Car reviews

Until the mid 1990s, Ferraris all followed the Athena poster template: wedge-shaped supercar styling and race-inspired mid-engined layout. They looked sexy but were hopelessly impractical being hard to see out of and tricky to drive. The smaller sports cars continued with their engines mounted behind the driver but following a rethink the big V12 machines reverted to a front-engined format starting with the 550M which evolved into the 575M. That car's place in the range is now taken by the 599 GTB, a big GT that's as happy pounding motorways as lapping the Fiorano circuit where Ferrari hones both its road cars and F1 racers. For now there's just one model, a fixed roof coupé. While the front-engined layout makes the 599 far more practical, some of its rivals, including the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 a hugely exciting but hopelessly impractical old-school supercar made just a few miles away, have stuck firmly the classic mid-engined design.