How easy it is! After all the anticipation, all the trepidation, all the wariness about driving the fastest Ferrari ever built for the road, it turns out to be such an effortlessly stirring experience.
Wariness? Well, the twin-turbo V8 just behind the F40's seats punches out 478bhp at 7000rpm. Its torque is a staggering 425lb ft at 4000rpm and all of this is in a two-seater weighing just a couple of hundred pounds more then a Golf GTI.
From the passenger seat, I'd gained a clear idea of what that means in neck-snapping acceleration. It wasn't just the brute force of the propulsion.
Above the snarl of the engine I'd heard the intermittent chirping of the rear race-bred Pirellis as they were pushed, despite their 13-inch width, to the verge of wheelspin all the way through first and second and into third.
And, just before it was my turn to squeeze into the driving bucket and cinch up the racing harness, Ferrari test driver Doriano Borsari happened to mention that he'd recently clocked the F40 at a two-way average of 202.5mph.
This past winter, as the Ferrari has run through its final development stages, there have been a few changes to the car we first experienced last year. Named to commemorate 1987's 40th anniversary of Ferrari, the F40 began as an idea less than two years ago and took to the test track this time last year.
In the past few months its test programme has included 15,000 miles run at a steady 150mph, with 48-hour periods at an average of 187 when Ferrari's test drivers have had the Nardo circuit to themselves. From that has come different spark plugs, better oil cooling and, from Pirelli, a few tweaks to the P-Zero radials. Production cars, due to begin leaving the factory this month, will also have a lip on their front spoiler that fine tunes the airflow and adds to the stability above 180mph.
The approach Ferrari has taken to the F40's creation – and, indeed, its very motives in making the car – are not without detractors. By comparison with that technological tour de force, the four-wheel-drive computer-controlled Porsche 959, the F40 is a simple car. It is essentially a fairly light mid-engined two-seater packing a great deal of power, with little out of the ordinary in its layout or build apart from its composite materials construction.
Some observers have condemned this approach and Ferrari's motives as a cynical money-making exercise hatched after Maranello's marketing men saw how much buyers were paying for the limited edition 288GTO secondhand – and how hot was demand for the 959 at £150,000.