Gadgetory

okay looks good heading down the hill well here we are and Ferrari is first all-wheel drive car a four-seater that looks more like a wagon put on here let's drive the Ferrari FF check this out ergonomically what is an FF it's a car with four seats the back two of which you'll notice are actually pretty credible two doors of course ferrari swears up and down they will never ever ever make a four-door they're looking at porsche when they say that a v12 of course this is a very premium car for Ferrari and a GT meant for long-legged athletic touring not so much track use and of course the thing you either love or hate about it is this shooting-brake design as they call it kind of a hatchback makes a wagon with a cam back cutoff rear lid it gives you a fairly good cargo space in the back and flying over all of this is an optional panoramic glass roof perhaps the biggest I've ever seen I could actually sleep on that it doesn't have any movement not till not slide nothing but it does let in a ton of light and supposedly only modest heat because of a special hi-tech film now the inside of the FF is a beautiful cabin very kind of low slung and sporting it matches what you'd expect the instead of a Ferrari would be like the first thing that draws my attention there was an unfortunate thing this ancient Chrysler parts being head unit I think the last time I saw one of these it was literally in a town in country about four or five years ago it's not a non functional unit it gets the basics done but it does not befit the quality of this car the map display is crunchy it's also very small on the good side though it's touch screen is exceptionally responsive things move quickly and it's voice command is actually very quick as well it doesn't need any connected services there's no app support you've got real basic sort of built in media here and a crunchy looking map now let's get out of some things that this car has that are unique first of all over there on the passenger's side that's optional for thousands of dollars I wouldn't spend the money but it gives your passenger a look at your rpms trip odometers mile-per-hour gear position and all kinds of stuff that I guess keeps them from being bored it's one of the oddest displays I've seen in a production car I would say something otherwise for what's in front of the drivers is a great driver's office in the center a great big mechanical tack on the sides all video-based gauges either a digital or analog speedo on the right and on the left you've got various settings but primarily you're going to look at your VD a your vehicle dynamics setup which will change depending which drive mode you're in speaking of those drive modes that brings us to the manettino the little handle here on the steering wheel going all the way from snow to wet comfort is your standard mode then there sport or hold it over on the stability off position and it warns you it's all your problem now start buttons are common these days on the wheel not so much so that's very Formula one stuff this shock button doesn't change through all of your different suspension modes the manettino does that but this does put you what they call bumpy road mode it actually does soften things up you would look at these think they're shift paddles in fact the paddles are these nice big magnesium guys behind here on the column these are your turn signal it's a Ferrari thing left and right it's actually very intuitive not so much so the horn you can press here all day and all you're gonna get is an angry airbag the horns up here on these little delicate buttons under the leather and behind the wings of the wheel to go with that Chrysler head unit are the classic Chrysler fingertip buttons when you operate my feel and not sight they change track adjust volume things of that nature over here on the lower consoles more your drive control are for reverse auto is putting you in automatic mode the car doesn't necessarily default to it as much as most cars do and PS is some Italian for launch control we've got a rear-view camera in this car standard thank you this little button here changes it from normal mode to weird mode I'm not quite sure what the value is and we have a front camera on this car as well but that's optional now let's talk about these back seats here in the second row it's a big part of this cars claim to fame are they the real deal well first of all these are full-size seats a little dinky than 911 seats or something the only downside is of course the cars got a certain limited wheelbase and if I sit behind my own adjusted driver's seat as you can see I got a you know spread my knees apart to let this thing sit there it's a little cramped the Headroom is great though and like I said the seats full width and quite comfortable oh you may have noticed this also behind each of our headrests we have optional integrated iPad minis they're quasi integrated they're sitting in mice leather holders on a strap on the headrest and they connect to power so they don't run out of juice beyond that they're on their own connection they don't talk to the front head unit or do anything more electronically magical than just this now up here is a big part of the reason you buy an FF because it's got one of these beautiful Ferrari v12 I could just look at this thing all day and not even care how it runs but it does run the numbers 651 horsepower 504 foot-pounds of torque all that accomplished without any turbos or superchargers it is a direct-injected v12 with an extraordinary piece of balance and engineering art to it you're going to hear it later and love it now it's a front mid-engine they call it because basically the entire engine rests behind the front axle line helps to put the weight where you want it and not hung out here where it makes the car nose heavy and want to plow through corners now the power coming out of this guy you'd normally expect goes to a transmission right there instead the transmissions way out in the stern when you put it back there it's called a transaxle and it's a 7-speed dual-clutch automated manual as you might expect but because this guy's all-wheel-drive which is one of its headlines there's another little mini transmission up here on the front of the engine called a power take-off unit it's basically a little two-speed gearbox that runs just the front wheels from time to time we'll talk more about that we get on the road you're gonna get this 4,100 pound car up to 60 in a very quick 3.7 seconds so far nothing here under the hood is disappointing except for one thing the mpg if you care in a car like this its 1116 figure you'll get 10 or 11 arrows the first thing you notice on the road is that incredible exalteth sound even before you pick up on the performance it sounds like it's gonna go fast and then it does in comfort mode it's the most athletic thing you've ever driven in sport mode it's even more so what might surprise you if you drive this cars are not this massive kick of low-end torque the minute you tip in on the front but the power comes on smoothly and evenly for so long does that lofty redline is not a false promise dual clutch transmissions are not always the most refined this one absolutely is when you want it to behave like an automatic you hit the auto button put it in comfort mode and this is a very refined boulevard cruiser and then of course when you get into sport mode drop it into manual shift mode bang-bang-bang it's like a Ginsu knife cutting between the gears it's sharp and it's quick and it just takes a flash now note about the all-wheel drive in this car it's kind of a all-wheel drive light or a helper all at most it can send twenty percent of torque to the front wheels that's it it is often letting the rear end do all the pushing and it just sits out until it's needed contraction or cornering and torque vectoring it only works in the first four gears of the main transmission and using its own two gears and I never stop being surprised at how well this car takes a set and dives into a corner without a lot of weight being thrown around or effort on my part other cars may accomplish that by doing some inside wheel braking or reducing torque to certain wheels but this is just more alive and active impressive for a biggish car that has a biggish engine in front of the driver okay just for fun let's price our FF not exactly in my price range maybe it's in yours that would be 298 thousand or so delivered with a hefty destination charge then you start to add the good stuff that truly makes it seen that style God love that panoramic roof hope you like it $18,000 worth adaptive front lights are a trivial mm that interesting passenger displays a little over 4 grand carbon-fiber steering wheel with those ship lights almost 5 grand at a front camera to the rear for 3200 upgrade the audio to quantum logic for almost six grand and integrate those two iPad minis on the backs of the front seats for $5,300 the pair and you thought Apple charged a lot for those things all in we're at nearly 350 and I haven't even begun to pick up all the different sort of exterior and interior customisation options the ffs not just unique for Ferrari it's a unique car with its all-wheel-drive it's sort of gentleman's express layout it's purebred v12 and it's exquisite handle you