Ferrari's FF is an intriguing car. In fact, it's something of an automotive Schrödinger's cat, somehow extremely practical while simultaneously being unthinkably out-of-reach for most of the population. It has true all-weather performance thanks to some rather clever engineering, and this vehicle can cope with four adults and their luggage—it can even handle a Costco run. All the while, this car remains a V12 Ferrari. It costs more than any other car we've driven recently and drinks gasoline at a rate that makes polar bears weep. What's it like living with such an automotive contradiction for a few days?

Design

First, let's make one thing clear: the FF isn't a sports car, it's a grand tourer (or GT). Its design brief was less about breaking lap records at Monza and more about being able to cope with weekend dashes across continents come rain or snow. The car achieves this with a rather clever, all-wheel drive system (Ferrari's first) that uses not one but two transmissions to send power from an enormous (6.3 L) V12 engine to the road.

That engine is derived from the same V12 that powered the Enzo, and other variants can be found under the hood of the current F12 sports car (there's also a hybrid form in the LaFerrari). In the FF it's naturally aspirated with direct-injection, making its peak power of 651hp (485kW) at 8,000 rpm (peak torque is 503lb-ft/682Nm at 6,000 rpm). The engine is up front but sits far back in the engine bay behind the front axle, so it's technically mid-engined. That helps weight distribution—only 47 percent at the front—which in turn helps the car's dynamics. It also leaves room for the all-wheel drive system, called 4RM in Ferrari-speak.

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Jonathan Gitlin

Jonathan Gitlin

Jonathan Gitlin

Jonathan Gitlin

Jonathan Gitlin

Normally, four- or all-wheel drive works by taking the engine's power and torque from the crankshaft to a center differential, where it's then split between front and rear axles. This is easiest if you put the engine way up front, ahead of the front axle and gearbox, which is the way it works in most SUVs. But that's not good for weight distribution, which in turn means it's not good for handling. And since this is a Ferrari, the FF needs to handle. There are ways of achieving all-wheel drive with a front-mid engined configuration—see Nissan's mighty GT-R for example—but that starts to get complicated. In that arrangement, you need to have a propshaft running forward from the gearbox to the front wheels, which means routing it past the engine somehow, too.

Ferrari took a different route and decided to give the FF two transmissions, something it says weighs 50 percent less than the conventional approach, which keeps the center of gravity nice and low. The rear wheels get their power from a seven-speed dual clutch transaxle gearbox (which means it's at the back of the car and connected to the engine via a torque tube, not a propshaft). This is pretty standard now and shares a lot with the F12 sports car (which is rear-wheel drive but also front-mid engined).

Things get interesting ahead of the engine, which is connected to a two-speed transmission. The lower of these two gears is engaged when the car is in first or second gear, and it shifts up to the second gear when you select third or fourth. In fifth gear or above, power only goes to the rear wheels. The front wheels are each connected to the transmission by a wet clutch, which also performs the function of a front differential and center differential, choosing how much power to send to each front wheel. There is no mechanical connection between front and rear wheels at all in the FF. Instead, all of this is handled by the car's electronics and in conjunction with the rest of the car's powertrain settings.

As with almost all recent Ferraris, the FF starts off with an aluminum space frame chassis (the LaFerrari hypercar is made from carbon fiber), which helps keep the weight under two tons. Rest assured, this is still a big car, tipping the scales at 4,145lbs (1,880kg) when full of fluids and fuel (dry weight is 3,946lbs/1,790kg). We know the styling won't work for everyone—Ars EIC Ken Fisher thinks it's one of the ugliest cars to leave the Maranello factory, in fact—but those opinions aren't universal. I'm a big fan of the breadvan, and there's no denying the shape gives this car a practicality that none of its four-seat Ferrari forebears could offer.

As befits a company that spends huge amounts of money on aerodynamics research (in aid of its Formula 1 team), the FF's shape is heavily influenced by the need to move air around and over its body. It's a relatively draggy shape (the Cd is 0.329), although this number could be a lot worse without the vents along the sides and at the back that move air out of the wheel wells and shape its passage around the car. The flip side of that drag is downforce, which helps stick the car to the road as speed increases. This is most visually evident when you look at the split-level diffuser at the back of the car, complete with an airfoil shape in the middle element.

Listing image by Elle Cayabyab Gitlin