Ferrari F430 Road test - Tiscali Mortoring

The passenger next to me on the 7.00am Easyjet to Pisa thinks I'm pulling his leg. "So let's get this right," he says, "You write about cars and Ferrari UK have asked you to fly down to the Mugello Racing Circuit and pick up their new F430 Spider, so you can drive it back to Britain?" That's about it, I say. He was heading for a conference about print cartridges. I suspect I've ruined his day.

There is, however you look at it, something unbelievable about all things Ferrari. Ferraristi claim the magic of their beloved brand never fades but today, after a 5.00am start, a shoehorned plane seat and squidgy 90-minute taxi ride, I'm wondering if I can agree. It's not until lunchtime that my rump touches the oven-baked leather seat. Roof-down, map on lap, I'm working out how to operate the electric hood. It's a sultry 32 degrees and I'm staring down the bonnet of a nine-hour drive via the Mont Blanc tunnel to a prebooked hotel bed in Beaune. Do I feel daunted by this glorified delivery job? Do I hell.

This is one of those kid-at-Christmas, don't-pinch-me-in-case-I-wake-up moments. The all new, latest drop-top version of the all-new F430, a snip at £127,000, is mine for 1,200 miles of transcontinental playtime.

I am scared though. Italy's autostrada north for Turin is largely a two-lane scrum and while most drivers edge aside, camera-phones hanging out of their windows as I pass, the F is no snake-hipped supermini. Any caution, however, steadily fades as the miles north roll on - and I begin to tentatively explore that lever under my right foot.

Very few road cars - even within Ferrari's stable - make it into this select supercar clique. With the same 90-degree V8-configured 4.3-litre unit found in the hard-top equivalent, the F430 will reach 60mph in four seconds dead. And if I'd chosen to steer onto some German autobahns, it's quite capable of rocketing on to 193mph. With the roof down as I pass Lombardy though, I'm quite happy in the 70mph swim - move beyond 80mph and the Perspex anti-turbulence screen between the headrests momentarily impersonates a rattlesnake, but from there up (Italian police look away now), the engine thinks nothing of snatching 100mph when overtaking. I soon realise this is almost as rapid a high-speed cruiser as Europe's fastest car ever: a Fiat Panda driven by a Milanese commuter.

View more images taken from the test

By the time Mont Blanc looms less than gingerly into view, I'm wearing the car like a mitten, if not a close-fitting glove. Technically and spiritually, this is a faultless machine, from the pure theatre of the steering-mounted 'start' button to the unparalleled raucous shriek of the four exhausts as you blip the throttle when idling in traffic, it's a car that's so deliciously sensuous it would make a Porsche 911 seem a poor alternative to staying in. You'd never buy one of these to be alone - the F430, engine presented in a glass window like some Fabergé egg, steals the show wherever it goes, while the roofless option is tantamount to screaming for celeb status, yet this is a pure-class thoroughbred, meticulously manicured and perfect in every tiny detail.

Through the chicanes south of Geneva, I decide to get a grip. Or more accurately, measure it. Switch the 'manettino' driving mode button from standard safety mode to sport (blimey, judging by the sound, another engine has started up) and then click a stage further, for 'race'. It's a bit like that door in the horror film; the one you are shown a key to but warned never to enter. In reality, this mode sharpens the ride and adds greater slickness still to the F1 steering-mounted gearchange. It's almost as if you can feel this model's special rear valence sucking the car's tail down onto the tarmac. Volkswagen makes the world's best semi-auto gearchange with the direct-shift DSG, or did. I've just discovered something slightly smoother and quicker still, even if it does cost as much as a Golf for the system alone.

And here's a new definition of frustration: a 197mph missile on 500 miles of French autoroute, maximum legal speed 81mph. And it's not an easy speed, thanks to the favourite national French pastime of overtaking - via your exhaust pipe. It's understandable that the locals want to see more of this exceptionally rare machine, but driving a Ferrari in France spells a level of intimacy where you can smell the Gitanes. I never thought I'd be so glad to see British customs.

Back on the M25, it all feels like it's gone too quickly. A two-day blat across Europe is tough in any car, but despite it's red-in-claw character and monstrous power, the F430 has been exceptionally comfortable and - yes I'm shocked, too - easy to drive. Racy in a way other 15mpg beasts can only begin to imitate, but never for one moment raw. The man with the Ferrari lorry had the air of an executioner when he turned up to collect the keys the next day. Like two inappropriate characters thrown together by chance and forced onto a road of self discovery, I'd found an unexpected affection for motoring's greatest fast-car cliché. This had been my perfect road movie - and the Ferrari the perfect star.

Tiscali verdict: 10/10 Ferrari's best-ever road car

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