My Ferrari F50 driving impressions (long!)

Well I managed to do something I've wanted to do since I was 16 - I took out a Ferrari F50 for a drive and I just wanted to share my driving impressions –it’s probably the most exciting and visceral car I’ve ever driven so I had to record my feelings as much for myself as the others members of f-chat.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect (and in the UK, that's rare) and the owner only uses the car in the open configuration. So on a hot Summer day with the roof off, I couldn't ask for more. I really couldn't.
So you ease yourself over the wide door sill which sensibly has a bit of rubber padding in the area you're bound to scuff the carbon. The first thing that hits you is the absence of gimmicks…..especially that lovely small mid-90's Ferrari steering wheel which has no buttons, no mannetinos or other electro-tat. The driving position is literally perfect, with CGT-esque floor mounted clutch action and a plate to support your heels to move the pedals…. No frills, no tat and also not finished in the insultingly cheap way of the F40…. The cabin exudes racing quality... whereas the F40 always just felt **** IMO.... The seats are the most comfortable buckets I've ever been in and more focused than the sports seats in the newer Ferraris.
Turn key, wait for dash (which is all electronic with two needles for revs/rpm) to light up, press start button and it catches. And boy does it catch. This car had the full Tubi gear from front to back (more on that later) and after spluttering and coughing it virtually explodes and settles into a highly strung, slightly agricultural, MASSIVE idle.
Got it warmed up (and the idle sound still hasn't quieten-ed down much), I used the Carrera GT technique of idling off the line to learn the clutch action.....there's something very pleasing about the drivetrains of non-F1 Ferraris which even on the hardcore cars make them very easy to drive. Unlike the CGT it's not a grabby clutch and you can give it a few revs (which you don't need to do) to get it off the line.
Right... gently pick up the throttle...and here's where it shows it's age. Coming out of CGT and a load of other ECU actuated throttles, the F50 doesn't have the switch-like instantaneous-ness of response of these other cars. I was told they have a mechanical throttle linkage…. It’s quite a forgiving setup as you can be a bit hamfisted and don’t need to be quite so sensitive. Get it rolling and in the first 30 seconds you realise it’s instantly a much easier car to drive than it looks like it will be, and, like all the big Ferraris I’ve sat in, it feels so much smaller. You can almost ignore all the mass behind you…. Fabulous.

As you take it down the road, the next thing that hits you is the sound. I LOVE sound. There are a LOT of sounds and sensations….the very slight fizzing of the stressed-member engine being mounted directly to the tub, the whining of the gear driven engine (instead of belts I was told), and the utterly magnificent tubi whining and roaring angrily away.. think of the 355s exhaust note but angrier and more muscular, on steroids and this is just at low rpm!! no valves or that flat obnoxious sound of the 430 or synthetic trumpet exhaust note of Enzo/599 it’s just much more…. natural, organic and as a result much more pleasant and exciting.

Ok.. road opens up, through the gears….. gearbox is excellent and requires no learning…it’s instinctive and positive and displays none of the truck feel of the F40… bang on!
Right, now to wind it out… 3000rpm…hmmm, underwhelming…, 4000rpm, ok now it’s quick (but still nothing special), all the time the sound is escalating, the note is changing and the sensory assault is intensifying, 5000rpm and it’s shifting now…but still, you’re expecting more..… and then it goes mad…. 6000rpm, wheelspin, woooah…..it’s rushing to the redline…. the engine/exhaust is absolutely screaming about 12 inches from your head, the carbon tub is sizzing, gear noise, wind noise, tyre noise, and now you’ve got to keep a hand on the gear lever as the needle is about to hit 8500rpm and the acceleration finally goes deep into that hypercar territory… off the throttle, BANG, CRACK, (flames I’m told), back down to 5500rpm, pin throttle and more screaming, more roaring…change up again… change up again… ***mph.. … hit the brake pedal… nothing happens..oops no servo… dial in some leg power and it slows beautifully in direct proportion to how much YOU dial in… I can see why you don’t need ABS… it’s beautifully judged and nothing like the F40’s marshmallow brakes… use some force…..downshift, downshift (massive pops/cracks from engine, more volume, more volume.. and it’s back above 4500rpm and screaming away behind you again… press brakes with force now, into the corner, fabulous direct steering, no roll, up against side bolster of seat steering getting heavier and heavier… straighten up, apply long action mechanical throttle earlier……..more screaming… more banging.. more madness….

… when you finally turn it off, the cooling fans make a really unusual whining sound and your head is fried from the heat soak from the engine…but you’re heart is beating faster.

The F50 was an assault on the senses… it really was…the multi-layered sound, it’s ease of use at low speed, it’s quality, its styling (which literally reduces bystanders to shock when the see it) and the involvement make it just about the most exciting Ferrari I’ve driven and I’ve driven pretty much all of them made since the early 70’s.
It’s not quick quick like a Zonda or Carrera GT… I may be mistaken but the CGT feels significantly quicker… but kept above 5000rpm the F50 is up there with the best of them.. devastating!

The F40 is just plain annoying IMO, I’d rather have a 288 GTO instead and the Enzo is just too easy, too quiet and just too “fake synthetic” and lacking in involvement. Technology may make cars faster but it’s the senses and involvement that make them classics. The modern day equivalent is probably a Carrera GT which delivers many of the same sensations but it’s comparatively quiet (that’s easily fixed with an exhaust) but where the Porsche doesn’t deliver with sensation, it delivers with discernibly increased performance/response so it probably edges out the F50 for me…

Also unlike many of the granddad road testers I’ve read about I didn’t find the F50 particularly unrefined (as a result of F1-car style chassis layout). It was exactly raw enough… no more and no less….would be interesting to drive car again with muffler delete option that the owner was considering…
But, I tell you something…in the F50 with the roof off, at WOT above 7000rpm with a proper exhaust, it doesn’t feel like you’re in a car. It actually feels you’re bolted to an V12 engine.. this is the key overriding impression that I came away… it’s the one thing I’ll remember until I buy one. AWESOME!

 

My friend took a load of pictures on his mobile phone which I will upload at the first opportunity.
As regards the F40, I don't dislike the car per-se, i just feel (and many will feel this is blasphemy) that the F40 is a little overated. In full flow with the Turbos on song, the experience is pretty awe-inspiring but get the F50 above 5000rpm and it's even more exciting...
The issue I have with the F40 is that I FEEL (perhaps mistakenly) that it was a bit of rush job by Ferrari - a bit of a "con" (£192,000 in 80's is what I heard!!!!) and I can't get over it's flaws. I remember the last time I drove one...It was wheelspinning everywhere, it didn't feel particularly quick, the brakes were truly terrible and it felt more "cheap" then it did RAW. It left me wondering "what was the hype about??"
Consider that the F50 is every bit the racecar the F40 is, (if anything it's layout is even purer) but it exudes quality instead of feeling cheap; the gearbox is a delight (perhaps that's technology), the brakes actually work, and the engine is out of an old F1 car!!! It's not a 308 engine with two turbos slapped on! (I'm waiting for the inevitable flaming....)
TBH with you, when you're in an F40 with the throttle pinned, these things dont matter really... It's awesome.... But the F50 showed me how you can get the same level of rawness and even more fury, still be just as involving as the F40, while still owning a "quality" product with some finesse.
Stradman, you're probably right, perhaps I need to take an F40 out again. One thing that the F40 did share with the Carrera GT was a fear factor and perhaps it's this which is the decisive ingredient in peoples perception. Having not owned the F40, it's not something I wanted to explore.
Regardless, drive an F50 if you can one day with a proper pipe and the roof off. And make sure you really wring it out to the redline.. otherwise it will be like experience an F40 without the turbos spooling up. The memories will stay with you a LONG time I'm sure.

Regards Nik.

P.S Andrew - mine would be yellow too. Definitely yellow!