2017 Ferrari GTC4 Lusso

Ferrari's 'giant' GTC4 Lusso lands in SA

It’s not as if you haven’t seen the photos; we first featured the Ferrari GTC4 Lusso ahead of its world launch at the Geneva motor show in March.

But nothing prepares you for the sheer size of the car in real life – or for the sweeping lines of its profile, in particular the elegant curves of waist and roof-line; the kinked character line at the bottom of the doors is less successful.

Even the squared-off tailgate just adds to the drama in a way the sloping tail of a Panamera could never emulate – and opens onto that rarity among supercars – a genuinely usable 450 litre luggage compartment that expands to 800 litres if you fold the rear seats forward.

It would be like using a Hermes scarf to tie up a parcel, but you could actually go shopping in Ferrari’s new four-seater – except that you wouldn’t because, at very nearly five metres long (almost half of which is bonnet!) and two metres wide, this is a seriously big car.

You sit low in the GTC4 Lusso – the roof is less than 1.4 metres high – and parking it, especially in the confines of a crowded shopping mall carpark, must be the stuff of nightmares, although thanks to its advanced four-wheel steering it has a claimed turning circle of only 12 metres, better than many of the big SUVs that routinely infest such places.

But that’s not what it’s for.

The GTC4 Lusso is exactly what its name is meant to convey – a luxurious grand touring coupé (a real one, with only two doors) that has four seats, four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering.

It’s for taking four people out into the country on a Sunday morning, for covering ridiculously long distances in insanely short times, for swooping through the mountain passes and narrow valleys where green doesn’t mean eco-friendly, it means ‘still growing’ and, when you get there, unpacking a picnic meal that does full justice to the beautiful setting and the car that brought you there.

Under the bonnet is an engine that could only have been designed and built by Italians – a true work of automotive art with no plastic covers over its red crackle-finished intake manifolds, drainpipe-sized throttle bodies, neatly finished intake plumbing and exquisite detail work, all of it on show for the cognoscenti.

Sheer presence

You’ve read the numbers: 12 cylinders, 6262 cc, 507 kW at 8000rpm and 697 Nm at 5750 with not a hair-dryer in sight, but they don’t do justice to the soundtrack of this true supercar engine, to the crackly overrun that overlays the deep bass growl of positive throttle, the rising wail of the intake roar as the revs rise.

We didn’t get to drive the only example of this R6.2 million executive jet at the South African launch, held this week in the brand-new Waterfront premises of Ferrari distributor Scuderia SA, so we can’t vouch for its 3.4-second 0-100km/h launch time, its top speed of 335km/h or the agility and road-holding promised by all-wheel drive and all-wheel steering.

But we can attest to the sheer presence of this aristocrat among cars, underlining its premier status among would-be rivals from Affalterbach and Zuffenhausen.

FACTS: Ferrari GTC4 Lusso

Engine:6.3-litre, 12-cylinder petrol
Gearbox:7-speed DCT automatic
Power:507kW @ 8000rpm
Torque:697Nm @ 5750rpm
0-100km/h (Claimed):3.4 seconds
Top speed (Claimed):335km/h
Price:R6 200 000
Warranty:3-year/unlimited distance
Maintenance plan:7-year/unlimited distance

http://www.iol.co.za/motoring/latest-launches/ferraris-giant-gtc4-lusso-lands-in-sa-9683546

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[video]https://www.topgear.com/videos/chris-harris-drives/chris-harris-drives-ferrari-gtc4lusso[/video]
 
Ferrari CEO hints at possible SUV

An expansion of Ferrari's line-up into utility vehicles would not compromise the Italian carmaker's exclusive status nor its luxury profit margins, Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said on Wednesday.

Marchionne has repeatedly ruled out following rivals such as Volkswagen-owned Lamborghini into sport-utility vehicles (SUV).

But recent press reports have said the sports car maker is considering developing a four-seat utility vehicle to boost profits, unnerving some investors concerned it could weaken the brand.

After being spun-off from Fiat Chrysler, Ferrari has sought to show it can increase profits without the backing of its parent and lift sales.

The group has released several quarters of record earnings, helped by the launch of a number of special edition models.

But Marchionne said Ferrari was now approaching the limit of the number of cars it can produce from its current range without weakening their exclusive appeal, and needed to look beyond.

The manager, who is set to leave the company in 2021, said if the carmaker ever made a utility vehicle it would be "Ferrari style" for "the selected few" and not to compete with the likes of Porsche.

Its claim to fame would not be "being able to climb rocks", Marchionne told analysts on a conference call, adding the board had yet to decide whether to go down that road.

"Whatever it is, it will be of the same caliber as anything else we've done."

Earlier on Wednesday, Ferrari reported a 24 percent rise in second-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) and a 14 percent increase in quarterly sales, both in line with expectations.

Revenues were helped by sales of 12 cylinder models such as the GTC4Lusso and the LaFerrari Aperta hybrid convertible.

The 812 Superfast, Ferrari's most powerful model to date that has yet to arrive on the market, already has a waiting list beyond 2018, the company said.

Ferrari is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year with a series of tailor-made cars, all inspired by iconic models from its past. Overall, the group plans to ship around 8,400 vehicles in 2017, getting closer to the 9,000 goal it has set for 2019.

The company has also been trying to broaden its appeal beyond drivers attracted by the technological prowess of its 8-cylinder and 12-cylinder models.

Marchionne said the company needed to go after customers drawn to the brand's style rather than the power of engines.

"There are more people that would buy non-extreme versions of Ferrari than those that will buy extreme versions," he said, adding this move did not mean compromising on price.

The GTC4Lusso T, a four-seater with a smaller V8 turbo engine, was marketed as "designed to be driven every day", raising expectations of other such releases from the Maranello, Italy-based factory.

"We see volume expansion as the most positive and exciting thread to the bull case," Evercore ISI analyst George Galliers said in a note.

Marchionne said Ferrari would unveil a new strategy to 2022 early next year and that it would give an indication on how it would expand the luxury brand beyond cars.

Milan-listed shares closed down 3.45 percent at 89.6 euros as investors had hoped for a lift to full-year guidance. The uncertainty around the impact of the product expansion on margins also weighed on sentiment, traders said.

http://www.iol.co.za/motoring/industry-news/ferrari-ceo-hints-at-possible-suv-10608203
 
If you're like most car enthusiasts, you probably think the ultimate hot hatchback is the Ford Focus RS, with its 350 horsepower and sub-$40,000 price tag. Or maybe the Volkswagen Golf R, with a similar asking price and 292 horses. Or the new Honda Civic Type R, with 305 horsepower and a more reasonable starting MSRP of around $35,000.

Well, you're wrong: Ferrari makes the ultimate hot hatchback. It's called the GTC4Lusso, it has 680 hp, and it costs $350,000. And I recently borrowed one from Ferrari to find out what it's like.

Before I get into that, though, I just want to clarify something. Yes, it's true: Ferrari is now making a $350,000 hatchback with a 680-hp V12. There's a sentence I never thought I'd string together.

It has all-wheel drive, a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and a 0-to-60 time of 3.4 seconds. It has a little screen on the dashboard so your passenger can see your current G forces. It sounds like a race car. It is amazing.

For those of you who don't know the GTC4Lusso, it's replacing the Ferrari FF in the brand's lineup this year. It's the latest in a long line of 4-seat, V12-powered Ferrari models, none of which have sold especially well, despite a lot of efforts from the brand.

There was, for instance, the absolutely gorgeous 456, followed by the not-so-gorgeous-but-really-fun-to-drive 612 Scaglietti. When the FF came out, there was big controversy among Ferrari purists. An all-wheel-drive Ferrari? A hatchback Ferrari? For three hundred grand?

But that's exactly what the FF was, and it's exactly what you get with the GTC4Lusso, which is really just an evolution of the FF. The goal, apparently, was to make a Ferrari you could drive every day -- a car with a lot of luxury, and all the tech you'd get from a regular car, and four seats, and reasonable cargo space, that also offered Ferrari performance.

When you put it that way, the $350,000 price tag starts to make sense. But does it actually succeed in accomplishing that mission?

On the daily-driver front, the GTC4Lusso is a wonderful car. Get in a Ferrari from just a decade ago, and you'll be baffled by how little technology is included. Not anymore.

This thing had dual LCD screens on the gauge cluster, it had Apple CarPlay, it had a power lift gate, it had an "automatic" mode for the transmission and a "comfort" mode for the suspension. If you've spent much time in older Ferrari models, you'll be shocked to see how much the brand has caught up in just a few short years. It even has a decent amount of rear-seat room and trunk space, which are really important if you actually want to drive a Ferrari every day.

And yet it has some issues preventing it from being the perfect daily driver.

To me, the biggest is size: I spent a lot of time driving the GTC4Lusso around crowded Center City Philadelphia, and I quickly discovered the Lusso is wide. Quite wide. So wide, in fact, that its 78-inch overall width makes it more than two inches wider than my Range Rover -- not good for daily-driver use if you spend a lot of time driving in a city. It also suffers from an immensely long hood, which makes it a bit difficult to judge where the front of the car is located.

And then, of course, there's fuel economy: The EPA says the Lusso gets 11 miles per gallon in the city and 13 mpg in combined driving, which makes it possibly the least efficient potential daily driver you can buy today.

Then again, that gas mileage is forgivable when you consider the source: The aforementioned 680-hp V12, which delivers a glorious engine note and massively exciting acceleration that makes you forget all about the GTC4Lusso's girth.

Truly, it is amazing to me that a car weighing just over 4,000 pounds can feel so spry and light on its feet. I don't think I've ever had so much fun zooming around in a car this size, this width and this weight, and it's all thanks to the excellent engine and lightning-quick transmission.

And this brings us back to a discussion of the GTC4Lusso's pricing. The thing starts at around $300,000, and the one I drove was something like $347,000 with options, which is an enormous amount of money for any automobile -- no matter how much it blends daily drivability with Ferrari performance.

It's even more enormous when you consider there are 2012 FF models currently on the market for around $150,000, meaning they've lost $200,000 to depreciation in five years -- a fate that will likely also befall the GTC4Lusso. So is it worth it?

To a normal person with a normal job, it's hard to fathom spending that much money and losing that much money ... on a vehicle.

To the kind of person who doesn't blink at the idea of losing a couple hundred grand here or a couple hundred grand there, this question is answered with a different question: Why would you ever want to drive anything else?


https://www.autotrader.com/car-video/the-ferrari-gtc4lusso-is-a-350000-hot-hatchback-267499


YouTube video link here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M537NTCaems
 
Ferrari raises UK car prices by up to 7% for 2018

Italian brand now charges 7% more for V8 models and 4% more for V12s

Ferrari will increase the starting prices of all but two of its models with hikes of up to 7% in Britain, forming part of what it calls routine cost updates.

From 1 January, UK dealerships for the Maranello car maker will ask for 7% more on V8 models and 4% more for V12s. The price increases will also affect customers with cars currently on order that are not due to make production before that date.

The hikes affect all six of its road cars apart from the V8-engined GTC4 Lusso T, while the brand’s 488 Challenge racing car remains unchanged too. Pricing for the recently revealed Portofino drop-top, successor to the California T, has yet to be confirmed, so that car’s opening figure will also be unaffected.

This means the cheapest car to be impacted is the 488 GTB (above), which uses a mid-mounted 3.9-litre turbocharged V8. It goes up from £183,984 to £196,863. Of the V12s, the lowest cost car to be affected is the GTC4 Lusso (below), which is now priced from £240,402 - up from £231,310.

Ferrari told Autocar that the increases were not related to the weakness of the pound or economic uncertainty, but rather part of the regular practice of price updates undertaken by almost all manufacturers.

A spokesman said that the UK wasn’t subject to the latest increase for Europe, which saw prices go up by 5% in 2016. The 2017 cost update is in line with the rest of Europe, so effectively still leaves British prices one step behind those on the continent.

“The UK is also the only market Ferrari offers a four-year warranty on its cars,” said the spokesman. “Everywhere else is three years.”

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/ferrari-raises-uk-car-prices-7-2018
 
Ferrari GTC4 Lusso T 2018 review

Should I buy one?

Will the Lusso T prosper? Ferraris that aren’t pure two-seaters rarely hit the absolute front rank of Prancing Horse popularity. Still, if carrying four really matters to you and you don’t mind sacrificing a few percent of dynamic excellence for the purpose, this is one of the rare full-on supercars that will do it. And in style.

Ferrari GTC4 Lusso T

Where Surrey On sale Now Price £200,165 Engine V8, 3855cc, twin-turbo, petrol Power 602bhp at 7500rpm Torque 561lb ft at 3000-5250rpm Gearbox 7-spd dual-clutch automatic Kerb weight 1865kg 0-62mph 3.5sec Top speed 199mph Economy 24.4mpg (combined) CO2, tax band 265g/km, 37% Rivals Bentley Continental GT, Mercedes-AMG S63 Coupé

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-revie...first-drives/ferrari-gtc4-lusso-t-2018-review

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