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Ferrari 458 Speciale Versus McLaren 650S Versus Porsche 911 GT3 – Holy Trinity (Part 4)

8/17/2014 7:27:40 PM

There's something deeply seductive about the 650S, though. The dihedral doors need a good tug to raise, but as they sweep up and away from the car to expose the slim MonoCelI carbon fibre structure beneath, the sense of anticipation spikes. It's easiest to sit on the sill and reverse into the optional fixed-back carbon fibre seats, before swinging your legs into the footwell and reaching out for the elegant carbon fibre-spoked Alcantara-trimmed steering wheel. The seats are gorgeous, as well they might be for $8,575, and the reclined driving position is perfection. The view through the windscreen is unmatched, like the world is being poured into the cabin, and the brake pedal is directly ahead of your left leg to suit left-foot brakers (in a McLaren it’d be wrong not to at least try). It’s pure class.

Sports exhaust system on the Porsche 911 GT3 is activated using the button on the centre console

Sports exhaust system on the Porsche 911 GT3 is activated using the button on the centre console

That word keeps bubbling up to describe the light, clean, sweetly responsive steering, or the instant sense of absolute rigidity and all the benefits created by the carbon tub in terms of suspension tuning, even in this Spider version. It’s a silky, effortless introduction to the 650S. But just how different does it feel to the 12C? Well, many of the sensations remain the same but there’s definitely a new edge. The ride is still very good indeed, but with spring rates up 22 per cent at the front and 37 per cent at the rear there’s certainly a greater connection with what’s going on down at surface level. Even so, the suppleness doesn’t seem to suffer at all when you dial the Handling mode from Normal to Sport, and there’s instantly more urgency to the way the 650S responds to inputs. For fun road driving I think Handling mode in Sport and Powertrain in Track is about right…I still wish you could get the more lenient stability control setting without switching the Handling to Track, though. It’s too stiff for most roads in this full-on setting but it’s tempting to use it just because it brings so much more adjustability to the experience.

Central stalk inspired by LaFerrari supercar. The key button is marked simply ‘Launch’. Apollo rockets had something similar

Central stalk inspired by LaFerrari supercar. The key button is marked simply ‘Launch’. Apollo rockets had something similar

One thing never lacking in the 12C was pure speed, either of the straight-line variety or in terms of covering ground. Incredibly, the 650S elevates both to the next level. From about 3,500rpm – when the 3.8-litre engine’s twin turbos really start to work – to 8,500rpm it is obscenely, eye-wideningly, face-deformingly rapid. It’s a big step up from the GT3. More shocking still is how much of the speed generated you can carry into corners and how much of the torque you can deploy cleanly on the way out. Here the big win over the 12C is the front-end grip. You can really lean on the car before there’s any understeer at all and the 650S seems better able to tolerate turning and braking hard, too. There’s no limited-slip differential but that is merely a fact rather than something that impinges on the driving experience – there’s so much traction and you never feel just one wheel spinning up.

  Central display screenon the 650S  is upright format. Makes sense if you orient the nav travel up

Central display screenon the 650S  is upright format. Makes sense if you orient the nav travel up

This 650S is on normal P Zero rubber, not the Corsas that you can choose (at no cost) to have fitted and I suspect they’re the right choice, offering masses of security but–hallelujah–some sense that you as the driver can play the 650S’s balance your own way. It’s not been transformed into a wildly expressive machine that dances to the throttle’s every whim, but just the ability to turn in hard, get on the gas and then balance the car with the torque brings a new dimension to the experience. The stability control is also clearly more expertly judged to give a sense of control without the fear of wicked reprisal.

 

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