A week and 250 miles into FF ownership. So Ive had my Black 2013 FF (11,000 miles) for 7 days. What a car! In no particular order some comments about my impressions of the car. Performance its a Ferrari so I knew it would be fast, but unlike other cars Ive had I am still surprised by the real world performance of the FF. Unlike the F12 I drove a few months back (which I still love) you can simply get all the power down all of the time. I have only once when leaving a roundabout on full throttle managed to make the rear end of the FF twitch slightly. I havent driven in the rain yet but have driven on a damp road and even when pressing hard the car remains settled. I can see why others on here and at the dealers Ive spoken to say that in the real world the FF is the best car Ferrari make. Gear change as with all modern DCT gearboxes the changes are instant and seemless. Its a pleasure to whip through the gears without power loss. Being ultra critical, the only way Ive caught the box out is coming to a halt in manual mode on an incline, as the box changed from 2 to 1 itself the change was a little jerky. Other than that, perfect. One thing Ive also learnt is that if you stop on an incline and press the brake pedal. Upon brake release you have a hill hold like a conventional auto box for about 1 second to stop you rolling back whilst going from brake to accelerator. Nice touch. Exhaust When pressing after about 3000 rpm the exhaust noise is absolutely mind blowing. Find a tunnel or a motorway underpass and you just have to drop down a couple of gears and open the windows. There is no substitute for the V12 scream. One friend who regularly goes to F1 meeting said it reminds him of the good old days of F1. Coming from a Maser GTS at low rpm around town would say Im a little underwhelmed by the exhaust as the Maser had open valves at all rpm in Sport mode. Id prefer it a little deeper up to 2500-3000rpm when I think the valves open. Ill be looking to address this possibly with a Capristo valve control kit. Comments welcome from anyone who has done this or similar? Refinement close the windows (double glazed) and set the car to auto and you have a totally comfy cruiser. You can still hear the engine but its not intrusive and with the dampers set to bumpy road the ride is very supple and works very well on our poor quality UK roads. There is a fair amount of tyre noise that gets into the car depending on road surface but nothing too intrusive. My car has Michelin Pilot Super Sports as opposed to Pirelli P Zeros. Again Id be interested on other owners feedback on Michelin vs Pirelli for when its time to change them. Size the car is big but only feels big when Im parking it. I have never been conscious that Im driving a car this big in normal day to day driving. Maybe because its only 1 inch longer that the Maser GT. Its a few inches wider, but again not caused ,me a problem so far. Interior Ive yet to fault the interior. My car is 2 years old with Crema leather and looks like new. The quality of the leather is superb, the carbon fibre trim is also finished beautifully. Passengers in front and rear have all commented on the quality and also on the Panoramic roof and how special it makes the interior feel, especially for rear passengers. All four seats are incredibly comfortable and the amount of adjustment on the front seats is fantastic. Im still trying to find my ultimate seating position though. Navigation/Audio etc. The Navigation is quite dated compared to other cars Ive had recently. Its an improvement over the Maserati but that isnt saying much! But apart from not having full postcode it works well and it easy enough to operate. The touch screen works well, with no lag and the user interface is simple enough. Fortunately it integrates perfectly with my iPhone 6 (running IOS 9) via USB cable or via Bluetooth without problems. The car also has the High Power Hifi which uses Harmans Quantum Logic. The sound quality is actually pretty good even from my iPhone, whilst CDs are even better. There is a small subwoofer in the rear left hand side of the boot and the surround sound does offer quite a good soundstage with decent power and very low distortion. Quirks nothing really to note here yet except that when I stop the engine I cant always remove the key without turning it to start position again. Am I doing something wrong? A couple of iPhone pics - hope to take some betters ones soon! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Gear changes at low speeds can be a bit jerky as the gearbox tries to second guess what you want to do. My 2015 May reg key does as yours. It's if if you sometimes have to convince it you want to remove it. Glad you're chuffed to bits with it and agree it is the best Ferrari made by a country mile partly because it is all things to all men, as Kimi said about his......'I like it very much'.......which for him is the most verbose statement you can expect. Had mine 4 months now and done 6200 miles plus off the Maranello in the morning for a factory tour, lunch reception and laps of the Fiorano. Love it......
Glad to hear you're enjoying your FF Justin. It actually just gets better and better the more you drive it. The only replacement for an FF is another FF! I have Pirellis on my current FF and had MPSS on my last one. I haven't experienced winter in the Pirellis yet, but I actually can't tell any difference between the two. You will find the car incredibly stable, even under full power. You mentioned a twitch when leaving a roundabout That's pretty much all you'll get, even in the wet (using wet mode on the manettino). You'll actually struggle to get much more of a reaction it's so good! As F12KID has stated, leave it in gear when you turn the ignition off and the key will come straight out. Have fun Mac.
Indeed. The relationship between you and you FF will get sweeter over time. It is remarkable. Nothing really like it... and the V12 makes it. If no V12, I go back to BMW or Benz.
I haven't tried the 'in gear stop' but you can always push the release button between the key and dash and it comes right out in neutral
Best all around car on earth - enjoy it! I absolutely love my FF and hope to always have one in the stable.
Thanks for the info Mac. Key sorted. Really like your Titanio FF. When I get tired of looking after my Nero it will probably be my next colour choice. 😉
Good to see you are enjoying it so far-as Mac said it just gets better the more you become familiar with it-I honestly can't think of another car that I would trade it for 😀
Goes into "P" once key is off and tranny "locks" regardless of what gear you are in when you switch her off.
If you leave any of the new cars in neutral when you shut the car off they go into car wash mode where you can roll the car and the key is locked in. If you sit and wait a moment, yes, the key will come out. However the fastest way it to leave the car in drive or reverse when you shut the car off.
I absolutely love my FF (actually my wife's). If I had to give up one of my cars, it wouldn't be the FF.
Well, what can I say....they treated me very well and took me around the whole complex. Not sure if they mistook me for someone else but the level of care and deference was much more than I expected. I examined the F1 building stations for both drivers, watched crankcase finishing, engine assembly, saw the body being placed on both V8 and V12 lines where an area was closed off and top secret but basically it is the Dino development section. Nice looking car from the bits I saw but sworn to say no more apart from it will more than likely have the V6 turbo from Maserati with a flat plane crank, 550 bhp 1400 kgs and the cali box, slightly smaller than a 488 but bigger than the 4C. watched leather stitching and dashboard making, glass fitting, etc etc. Saw the 2016 spec FF which looked identicle to my 2015 version from what I could tell. Noted some pretty hot looking F12s being built as if GTO versions but not sure and when I asked the answer was a smile and no comment. Good to see Maserati V8s and V6 petrol engines being built in the same building as V8 and V12 Ferrari engines but the workforce refused to have anything to do with the diesel.....good for them. Went to the private clienti centre and examined FXX cars including la Ferrari FXX versions. Spoke with pit engineers and technitians on the Fiorano during hot laps.....which was fun. You can have a full size carbon replica of the latest F1 car for 150k euros, no engine of course but great garage art. Then lunch.. Someone has to..........
Sounds like you had a great experience. Must remember to name drop you when i go there. ;-) If you are allowed to say can you expand a little on the 2016 FF please? Was it a finished car, or a test car with masked bumpers a trim?
Of the ones I saw 3 were just starting on the production line and from what I could tell classified as MY 2016 which makes sense as these were at least two weeks off from delivery so late Oct early Nov shipping and looked identical to mine and one was in the test building and had the front valance and bonnet covered in multi fracture wrap which could suggest a different front end.....maybe with turbo considerations. Basic architecture looked the same though but don't go floating 300k on a new one on what I saw as there is a lot of smoke and mirrors going on to prevent the trade from stealing their moment. Part of the V12 line was as I said closed off but I'm pretty sure it was not for FF reasons. Plus the California was also being made on both lines to meet demand. They made it very clear that no more than 7000 units a year will be built as demand has never been higher and prices are very much on the up with hybrid due to break cover shortly and more 'specials' planned as a way of forward financing as all are sold within months of release with values increasing even before production is fulfilled. Ferrari know their market very well.
