"HOW GOOD IS IT?", is probably what you're asking. To give you an initial idea, I doubt I'd kena any lightning bolts from heaven for comparing a drive in the 599 GTB Fiorano to having a religious experience. Come to think of it, I could actually go as far as saying that Ferrari's gone and done what all my old catechism teachers nominally failed to do, again with lightning bolt impunity.

The reason for all this is quite simply because the 599 fundamentally embodies why car nuts like cars. It speaks to petrolheads on a deeply, deeply primal level, like the way identical concentrations of salt in seawater and blood might be the reason why people are drawn to the ocean. There's profundity in every curve of its body, in every aspect of the all-aluminium construction. And in the 599's Enzo-derived heart, there's pure mechanical poetry.

The 599, quite literally, moves you, and there'd have to be something quite wrong for you to fail to register even a fraction of all this.

The new car replaces the long-serving 575 Maranello, slotting in between the 612 Scaglietti and the F430 in the Ferrari line-up. GTB stands for Gran Turismo Berlinetta, and hearkens to an illustrious line of similarly named Ferrari grand touring cars. The name Fiorano comes from Ferrari's famous test circuit, located in the factory's backyard, and emphasises the road car division's close links with the Formula One team.

The 599's platform is shared with the 612's, as is the basic styling. But the former is much more sculpted, its overall form more purposefully honed. There's both naked, muscular aggression and a delicate litheness that make you want to think up a few Lewis Carroll-esque portmanteaux to do the shape justice.

Numerous aerodynamic aids break up the surface treatment, the most notable of which are the pair of flying buttresses that double as an extra pair of C-pillars. These were initially mooted by the styling department, simply because the designers thought they'd look cool (and they do, achingly so in fact) but then the engineers discovered that the buttresses actually add 40 kilogrammes of downforce. Handy, that.

The car is also crammed to the gills with technology, but with everything focused on enhancing the driving experience, rather than on protecting the driver from himself, which is a welcome departure from most manufacturer norms. For example, the dampers use a special fluid that changes viscosity electromagnetically so they respond quicker, and the traction control system puts the ESP into Electronic Stability Programmes, the result of which is you end up thinking that you're a much fancier driver than you actually are.

DRIVING IT

The engineers and test drivers all give knowing smiles as I clamber out of the 599's deep bucket seat after three brief laps around Ferrari's Fiorano circuit, breathless, giddy, hands trembling slightly from the sheer, electrifying rush.

In actual fact, those three laps were probably the clumsiest I've ever felt in a car. Fiorano is hugely technical and you need a few months, let alone three short laps, to learn it properly. And it's tight, under three kilometres long, and run-off areas are in woefully short supply, very intimidating considering the 599's 620bhp and sub-12 second 0-200km/h time. It also didn't help that I'd just been given a taxi ride by the man responsible for setting the 599?s Fiorano lap record. So no pressure, really.

On the road, where the 599's outright performance is tempered by real world driving considerations, things are much, much better. It flatters the driver no end, tightly wrapping you in swathes of dynamic ability, and imparting a sense of implacability that I've not felt in any other road car. Put that down to F1-Trac, Ferrari's new traction control system, with software so smart that the car knows before it loses grip, subtly applying corrective measures that encourage you to think that you can actually drive.

Turn-in response feels like its tuned to your nerve endings, with front-end grip in seemingly limitless supply. And all the while the car is alive beneath you, sending you reams of information subtly filtered through seat and steering wheel. Hard acceleration makes the 599 shimmy, which isn't a reflection of chassis stiffness. It's more an explosive girding of the loins, as if the car's tensing its muscles in anticipation of the lunge for the next corner.

Balance and poise are otherworldly. And so is the monstrous punch. The 599 takes one glance at a series of tight corners on narrow mountain roads, with dizzying camber changes, and swallows them whole.

Long straights don't exist in the 599's particular corner of the space-time continuum, and to ruffle the car's composure on the street or even attempt a run on its 320km/h plus maximum speed, you'd have to be either clinically insane, or possessed of the skills of a Ferrari test driver. Or CarBuyer's publisher, whose record-breaking run was stymied only because the increasing wideness of his grin was making it difficult for him to keep his eyes open. The 599's carbon brakes are neck-snappingly powerful, too, so stopping isn't a problem.

The noise the 599 makes is astonishing, and worth the asking price alone. The Enzo-derived engine revs to a stratospheric 8,400rpm, incredible for something with a 6.0-litre capacity, and with little discernible flywheel effect, the hallmark of a racecar engine. A six-speed manual gearbox is offered but most will go for Ferrari's improved F1-derived semi-automatic gearbox. Shift times drop to 100 milliseconds in maximum attack mode, with each gear rammed home to the accompaniment of a thoroughly exciting gunshot sound effect.

Although it'd require vast reserves of self-restraint to drive it slowly, the 599 actually trickles along nicely at low speed, the steering is light, and the suspension almost luxuriously pliant in ice or low grip modes. In fully automatic mode, the gearbox works very well, too.

INSIDE IT

You'd think that getting in a Ferrari is a heady enough experience, but when the cabin air is perfumed by the scent of leather, carbon fibre resin and glue, it's doubly so.
The basic cabin architecture will be familiar if you've spent time in Ferrari's flagship 612 Scaglietti, but there are subtle differences. The instrument cluster and climate control system are the same, but the 599's cabin is more intimate overall, and much more business-like.

It's still extremely cosseting, though. And the seats, carbon fibre buckets that adjust every which way, are perfect. Leather and carbon fibre smother every surface, but you can mix and match interior trim with virtual abandon.

Ferrari says that each car they build is tailored to owners' specifications so each one is unique. Everything feels lovely to the touch, but fit and finish speak strongly of the car's hand-made construction, an insignificant matter really as this is probably the only marque where you willingly, almost enthusiastically in fact, forgive any wonky trim. In fairness also, the cars we drove were pre-production models, the actual owner's cars should be fine.

The LCD display in the instrument cluster is also found on the 612 but the 599's unit incorporates a host of new information readouts that correspond to different manettino settings. For example, in Race mode, the display shows a lap timer that you can trigger via buttons mounted behind the steering wheel. In Low Grip mode, the screen shows tyre temperatures and pressures.

DOLLARS AND SENSE

The Ferrari badge alone ensures an asking price that's out of reach to most, and the 599 will likely list for a shade under a million dollars here. However, factoring into account the driving experience, which borders on the sublime in a religious sense, makes a million dollars practically bargain basement.

Still, all this is moot as if you haven't already put your name down for one, chances are you're in for a bit of a wait. Singapore's allocation stands at about five cars a year, and there are over 30 orders in the bag...

CONCLUSION

The new best car in the world. 'Nuff said.

PLUSES

Warp-speed pace, astonishing dynamic ability, styling, intoxicating engine note could be used to signal onset of Armageddon

MINUSES

Are you nuts? Oh, we can't afford one

VERDICT

Everything car nuts love about performance cars in a one sublimely honed package, and driving one should top your list of things to do before you die. Incredible

NEED TO KNOW

Model Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano (A)
Engine 5,999cc, 48v V12
Max Power 620bhp at 7,600rpm
Max Torque 608Nm at 5,600rpm
Gearbox 6-speed semi-automatic
Top Speed in excess of 320km/h
0-100 km/h 3.7 seconds
Price $TBA
Warranty TBA
Contact Hong Seh Motors at 6266-1555

SIMILAR CARS WE HAVE DRIVEN

Er...
HOW THE 599 MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN ACTUALLY DRIVE...

Engine
The all-aluminium 6.0-litre 620bhp V12 is virtually the same as the unit powering the limited edition Enzo supercar, excepting the modifications made to accommodate the 599's front-engined rear-wheel drive layout. Other bits and pieces have been changed, but the differences are minor and are due to fuel efficiency and driveability considerations.

Specific power output is 103bhp per litre, which puts this engine ahead of any other naturally aspirated unit of similar displacement, and maximum torque is 608Nm. It revs to a stratospheric 8,400rpm, and sounds absolutely incredible. According to powertrain development guru, Jean-Jacques His, special attention was paid to the engine note, particularly with regards to selective frequency enhancement and the attenuation of unwanted resonance.

Gearbox
Ferrari has redeveloped its Formula One-derived semi-automatic transmission, now called F1-SuperFast. The actual gearshifts now overlap the operations of opening and closing the clutch so they're much quicker. The total operation time is dependent on how much of a hooligan you feel, in full-on, red-mist mode, gearshifts take just 100 milliseconds to complete, as compared to 250ms for the 575 Maranello and 150ms for the F430.

F1-Trac
Instead of going the E-Diff route as it did with the F430, Ferrari decided that an advanced traction control system would be better suited to the character of the 599. With "just" 495bhp, an electronic differential delivers all the control and performance an F430 driver could conceivably need. The 599's 620bhp output, however, and the fact that it also functions as a GT in addition to being an out and out sportscar, necessitated a more overarching solution, F1-Trac.

F1-Trac is arguably the most sophisticated solution of its kind. Basically, the system gathers reams of information from a host of different sensors to determine exactly how much grip is available. The car then compares this information to a hardwired vehicle dynamics model. In a nutshell, the Fiorano pretty much knows how fast it should theoretically be capable of going at any given moment in time, on any corner or bend, and on any type of road surface.

It can therefore predict if a driver's inputs are about to compromise grip in any way, applying the appropriate intervention measures to bring reality closer to the parameters of the vehicle dynamics model. In fact, the system shaves 1.5 seconds off the lap time around Ferrari's Fiorano test circuit.

The 599's manettino settings control F1-Trac intervention, in Ice or Wet mode, a conventional Acceleration Skid Reduction or ASR-type traction control system operates. In Sport or Race mode, F1-Trac takes over.

Suspension
Ferrari has developed an enhanced version of Delphi's magnetorheological damper system, a more basic version of which is used by the Chevrolet Corvette.

Instead of using a complicated system of valves and actuators to control damper settings, Ferrari employs a special fluid that changes viscosity and hence damper stiffness when an electromagnetic field is applied to it. Less complicated in terms of the actual mechanicals, and much, much quicker in terms of response time over conventional oleodynamic adaptive damping systems.