Red bloodsonly need apply... (Financial Mail on Sunday, 25 Jun 2006, Page 27)

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Red bloodsonly need apply...
By Russell Bray
Financial Mail on Sunday
25 Jun 2006

Inearly wrote my will before I went off to drive Ferrari’s intimidating new 599 GTB Fiorano because, from what I’d heard, it sounded like a suicide machine. By supercar standards it actually looks pretty benign. But don’t be fooled – this is a hyper car, as sensible as mixing nitro-glycerine with dynamite, and capable of 205mph.

It produces 612bhp, which seems madness. Not so long ago, full-blooded Grand Prix racing cars had similar power and I can remember watching world champions struggling to control their machines despite their sublime skills.

‘Please don’t let it rain,’ I kept thinking all the way to Italy.

Let me explain.

Audi’s enormously quick RS4 saloon is well endowed with 420bhp but uses all four wheels to transmit that power to the road. Lamborghini’s 520bhp Gallardo is also all-wheeldrive, as is its big brother, the Murcielago.

So forcing 612bhp through only two fat tyres seems a recipe for a car to rotate rapidly around its gear lever if you merely breathe on... read more...