//:: Updates - Ferrari 599XX

Click here for my previous blog about the 599XX

As promised! details of the Ferrari 599XX ...

Ferrari has released a whole bunch of shiny photos and new details on its unhinged 599XX, the hypertech track-focused edition of its front-engined supercar. And, quite frankly, that's all the excuse I need to treat you with the new photos they've released.

Just in case you've forgotten, here's the big news on the 599XX: Ferrari has revised the 6.0-litre V12 to put out a massive 700bhp at 9,000rpm. It weighs just 1,330kg, thanks to obsessive use of carbon fibre. It is, essentially, a track-only racer, armed with slick racing tyres, carbon ceramic brakes and a whole bunch of bewildering tech to improve downforce and air flow over and around the car.

Bewildering tech that includes the use of a porous material in the diffuser, and a pair of fans in the boot which channel air flowing beneath the car out through 2 grilles by the taillights. Oh, and ‘synthetic jets' (an excellent name for an indie-electronica band, no?) incorporated into the rear which, along with those mad buttresses, smooth airflow over the surface of the car. It all combines to produce 280kg of real down force at 120mph, and a massive 630kg at 185mph.

You want more tech tricks? How about a revised transmission which now changes gear in just 60 milliseconds? I'm not sure but I guess it's the same gearbox technology they have installed in the F430 Scuderia. Or F1-style ‘doughnut' brake covers? Or brake pads made from carbon fibre? What's that? The price? How does 1.1 million Euro grab you? And you don't really get to properly own the 599XX for that - instead, like the FXX programme, you become a Scuderia test driver, providing data from a bunch of invitation races to help Ferrari develop its future road cars, and getting one of only 15 599XXs thrown in as a garage ornament for good measure. If you're muttering to yourself about feckless rip-off merchants, here's one last stat for you: the 599XX lapped Ferrari's Fiorano circuit in 1m17s, just a second slower than the FXX and quicker than, well, just about everything else bar the Scuderia's F1 cars.

"I've wet meself again!"

Click here for my previous blog about the 599XX

Video of the 599XX as it broke the lap record of the Nurburgring

Ferrari 599XX, Super Car, Fiorano test track, FXX program, Ferrari test driver //TAGS