How the Ferrari FF Works

Ferrari's aim in designing the FF was to build a successor to its previous four-seater, the 612 Scaglietti fastback coupé. In fact, four-seater vehicles are nothing new for Ferrari, but it's clear that the FF's designers wanted to create something more comfortable and spacious than previous models, something that a family of four can use on long cross-country trips. The 15 cubic feet (.42 cubic meters) of luggage space (double that if the rear seats are folded) make a much better option for weekend outings than anything else in the Ferrari line.

Externally, the design is what's sometimes called a "shooting brake" -- it's too sporty to call a hatchback -- with two doors on the sides plus a third that opens on the rear. The rooflines are designed to channel air in a way that prevents a vacuum from forming behind the chopped-off hatchback rear and producing drag. Similarly, the side grilles lets air escape from the front wheel wells so that the car won't liftoff like an airplane at high speeds.

The part of the FF's exterior that Ferrari fans either love or hate is the large, sliced-off rear end, which is built large to allow a fair amount of space in the trunk. It clearly says hatchback when the car is viewed in profile, but vacationing Ferrari owners probably won't mind when they discover how much luggage the rear holds.

Inside, the FF's upholstery is aniline leather. Six different colors of interior are available. Two electronic displays on the dashboard provide real-time information about the car's status while as many controls as possible are located on the steering column. Legroom is vast and conducive to comfortable seating, with space for 6-foot (1.8- meter) tall passengers to stretch out without feeling cramped.

All this spaciousness suggests that the FF must be too large and too heavy to handle well, yet Ferrari insists, rather convincingly, that this is not so. How did Ferrari's engineers give the FF this much interior space, plus all-wheel drive, yet maintain the sporty handling that was expected of them? We'll get to that on the next page.

There are two reasons that the FF's four-wheel drive, dubbed 4RM by Ferrari, handles more like a rear-wheel drive. The first is that for much of the time that you'll be driving it, the FF is running with rear-wheel drive alone. The on-board computer in charge of the FF's predictive torque distribution detects when the front wheels are starting to slip and only then starts routing power to anywhere but the rear wheels. The second reason is that the drive train uses dual transmissions and dual driveshafts of a type developed by Ferrari for earlier models, with a two-gear transmission pulling power off the front end of the engine and transmitting power to the front wheels while a seven-gear transmission relays power to the rear wheels. The lower gear of the front transmission corresponds to the first two gears on the rear transmission, the second gear to the third and fourth gears of the rear transmission, with the rear transmission solely in charge at higher gears. This allows Ferrari to make the four-wheel drive system unusually light -- about half the weight of a typical four-wheel drive system. Superior weight distribution helps the FF to hug the road, with the huge motor in the front balanced out by the large trunk area.

The FF's 6.3-liter, direct-injection V-12 engine is up to the job of accelerating this surprisingly lightweight vehicle. It generates 504 pound-feet (683.3 newton-meters) of torque and 651 horsepower, which in some neighborhoods would qualify it for supercar status. The FF uses a magnetorheological damping system in its shock absorbers, allowing the damping characteristics of the shocks to be altered via a computer-controlled magnetic field, so that the shocks can respond to changing road conditions. Ferrari's HELE (high-emotion, low-emission) technology, borrowed from the Ferrari California, removes carbon dioxide emissions, helping the FF meet ever more stringent federal and local emissions regulations.

All in all, the Ferrari FF is an impressive piece of design and engineering. Ferrari fans need not worry that the Italian carmaker has sold out its sports car heritage in a campaign to attract the family market. In fact, it appears they've done a clever job of having their cake and eating it too.

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