When developing the 599, Ferrari wanted to create a “21st-century F40.” It has done that and then some. We can’t think of another car on sale with a better claim to being the greatest production supercar in the world.

For many purists, the 599 GTB is the apotheosis of what a Ferrari should be. It has a V12 engine in the front and is driven from the rear alone, as was every Ferrari from the company’s birth in 1947 for more than 20 years. The V12 is based on the one found in the 2004 Enzo supercar and ranks as one of Ferrari’s finest. 

You only need crawl along at 20mph in first and listen to that hollow, plaintive cry from the exhausts. You only need prod the throttle from time to time and feel the surge from that Enzo engine. You only need sweep through a lovely, well-cambered bend. And you’ll know you are driving something so utterly magical that saying no because the lights don’t work properly is like saying no to Cindy Crawford because she has a mole.

Because, as a piece of automotive engineering, the 599 is biblically, stratospherically, and crushingly brilliant. Even at normal speeds on normal roads, you know that you’re in a thoroughbred. You can feel it straining. You can hear it working. You know that if, by some miracle, you are presented with a piece of road that is wide and open and free from Rovers and speed cameras, it would deliver a hammer blow big enough to knock down the doors of Fort Knox.