeufert

Snowmobile mode

Take a closer look at this photo: Ferrari in the snow ?! Until recently, this was less common than beach tourists on the shores of Antarctica.

However, thanks to the new 4RM all-wheel drive system and the PTU module responsible for the front axle, the FF has impressive grip, even on slippery surfaces. The Manettino button now even has a dedicated Snow mode for the safest movement in adverse conditions. If you just want to have some fun, you can move the slider to the Comfort or Sport position and enjoy the FF floats in the snow with elegant flow.

The heart of this dual transmission system is called PTU. Using its two gears and two clutch discs, the PTU synchronizes the rpm of the two front wheels with the first four gears in the transmission. The first PTU gear covers the first and second gears of the transmission, and the second gear covers the third and fourth gears, respectively. At higher transmission speeds, the vehicle is considered to no longer require additional traction assistance.

technical details

Ferrari FF
Working volume	-
Power	660 k.s. at 8000 rpm
Maximum torque	-
Acceleration 0-100 km / h	3,7 with
Braking distances at a speed of 100 km / h	-
full speed	335 km / h
Average consumption fuel in the test	15,4 l
Base Price	258 200 euro