So your stock portfolio is in the crapper, your spouse has found a younger flame, and your standard $326,730 Ferrari 599GTB Fiorano isn’t doing it for you anymore. Can we suggest that you order a new 599? This time, however, check the box for the $30,095 Handling GTE, or HGTE, package. With it comes a retuned suspension consisting of stiffer springs (17 percent in front and 15 percent in the rear), a thicker rear anti-roll bar (1.0 inch versus 0.9 for the standard 599), retuned adjustable shocks, and slightly wider front wheels. The 599 HGTE also sits 0.4 inch lower than the regular version, has a retuned exhaust note, and is fitted with stickier Pirelli P Zero rubber. Inside, each HGTE-equipped 599 includes every possible carbon-fiber option.
The twin-cam, 6.0-liter V-12’s power is unchanged at 612 hp and 448 lb-ft of torque. There are two options for the transmission, both of which offer six speeds: a traditional, three-pedal manual or Ferrari’s F1-Superfast automated manual. The latter is the primary choice for buyers, evidenced by a quick jaunt past the company’s assembly line, where none of the partially assembled 599s were fitted with a manual gearbox.
Improving One of Our Favorites
We have praised the 599 before for its neutral handling, fade-free carbon-ceramic brakes, and grown-up manners over broken pavement. Yet a few hot laps around Ferrari’s Fiorano circuit left us star-struck all over again. Brakes? They haul you down from speed with ease and remarkable precision. Power? There’s plenty of it all the way up to the 8400-rpm redline. (Indeed, while on an orientation lap, Maserati MC12 racing pilot Andrea Bertolini was so entertained by the engine power, he blurted, “The torque of this engine is amazing!”) Steering? It’s a hair on the overboosted side, but loads up nicely and communicates the tires’ distress level well. A 599 with the HGTE package is just as neutral as the standard car, if not more so, thanks to the lower center of gravity and slightly wider contact patch in the front.
Keep Reading: 2010 Ferrari 599GTB Fiorano HGTE - First Drive Review
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