Ferrari FF: PH Fleet

Chris puts his money where his mouth is (again) with the four-wheel drive Ferrari

Spring yields strange behaviour in many creatures - from the leaping hare to the newborn lamb intent on drowning itself in an inch of water, but none is weirder that than the human car addict. The sun comes out for an hour and the sensible winter belt-tightening is lost in a flash. Well, it would be if you hadn't bought a bloody supercharged Range Rover in November.

Probably not the average FF luggage...

I was in Swindon at a chess tournament the other Saturday with my eldest son. The blazing sun outside made it especially unbearable, so during the lunch break I suggested to him that we should go and drive a Ferrari fitted with seats in the back. "Okay" he said, cheerily, and with a generous Haribo incentive, off we trotted.

Fifteen minutes later we were barrelling along some Wiltshire A-road, me rather smitten with the FF, he grinning in the back. The finance papers beckoned.

Is there something wrong with me at the moment? Almost certainly.

I have about me a definite sense of needing to tick boxes, to seek-out and complete experiences, especially motoring ones. I first looked at an FF last September but couldn't make the numbers stack-up. This time they just about did. Mercedes had just asked for the C63 back, its replacement was a season or two away and I thought to myself "If I look back in twenty years time and regret not running an FF for a short while, that will be sad."

... or destination for that matter!

I'll keep the car until the middle, or perhaps the end of the summer. The car is in Tour de France blue with a tan leather interior. In the pictures I didn't like the cabin colour, wanting a more caramel leather, but therein lies the conundrum with the two-year-old Ferrari FF: I could have my chosen colour if I specced a new car for £280,000 (the cost of this one new) or live with the tan for mid-£150K and just six thousand miles. I now rather like the tan, too. The car is also fitted with the standard wheels, which I think far more dignified than the fussy 21-inch options and it has clear glass all-around. I think privacy glass completely ruins the FF's shape.

The car itself is, after 900 miles and three weeks, rather more than I'd hoped it would be. I ran a 612 Scaglietti a few years back and fell for its charm, speed, impregnable high-speed stability and spaciousness. I expected the FF to be a little more of everything, with some added boot besides, but to use on UK roads in inclement spring weather, the FF is something quite special.

I collected it on a weekday afternoon and had arranged a smash-and-grab mission to climb Snowdon the following day with a friend called Charles who as has much interest in cars as I do in Association Football. So a 5.30am start and concerted zoom through Wales seemed like the perfect baptism. The FF is very comfortable for front passengers. The seats are large and cleverly bolstered, the heaters are industrial but still operated by fiddly rotary switches down by your hips. The standard sound system is good, but nothing more.

And the other new addition to the Harris fleet

The FF is very fast - much quicker than the 612. Much quicker than an F12 too; on a damp morning with temperatures dipping to zero, the combination of manageable, naturally aspirated torque, all-wheel-drive and a dual-clutch gearbox are unbeatable. You rarely have to rev the 6,262cc V12 beyond 6,000rpm to pass slower traffic, and even though the temptation is great, sustained effort in second and third gears is just too much for the public road.

The FF's 4WD system is terribly complicated, with a separate gearbox running ahead of the engine, and it doesn't feel conventionally 4WD on the road. The traction aid is there, but on one occasion on a slippery overtake the car went very sideways before any torque reached the front axle, or the electronics leaped into life. To me the torque-split and apportioning of drive front-to-rear feels quite R34 Skyline GT-R: in other words more rear drive with a safety net should you need it.

Practical enough for climbing mountains too

So is the FF just too much to enjoy? Absolutely not - I'll explain why in a mo, first I want to tell you that in late February you need crampons to reach the summit of Snowdon - items we didn't have. You should also ascend via the Pyg, descend on the Miners and approach tackling the formidable Crib Goch like you would a damp December jaunt in a BMW 2002 Turbo on shot rubber. It's about five hours up-and-back (we didn't go anywhere near Crib) if you take it easy and stop to enjoy the views. I met a man called Ben who stripped 100m below the top and gave a Tarzan yodel.

The drive home was excellent. Charles was so excited by the a 660hp, 1,790kg, four-seat Ferrari that he fell asleep, so I listened to 'A night with Blowers' on CD and made time. There are two limits to the FF's cross-country speed, a social conscience and width. It's vast, the steering is quick and requires familiarity, so you can't quite thread it on smaller B-roads. Oh, and on UK roads you have to flick the dampers into 'bumpy road' mode. Then the ride is good, a little firmer than a CLS 63.

Spot the missing centre cap!

Placing all of the controls on the steering wheel is a killer for a single-day's test, but I am now a complete convert of the indicators, wipers and main-beam being located there. The double-din sat-nav is a little ugly, but surprisingly helpful. The USB socket is hidden behind a cheap and fiddly blanking plate on the fascia, which is lazy, although there's a second hidden in the cubby ahead of the passenger's face.

I haven't sat in the back yet, but Mrs. H says it's spacious and comfortable and all the little ones squawk with joy, to the extent that they have yet to ask for the rear screens to be switched on. I've always wondered what it would take to make them ignore car-tellys, and it would seem 660hp is the answer.

The boot isn't quite as big as I'd hoped because the fuel tank sits bang in the middle of it. Seats-up, it's not much bigger than an F12, but fold them flat and the FF will happily take my mountain bike. Last Friday I took my new Orange Five RS to the fabulous Bike Park Wales, wobbled around like a loser, loaded back up and waddled home again. It was about as good a day out as I could imagine right now.

What's the plan with the car? Not to keep it for that long, to use it properly, maybe 4-5,000 miles and enjoy its practicality and sense of specialness.

Chris even likes the wheel controls now

That's the answer to the earlier question: the FF is a fantastically special car to knock about in. Even at a motorway potter it's an event. In blue, people respond very well to its sheer size. But perhaps most importantly, the dual-clutch transmission makes it a breeze in traffic, where the 612's F1 paddles were largely unpleasant and even the 599 was a pain. Of course the V12 is outrageous (Castle Combe saw 120dB at 7,000rpm, static) but like so many modern fast cars, the FF is defined by its transmission. Its usability means it gets used more often and this isn't the type of car which benefits from making the driver do too much. It doesn't need to be a challenge.

Money is the final section - and this time I'm going to furnish you with most, but not all of the facts. It'll make the exit less emotionally damaging than the 599 experience, and should fuel some good forum conspiracy theories. I paid something more than 150, something less than 160. The deposit would buy you a new Cayman and the monthly payments are around £1,400 per month. It's going to be expensive, but from the moment I first saw an FF I've wanted one, and if it costs me several thousand to do so, then so be it. What's the point of working all-hours if you don't tick boxes?

FACT SHEET
Car: 2012 Ferrari FF
Bought: February 2014
Mileage: 6,900
Purchase price: See above!
Last month at a glance: Three weeks in and Chris's FF is already exceeding expectations.

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Noe

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312 months