Ferrari 599XX

Scope of this guide

This guide is scoped to the original Ferrari 599XX shown at the Geneva motor show in March 2009: the track-only, front-mid-engine, rear-wheel drive prototype with the 6.0L V12 naturally aspirated engine, built for a small group of Ferrari clients inside the XX programme. It is not a guide to the road-going 599 GTB Fiorano or the 599 GTO, which Ferrari sold with number plates and which are covered elsewhere. It is also not a guide to the 599XX Evoluzione, the upgrade package Ferrari showed in December 2011, which changed the aerodynamics, weight and power. Where the Evoluzione matters we mention it as context, because an advert that says only "599XX" can describe either specification.

We have not driven this model for this article. Everything here comes from three cited sources plus a few uncited reads, and we flag which is which. The first cited source is Ferrari's own press release, which we could only reach as a reprint on Autoblog: Ferrari's website returned an access error when we tried it, we did not work around that, and the web archive was offline. The second is PistonHeads' report from the Geneva show on 3 March 2009. The third is the government recall checker. We also read PistonHeads' report on the Nurburgring lap (23 April 2010), a Supercars.net write-up, a Sportscar2 page, an Ultimate Specs table and Wikipedia, and we say where each is used. Prices are history, not valuations.

The figures at a glance

• Engine: 6.0L V12 naturally aspirated, a development of the 599 GTB Fiorano engine at 5999 cc, with reworked combustion chambers, inlet and exhaust tracts and a lighter crankshaft. PistonHeads calls it a development of the 6.0-litre unit and Ferrari's release says the 599XX has "the same transaxle layout and engine type" as the road car.
• Power: 700 bhp at 9000 rpm. Ferrari's release calls it the "target power output of 700 hp at 9,000 rpm" and PistonHeads prints 700bhp. Several spec tables, Wikipedia and Supercars.net list 720 bhp, or 730 PS, for the same car. We use the figure Ferrari and PistonHeads give. Ferrari's release says "hp" without defining it, so the unit is an assumption on our part, and the two numbers differ by only about three per cent.
• Torque: 686 Nm at 6500 rpm, from Ultimate Specs, Supercars.net and Sportscar2 (506 lb ft). Ferrari's release and PistonHeads give no torque figure at all. The 700 Nm sometimes quoted belongs to the later Evoluzione according to Wikipedia, so it does not apply here.
• 0-100 km/h: 2.9 seconds. Wikipedia prints 2.9 seconds for 0-100 km/h and Supercars.net prints it for 0-60 mph, so the two sources do not agree on the benchmark. Neither is a Ferrari claim that we could read, so treat it as an outside figure.
• Top speed: 315 km/h, which Wikipedia describes as limited by the redline. It is not a Ferrari press figure.
• Drive: rear-wheel drive through a six-speed gearbox mounted at the rear as a transaxle, with the engine ahead of the cabin. Ferrari quotes gearchanges of about 60 milliseconds.
• Weight: no maker figure. Ultimate Specs lists a dry weight of 1,345 kg. Treat it as unconfirmed.

What the XX programme was

The XX programme is Ferrari's scheme for track-only cars that never receive road registration. The 599XX followed the FXX and the FXX Evoluzione, both based on the Enzo. Ferrari described the 599XX as a "laboratorio tecnologico", a technology laboratory aimed at a select group of clients, using solutions from its road-going and Formula One research, many of them developed only for this car. PistonHeads compares it to the 2005 FXX, says it was available only to a select group of clients and says owners are invited to special track days. It adds, plainly, that the car is not road legal. Supercars.net, quoting the release, says Ferrari planned dedicated track events for it in 2010 and 2011.

In practice that means the car was never an ordinary purchase. Autoblog, in April 2009, reported that access ran through Ferrari's Corse Clienti programme and was limited to select clients, with a cost of over one million euros. Supercars.net printed a price of 1,500,000 dollars. Those are launch-era numbers from outside Ferrari's own text, not asking prices, and we found no current valuation.

What Ferrari changed from the road car

Ferrari's release lists the engine work above, a new shift strategy and an electronic package it calls the High Performance Dynamic Concept, which manages the car's mechanical limits against its electronic controls. It adds second-generation SCM suspension, a screen it calls the virtual car engineer, carbon-fibre intake plenums, slick tyres on 19 inch wheels and carbon-ceramic brakes with carbon-fibre pads. The aerodynamic work includes a fully faired underside, an Actiflow system with two boot fans and a porous diffuser, and rear winglets. Ferrari's figures are 280 kg of downforce at 200 km/h and 630 kg at 300 km/h. Autoblog's copy of the release also mentions "synthetic jets" in the aerodynamic package.

Lap times and what they mean

Ferrari said the 599XX lapped its Fiorano test track in 1 minute 17 seconds, which Autoblog and Supercars.net both repeat. PistonHeads reported on 23 April 2010 that Ferrari claimed 6 minutes 58.16 seconds on the 20.832 km Nordschleife, calling it the first production-derived sports car under seven minutes. The PistonHeads author questioned whether "production derived" is a fair category for a record, and the car is not road legal, so we treat the Nurburgring time as a manufacturer claim about a factory car, not a benchmark for a customer car on an ordinary track day. The later Evoluzione is reported at about 1 minute 15 seconds at Fiorano, again from secondary sources.

How many were built

The count is the weak number here. Sportscar2 says 29 cars and a search summary of other pages repeated it, but we could not read Ferrari stating it, and Autoblog's April 2009 articles that we read did not give a number. We therefore treat 29 as a commonly quoted tally and leave the catalogue count empty. Ask Ferrari for the chassis and programme records of any car you are offered, and treat a seller's statement of "number X of 29" as a claim to verify.

What to check before buying

• Confirm the specification. Ask whether the car is a base 599XX or has the Evoluzione package, because the aerodynamics, weight, power and torque differ.
• Ask for the full programme history from Ferrari: the Corse Clienti paperwork, track days attended, and any work done by the factory. We found no published servicing schedule, parts price list or running cost, so any figure you are given is an estimate.
• Ask how the car may be used, stored and transferred. We found no public source on resale rules, so ask Ferrari directly whether a change of owner is accepted and what conditions apply.
• Check the road-legal position in writing. PistonHeads says the car is not road legal, and nothing we read describes any registration route.
• Get a specialist inspection of the engine, gearbox, carbon-ceramic brakes, electronics and bodywork, since these parts were developed for this car.
• Ask for the tyre and wheel specification and the age of the fitted slicks, since the car was designed around specific slick tyres.

Recalls and the DVSA check

The government page says the checker takes a car's registration number or, without one, the make, model and year, and that for cars recalled for non-safety reasons "you'll be told by the manufacturer" instead. A track-only 599XX has no road registration, so the registration route will not apply, and we cannot say whether the make, model and year route lists it. It is a safety recall tool for vehicles on the road, and we did not run it for this car. We found no recall notice for the 599XX in any source we read, and absence from our sources is not a clean bill of health. For a car like this, the useful question goes to Ferrari: ask whether any technical bulletin or service campaign applies to the chassis, and ask for it in writing.

About the photograph

The picture at the top of this page is a Wikimedia Commons photograph by Thesupermat of a 599XX in the number 17 livery, taken at a February 2014 auction preview in Paris and used under its CC BY-SA 3.0 licence. It is cropped to our format and shows the shape only. It does not tell you the specification of an individual car or which of the XX programme versions it represents.

Verdict

The original Ferrari 599XX is a 6.0L V12 naturally aspirated track car with 700 bhp, 686 Nm, a quoted 2.9 seconds to 100 km/h and 315 km/h, rear-wheel drive and front-mid-engine, built for a small group of Ferrari clients. It is a prototype-grade car whose history with Ferrari matters far more than its published figures, and several of those figures come from outside Ferrari. If you are shopping for one, confirm the specification and the Evoluzione question, secure the factory history in writing, and treat every number above as a claim with the caveats we have given. We have not driven it, so use the sources and a proper inspection to decide.