575M-GTC

The new 575M-GTC.

http://dotm1.net/t.asp?l=34888&i=13106526

shrug your shoulders slightly. Make a tight little unforgiving line with your mouth and prepare for the worst. We've pootled through town in this 575 GTC and felt its firmness on this new suspension set-up within the first few hundred yards, using buttocks and spines as entirely unscientific test equipment. We've hit the hills, got a bit carried away and are approaching a buttock-clenching, off-camber corner slightly too quickly in second, hard on the brakes.

Thing is, Highway Maintenance Italia hasn't been paying all that much attention to these digestive-tract loops of hillside road and all that fills the vision is a dirty great subsidence dip just at the apex. Too late to change line without coming off the brakes and, unfortunately, too much speed to come off the brakes without becoming something Highway Maintenance will have to scrape out of the valley below with a spade - so it's wince and prepare for the front suspension to part company.

Which, surprisingly, it doesn't. There's a fair old thump and a bit of flailing on my part as the predicted uni-axle 575 fails to materialise, but the GTC just keeps on trucking, protesting operatically about the lack of third gear. The predicted destruction of the suspension didn't happen, the 575's over-firmness melting away with a little bit of added speed and aggression. Pretty cool going for a big (1,730kg) GT. First thing to do when I get back is have my bottom recalibrated.

The 575 GTC has been conceived for those owners who might want to attempt a track day or two without having to buy another car, or simply for those who want to make a point to other 575 owners. The kind of point that comes with two digits. Basically the GTC 'Handling', to give the full name, addresses specific parts of the 575 to try and give it a bit more sauce if you aren't doing heavy touring miles.

It includes a specially developed carbon-ceramic brake package - the composite material discs look a bit like heavy-grain sandpaper - as well as red calipers. There's a full GTC suspension set-up, including spring rates increased at both ends (although by different amounts) and a 73-per-cent stiffer rear anti-roll bar. That tighter suspension control is planted into the road via lighter 19-inch split rims and Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyres - the ones sticky enough to catch flies on. The F1 'box is quicker and the exhaust has been lightened and loosened to give a 50-per-cent weight reduction over standard, and more low-frequency noise. Faster, harder, louder. We like the theory.

It adds up to a car that's only a smidgen faster on paper, but with much more real-world ability. Turn-in is sharper, body control more acute and actual grip deliciously balanced between slight nose-heaviness and languid oversteer. The brakes never fade, and only produce a bit of scratchy noise after several really heavy laps on track. It seems set up to batter the average British backroad into submission without blinking. These Italian backroads are, frankly, crap, and it's brave of Ferrari to let us loose in such a potentially compromising environment - but it turns out to be a wise move.
leash a bit and that firmness doesn't translate to harshness, the damping getting going when it has more of the car's weight and momentum to compress the springy bits into action. It helps that it sounds faster, the lighter exhaust allowing a chestier roar to gambol after you through the green-and-pleasant like some sort of pet soundwave. It doesn't sing like the smaller capacity V8 in the 360, which is a shame, but it does provide enough aural stimulation for cyclists to pull over and hooligans to pay respect.

Talking of hooliganism, there's one way of demonstrating the 575 GTC's less restrained vibes. Step one: roll to a stop and disengage ASC traction control. Step two: left foot on the brake pedal. Step three: pull the right-hand paddle to select first. You won't get the usual '1' numeral on the screen in the instrument cowl. You'll get a much more interesting 'L1'. Or 'Launch Programme One'. Hurrah. Dial in the revs and step off the brake.

The result is a full-bore start, a screamer of a launch as the F1-style clutch snaps shut without the usual gradation for smoothness. The GTC retains some squat at the rear, those Pirellis squirm a fair bit when they're hot and there's a fair amount of Starsky & Hutch about the launch attitude - but I have to say it's one of the better moments in my life. It's always best to dial in just a few too many revs, just to give that authentic tyre-stripe getaway, and Ferrari recommends not to repeat the process in quick succession, lest you grenade the clutch and begin picking pieces of bellhousing out of your shins.

Ferrari's engineers have resisted the urge to go too far with this car, kept some semblance of usability and provided the package at a reasonable price. It's not some cheap stick-on machismo swamped in Burberry and splashed with CK One. This is a gentleman who knows how to look after himself. OK, I know that there's the small matter of an extra sixteen-odd thousand bills if you count taxes, but if you're shopping at the mansion end of the scale you shouldn't really be bothered about what it costs to heat the second swimming pool.

Tom Ford


Model: Ferarri 575M GTC
Rating: 16 out of 20
We say: Takes the 575 to another level. Surprising value for money as well, given the component parts of the transformation.
Price: £179,650
On your drive for: £4,405pcm
Performance: 0-62mph in 4.2 seconds, 202mph top speed, 12.9mpg (combined)
Tech: 5748cc V12, RWD, 508bhp, 434lb ft, 1730kg, 499 g/km C02