Ferrari FF Speeds Toward Geneva Auto Show Unveiling

Just the Facts:

• The FF is an acronym for Ferrari Four, alluding to four seats and four-wheel drive.
• The car, which replaces the 612 Scaglietti, will publicly debut at the Geneva auto show.
• This is a car with Ferrari performance and the ability to go in snow, rain, sand or mud.

MARANELLO, Italy — The FF, a truly new Ferrari, will make its public debut next week during the 2011 Geneva Auto Show, but it will be a challenge for the company to outdo the video preview of the car, followed this week by a private Web-enabled unveiling at Ferrari headquarters here.

FF is an acronym for Ferrari Four. The car seats four and has four-wheel drive and, Ferrari says, "ushers in an entirely new GT sports car concept." The 2+2 seating is nothing new, neither for grand touring cars nor for Ferrari. But the Pininfarina-penned shooting-brake body is intriguing, while the driveline appears to be, as Ferrari proclaims, revolutionary.

It is made up of ultra-light components which, Ferrari says, are 50 percent lighter than a conventional 4WD system. The press release claims that, with assistance from the car's electronic dynamic control systems, it "delivers record levels of performance on all terrains and in all conditions via continuous and intelligent predictive torque distribution to all four wheels."

The first FF photos were released in late January, along with a video that shows a lineup of the new cars and then settles on one of them — blood-red, of course — which moves smartly out of line, then out of the Ferrari factory and onto the closed-course Maranello test track at high speed, its massive V12 engine screaming distinctively.

Just before a cut to an altogether different scene, the viewer is treated to a close-up side view in which it becomes obvious this is a three-door with a wagon-like profile. But, chopped-off rear body sculpting notwithstanding, the overriding impression, both from a distance and up close, is that this is a sports car.

Suddenly, the car appears in a snowy mountain scene, and as it moves from background into foreground, the driver puts the vehicle through some rigorous winter-driving maneuvers, followed by an abrupt segue into city street and then country road environs, with rain-slick pavement to showcase the car's sure-footed capabilities.

Then it's on to dry but rugged unpaved roads and into desert sands, giving the driver every possible challenge for the FF, with the video and the fantastic test drive ending in the extravagant Ferrari World theme park in Dubai.

The FF previews the successor to the 612 Scaglietti, a two-door coupe with rear-wheel drive that was launched in 2004 and is much less capable. While most Ferraris are best left in the garage when the weather isn't nice and comfy, the FF appears to be ready for any and everything, from a speed trial to a snowstorm.

The FF's V12 engine, a whopping 6.3 liters, is the biggest one ever for Ferrari and cranks out 651 horsepower and 504 pound-feet of torque. The transmission is a seven-speed manual with semi-automatic paddle shift.

Inside Line says: Given the recent trademark tussle with Ford over the F-150 designation on the 2011 Ferrari Formula 1 racecar, we're assuming Ferrari's lawyers already know about the Jensen FF, a four-wheel-drive, four-seat GT produced in Great Britain between 1966 and 1971. — David Green, Correspondent