Ferrari GTC4 Lusso 2017 UK first drive

A new Delphi infotainment system uses a touchsensitive display and duplicate buttons for those not wanting to smear the screen.

The man from Ferrari advised taking some time to learn its ways first, which in this business is usually code for ‘spend the rest of your life and you’ll still not figure it out’, but I found it instantly intuitive to use.

The graphics and ergonomics are not quite German premium-league, but the days of sticking a proprietary sat-nav to the screen, or using a system that makes you want to hit your head on the steering wheel, are over.

Put it this way: I tried the GTC4 Lusso’s Apple CarPlay but quickly reverted to the in-house system. For Ferrari, this is a revolution. Why this now? Why not tales of wailing V12s, whipcrack gearshifts and cheek-rippling apex speed?

Well we’ll get to that shortly, but my first interest in this car, as Ferrari’s most luxurious product to date, is how well it lives up to a name first given to a knee-tremblingly beautiful (although dynamically unremarkable) 1963 Ferrari 250GT.

It does it phenomenally well. It appears not to matter that the V12 up front squeezes 681bhp from its 6.3-litre capacity when at a steady motorway speed it is almost inaudible.

Tyre and window noise are equally and admirably muted: this Ferrari has double glazing for goodness’ sake.

And the ride? Well, exquisite would not be too strong in the context of a car whose suspension and tyre sidewalls must be strong enough to withstand a top speed of 214mph – just 3mph down on the LaFerrari. It’s supple, subtle and beautifully damped. Even the 812 Superfast you’ll read about soon is unlikely to be more appropriately named than this.

However, let us not forget that this is a Ferrari, and the moment you slap Count Baracca’s shield on the side you’re making a promise that the car that’s carrying it had better keep in full – which means it needs to have an engine that doesn’t so much pluck at your heartstrings as threaten to tear them clean out of your chest.

The Lusso has that engine. What’s so clever is the way the engine’s character can be turned on or off by a nudge of the foot. My judgement is that in a more sporting Ferrari such an F12, you always want some form of audible accompaniment from under the bonnet, even when cruising, just to perpetuate the sense of occasion.

In the GTC4 Lusso you want silence, then majesty on command, which is exactly what it provides.

For sheer aural class there is nothing on sale that beats this motor: an Aston V12 Aston Martin Vantage is probably even more exciting to listen to, a Mercedes twin turbo V8 more laden with promise, but the sound of this Ferrari is to me the sound of the supercar in its purest form.

In its richly layered yet diamondsharp voice lie the echoes of the GTO and Daytona. That it also bowls almost two tonnes of aluminium, leather, oil, water and carbonfibre up the road at a fairly ridiculous rate should be taken as a given.

So I wish I liked more the way the Lusso handles. I know back-road brilliance probably isn’t that high up the priority list for such a car and I’d hate to think of that ride quality being compromised, but the fact is that, despite its new four-wheel steering system, the Lusso suffers from the same steering flaws as too many Ferraris of the recent past: it’s needlessly aggressive off-centre, a fault compounded by the fact that, despite it retaining hydraulic assistance, proper steering feel is minimal.