Exterior.

Is it a station wagon? Is it a BMW Z3 Coupe with a creatine habit?   It’s actually a shooting brake, a coupe wagon hatchback concoction popularized by the Brits back in the day.  The shooting brake is the format of aftermarket modders that have their hands on a Corvette or M2.  But a factory Ferrari?  Who are we to judge.  It’s also beautiful, in an incredibly ugly kind of way, if you get our drift.  It’s not pretty in any one particular part, but the parts come together in a past perfect future kind of assembly.  Its attractiveness comes from its oddity.

Interior.

This is common CCC ground here.  It’s all very Ferrari.  Natural hides cover most all surfaces, controls are simply designed and everything is driver centric.  It also has a collection of Ferrari weirdness, like a little compartment in the passenger dash just big enough for a phone to plug in and these little aluminum-tipped arms that extend out of the rear seat to hand the seatbelt to those in the front seats.  The most unique thing in the interior are the two seats in the back.  This 2+2 GT supercar car will fit for adults.  Amazing.

The Drive.

We’ve always liked Ferraris, but we never loved them.  We’ve found mid-engined V8 Ferraris to be a touch nervous and twitchy with throttle response akin to an on/off switch.  The FF keeps all of that Ferrari feel, but lengthens it and smooths it out.  The revs build more smoothly over a longer squeeze of the throttle.  Down shifts come with a bit more of a varoooom blip and even the acceleration is smoothed out, yet no less breathtaking.

The Engine.

It has a whole extra four cylinders! Mounted up front than behind our heads, as we’re used to, the 382 cubic inch V12 engine produces an astonishing 651 horses.  It’s a monster, but it sings La Triviata.  The 7-speed dual clutch gearbox is familiar and Ferrari.  

The 4-wheel drive system.

Who knows.  We didn’t have a real world use for it on the dry spring roads, but that it simply works is enough for us.  Ferrari when to great lengths to get as much weight as low in the car as possible, resulting in an achingly complicated four wheel system that we won’t even get into in this short review.  More on that later, when ice racing comes into season.

Summary

Ferrari seems to have high and low eras.  The always colorful Jeremy Clarkson will say when Ferrari is wining in F1, their road cars are crap.  When the road car is a winner, their grand prix team a loser.  But last weekend, Ferrari mounted the top two steps in Monaco and we think the FF is one of the best Fezzas we’ve ever introduced to the fleet, so the trend is bucked.  What’s more is you can take a classic Ferrari excursion and do it with three friends, as opposed to the custom solo passenger seat.  There’s room for everyone’s bags too, so what’s not to love?