The Best 3 Minutes Ever

(and no, this doesn't belong in the "backroom lounge:...)

Enjoy!
Gio P

It turns out that if you are riding shotgun in a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, and Ferrari’s ace test driver Dario Benuzzi is behind the wheel, you can complete 2 laps of the famous Fiorano test track in about 3 minutes.

Allow me to elaborate.

My company supplies some components to Ferrari SpA for the 599 Fiorano and 612 Scaglietti. After a number of months of working on the Ferrari program from our home base outside of Boston, I had the occasion to visit Maranello for the first time this week [edit- now a month or so ago- GP]. We shopped in the Ferrari store, ate lunch at Montana and ogled all of the F1 history that adorns the inside of that most famous of Maranello restaurants. We toured the factory and watched the construction of the rolling works of art that Ferrari will happily sell you if you’ve got a couple of hundred thousand dollars burning a hole in your pocket and a few years to wait. But the highlight of the visit for me was when a gracious Ferrari executive offered my colleagues and I a quick tour of the Fiorano racetrack adjacent to the factory before we flew home.

We arrive at the appointed time, and the louvered steel gate of the Pista Fiorano slides open to admit us. The F1 team is in Jerez this week, where factory driver Luca Badoer has put up the second-fastest time so far according to today’s Gazetta della Sport. All is relatively quiet; I’m told that when the Ferrari team is testing, the sound of the F1 car rattles dishes in restaurants all over town. The grounds are immaculately kept up, and the sweep of the track with its red and white curbing snakes like a black ribbon through the green grass. Red and yellow Ferrari signage is everywhere. In the parking lot are a couple of 612 Scaglietti test vehicles and a van full of support staff from the factory across the street; technicians are changing tires and plugging laptops in to various cables in the passenger compartments of the cars. In front of us is the low-roofed, white and red shed that serves as a garage and command center for cars out on the track. Parked in front of the shed is a metallic black 599 GTB Fiorano, complete with challenge wheels, ceramic brakes, and dusty yellow calipers. It’s not a picture of glossy perfection like every other 599 I’ve seen thus far, either at car shows or out on the assembly line. This isn’t a show car- it’s here for business.

We’re introduced to test driver Dario Benuzzi, an unassuming Italian guy who looks to be in his late fifties. He’s dressed casually in a sweater, jeans, and loafers, but there’s a helmet bag and a duffel that undoubtedly contains an FIA-approved Nomex suit in the passenger’s seat of the 599. There are few pleasantries- he tosses the bags unceremoniously on the ground, offers my colleague Jill a seat, and closes the door for her. He hops in, starts the engine, and catapults the car forward onto the track.

The car moves quickly, but with so little drama that you almost miss the action. The exhaust note is deep and smooth, a contrast to the sharp raspy bark of the 360 or 430. The tires screech as Benuzzi takes off and dives into the first turn. He goes around our back and up over a bridge; we can hear the car but don’t see it until he comes hurtling down the straightaway in front of us a few seconds later, fast enough that you have to swing your head quickly to keep up, like the crowd watching a low-flying jet fighter at an air show. The engine at sustained high revs sounds great. The straightaway ends in a 180-degree left-hander that he takes fast enough to hang the tail out a bit, undoubtedly having fun with my co-worker in the passenger seat and letting everyone know that he is evidently eschewing traction control in favor of the seat of his own carefully calibrated pants. I can’t see Jill’s face, but I hope she is enjoying herself.

Another lap, and the car pulls back into the pits. I switch places with Jill, greeting Benuzzi in my limited Italian. I ask him if this should take about a minute and 20 seconds or so; I know that the Enzo can lap Fiorano in 1:18, so I graciously give Benuzzi a few extra seconds. I hope that he gets the joke; he grins and plants his right foot, smoking the tires in a screeching hole shot that immediately sets the world into fast-forward.

The acceleration is astonishing. Sensations of speed are always magnified when you’re not in control of the car, but this thing is a beast. I just about have time to plant my feet on the firewall and curl my fingers around the center-console grab handle (is that crema leather? nice stitching...) when we’re through the first right-hander, the sport seat keeping my business-casual-attired self in place admirably well.

I don’t remember too much of the first lap, and I don’t think I ever looked further than a single turn ahead. It took till lap 2 before I started registering some individual impressions. The speedometer shows 220 kilometers per hour (145 MPH) on that big straightaway before the 180-degree left hander, which we take at 40 or so in second gear. The carbon-ceramic brakes stop the car with authority. We blow by a 612 on the bridge like he’s standing still. The 599 is big, but it feels taut and tossable on the track for which it’s named, at least with Ferrari hotshoe Benuzzi behind the wheel. Speaking of Benuzzi, I can’t help but notice that (a) he is summoning ultra-quick upshifts with one little finger on the steering-wheel paddle, and (b) he spends most of the drive with his left arm propped up on the window sill, like we’re on the way to pick up a newspaper or go to Sunday brunch.

I don’t have a lot of Ferrari track time as a basis for comparison, but I’m surprised at the comparative lack of violence as Benuzzi hurtles us around the track. I’ve been in the right seat of a 355 challenge car clad in Nomex, a full-face helmet, and 5-point restraint, with the driver hustling quickly enough to bang my head off the rollbar during left-hand turns and hurl me forward into the belts with every tap of the brakes. We’re going faster than that now, and I’m wearing a sport coat and wondering whether Benuzzi is going to turn on the radio to listen to a little background music, or maybe place a couple of phone calls. Both the car and the driver clearly are nowhere near their limits, and I am astonished at the level of performance available without even pushing the envelope.

When Benuzzi drops me off back at the pits, our host informs me that we did the second lap in about 1:34, about eight seconds off the pace for this vehicle on this circuit. I have a new level of awe for the Ferrari drivers. I’m certain that Benuzzi can drive this fast all day long without spilling his cappuccino. More impressive is the fact that the F1 drivers do this circuit in well under a minute- just under 56 seconds, to be exact, or more than 40 seconds quicker than the run we just had. I don’t know where the eight seconds could be shaved from the 599’s time, and I can’t even comprehend F1 drivers turning in lap after lap of sub-56-second times.

As we head for the airport with our time at Fiorano sadly completed, I begin to contemplate how I can get my hands on one of these machines. Sell the house, and a kidney or two? Hope to connect on one of those scratch-off lottery tickets I get in my stocking for Christmas? It’s a moot point, I guess, and it saddens me a bit that I can’t think of a single road anywhere near where I live that would allow me to use this car to even half of its potential. But there’s a glimmer of hope for me; our two companies continue to work together, and the possibility of another Fiorano encounter somewhere down the line dangles in front of me like a plate of Montana’s tagliatelli Bolognese in front of a starving man. I’m hooked, and I can’t wait.

 

Thank you all for the kind replies- glad you had fun reading the piece! Off to Maranello again on Monday in the hopes that more F-chat-worthy experiences come to pass...

Cheers,
Gio P

 

Ironically, we do. Although I can't imagine you hanging up the UW photography gear, by all means PM me if you're interested.

Gio P