Category: Exotic Sports 
Price Range: £197,673 to £197,673
Hugely fast with sensational acceleration; enormous grip with foolproof, friendly handling and fine feedback; looks terrific and sounds even better; good ride and great usability
Handbrake needs a hefty tug; some early build-quality glitches on test car; will be very expensive
Here's the ultimate front-engined supercar, a car that makes a Mercedes SLR McLaren feel aloof and clumsy. Quicker than an F40 yet a hundredth as frightening, the 599 GTB is a towering achievement, a new benchmark and the fastest-accelerating car we have ever driven on the road
Approx £170,000. On sale in UK October
We'll begin with the head-not-heart section.
The 599 is clearly beautifully built out of expensively engineered parts and it looks as good under the bonnet with its crackle-finish cam covers and intake pipes as it does in the cabin, where leather and carbonfibre collide in a meeting of function and luxury.
But there are a few snags that may well have been confined to our early test car (chassis number 165 according to the prominent underbonnet plate). The handbrake wouldn't hold on a hill without a huge tug; the electric window switches were easily displaced from their mountings in the doors; there was a buzz behind the driver's head; the seats creaked; and a rubber bonnet seal became displaced as we reached the limit of our speed-daring on the autostrada near Maranello. Details, all easily remedied.
As for reliability, this is a complex car but a very thoroughly engineered one. The chain-cam engine will be less of a worry than the previous-generation belt-drive unit and the previous nightmare of F1-shift Ferraris, a fragile clutch, shouldn't be a problem now. Its twin-plate design runs cooler and will consequently last longer.
