Stick a square body on the back of a coupé and, inevitably, it’ll get called a breadvan.
Curious. The Ferrari GTC4 Lusso – facelift of the five-year old FF – is Ferrari’s take on the breadvan theme.
Ferrari likes having a front-engined four-seater in its range. By default it has been a V12, but until the FF arrived, replacing the 612 Scaglietti, what it never had was four-wheel drive.
The FF did, and the GTC4 Lusso still does now, but the Lusso also has four-wheel steering, thanks to a development of the system that appeared on the F12tdf. An actuator on the toe-link on the rear suspension can give a little positive or negative lock, to increase either agility or stability.
That’s the most notable mechanical thing in a raft of changes that Ferrari thinks warrant an entire name change: FF out, GTC4 Lusso in.
Here are those changes in no particular order, then. There’s a restyling of the outside – the rear in particular, where twin (attractive) tail-lights each side replace single (less attractive) ones.
There are some aero and rear roof profile changes, too, but while some coupé-estates are beautiful and some are plain quirky, to me this still errs towards the latter. Nothing particularly wrong with that, mind.
Breadvans are a rare groove, maybe, but the thing about a rare groove is that a lot of people like them. The design at the front has the Lusso appearing lower, wider and more aggressive than the FF, because engine changes demand more cooling, and the grille opening has been widened as a result.
And what demands more cooling? Why, a more powerful engine, of course. But not just one engine, as the GTC4 Lusso represents another Ferrari first. This is the first model from Modena to be offered with two engines – a 6.3-litre V12 and a turbocharged 3.9-litre V8.
Starting with the V12, Ferrari felt the FF’s 651bhp wasn’t enough but 680bhp is just about right. The GTC4’s 6.3-litre naturally aspirated twelve-cylinder unit makes its peak power at 8000rpm and runs into the limiter at 8250rpm – it isn't exactly a Skoda Superb 2.0 TDI.
Don’t think for one moment that losing four cylinders makes the V8 GTC4 Lusso a pussycat, as it produces 602bhp at 6500rpm and is capable of knocking off 62mph in 3.5 seconds (the V12 manages 0-62mph in 3.4sec) before rocketing on to 199mph.