- Joined
- Feb 9, 2007
- Messages
- 681
- Location
- Tejas Hill Country
- Car(s)
- GT3 RS, Cayenne, Bugeye Sprite, Portofino M
Way back in August of 2021, @equiraptor and I started shopping for a “road trip machine.” We've made some of our best memories together during road trips. While the Cayenne seems to love covering ground, we were looking for something convertible and more rewarding to drive in the twisties. We considered and drove a great many "sporty GT cruiser" cars and ultimately chose a Ferrari Portofino M. We both felt that handling and driving dynamics were our top priority and the Ferrari was the twitchiest, Miata-ist, lightest-feeling car in the class that we could find. We placed a deposit in early September 2021 and finally took delivery on January 30 2023 (513 days after our initial visit to the dealership).
Styling
The Portofino M is almost certainly the final car from Ferrari that features the softened angular design language that began with the 458 in 2009. The most recent cars (SF90, Roma, and 296) have kicked off an organic, curvier aesthetic. I really love how the newer cars recall a much classier era of Ferraris, but a high-tech, touch-screen, all-digital driver's experience is not what I'm looking for in an Italian car. I think Ferrari need a few more years of refinement before I would want to embrace the next generation. I’m quite happy buying the last of the old guard which is far more tested and solid. Relatively, of course.
We went with a "GT cruiser" spec. Lots of brown leather for @rickhamilton620 and absolutely no carbon fiber. I think it all fits the car's personality perfectly.
Performance
Caveat: we haven’t had this car out on track yet (other than a parade lap once) so this is entirely based on street driving and street performance.
The car is stupid fast and as the speed increases it gets fast faster. If that makes sense. I haven’t run any data but I swear it takes less time to get from 100 mph to 120 mph than it just took from 80 mph to 100 mph. And it's scary because I have no idea how long it can keep that up. We’ll need to get this car out at COTA to really know how it accelerates. Even lonely, straight highways in west Texas aren’t open enough to really run this thing.
Everything in this car is twitchy and on a hair trigger except for the throttle mapping. The brakes bite quicker than you’d expect. The steering rack is tight and requires very little input. Even the volume on the stereo adjusts a little bit faster than you want. Swapping back and forth between this and the Cayenne is jarring. In practice the tight controls allow for economy of motion to the driver. You can drive even very twisty mountain roads without ever having to shuffle steer. Hands at 9 and 3 will get you through most corners.
The crazy Ferrari steering wheel allows fingertip access to lights, wipers, turn signals, volume, and just about anything you might want to do. All without ever taking your hands away from 9 and 3. It’s awkward and unusual at first, but I found once my hands learned how to do everything I really appreciate the efficiency of it all.
The dual clutch transmission behaves nothing like Porsche PDK. With the Porsche cars you dramatically change the shifting personality of the car when switching between normal, sport, and sport plus modes. In sport plus a Porsche will hold gears longer and ambitiously downshift to keep you in torque. This means higher revs, which brings strong engine braking. That makes it easier to induce lift oversteer. That makes the car fun. When I drive a Porsche in Sport Plus mode I almost never need to flap the paddles. When I want high revs the transmission is already there.
The Ferrari is nothing like this. In the Ferrari the transmission will just follow your lead. If you're not heavy on the pedal the car will upshift all the way to 8th gear even at 40 mph (65 kph) and trundle along at 1000 rpm, even in "race" mode. The turbos give the engine enough torque that you won’t really mind, but it’s slow to kick down to a lower gear and doesn’t feel nearly as responsive as you’d think a Ferrari should. Just setting race mode doesn’t make the car feel racy at all.
What you have to do is hoon the car a bit. Floor it. Manhandle it through a corner. Turn sharp. Brake hard. A few seconds of being a hooligan and you start getting shifts with attitude. It will hold lower gears longer and resist upshifting. You get more revs more quickly. It's raucous.
And if you calm down, in a matter of seconds the car does too.
I’m growing to appreciate this Jeckll/Hyde behavior for a grand tourer like the Portofino. The more I develop the habit of using the shifter paddles the more I'm rewarded by the car. I can say, trundling along in 8th gear at Autobahn cruising speeds is truly a zen experience in this car as the road just whizzes by beneath you. In the twisties it feels lively and nimble.
Another interesting difference from Porsche is the traction control and stability control. In a Porsche GT car I get the sense that the engineering team has spent all their energy making the car as performant as possible. I have confidence that the software is always maximizing grip and performance as much as physics wil allow. In the Ferrari any hard acceleration sends the back tires squirming and wiggling. You fishtail a little bit, launching you forward in a flurry of drama. You look and feel like a driving god. That's the computers doing their magic. The Italians sacrificed some of those precious CPU cycles to the sense of occasion. It’s fun, but maybe a little bit affected.
Suitability (The Mission)
I held off creating the thread until we'd had the car for a bit. We've already been on one road trip (Santa Fe, NM) and according to my Road Trip app we've put about 55 miles (88 km) a day on it since we picked it up. In a few weeks we're headed back west to Park City, Utah and I'm sure we'll learn even more about the car on that drive as well. So far I'm super chuffed. There's no justifying the expense but I struggle to think of another car that's better suited for us and what we hope to do with it. It has absolutely exceeded my expectations so far. I'm sure equi will follow up with her thoughts...
Obligatory anti-frankiess pic:
Styling
The Portofino M is almost certainly the final car from Ferrari that features the softened angular design language that began with the 458 in 2009. The most recent cars (SF90, Roma, and 296) have kicked off an organic, curvier aesthetic. I really love how the newer cars recall a much classier era of Ferraris, but a high-tech, touch-screen, all-digital driver's experience is not what I'm looking for in an Italian car. I think Ferrari need a few more years of refinement before I would want to embrace the next generation. I’m quite happy buying the last of the old guard which is far more tested and solid. Relatively, of course.
We went with a "GT cruiser" spec. Lots of brown leather for @rickhamilton620 and absolutely no carbon fiber. I think it all fits the car's personality perfectly.
Performance
Caveat: we haven’t had this car out on track yet (other than a parade lap once) so this is entirely based on street driving and street performance.
The car is stupid fast and as the speed increases it gets fast faster. If that makes sense. I haven’t run any data but I swear it takes less time to get from 100 mph to 120 mph than it just took from 80 mph to 100 mph. And it's scary because I have no idea how long it can keep that up. We’ll need to get this car out at COTA to really know how it accelerates. Even lonely, straight highways in west Texas aren’t open enough to really run this thing.
Everything in this car is twitchy and on a hair trigger except for the throttle mapping. The brakes bite quicker than you’d expect. The steering rack is tight and requires very little input. Even the volume on the stereo adjusts a little bit faster than you want. Swapping back and forth between this and the Cayenne is jarring. In practice the tight controls allow for economy of motion to the driver. You can drive even very twisty mountain roads without ever having to shuffle steer. Hands at 9 and 3 will get you through most corners.
The crazy Ferrari steering wheel allows fingertip access to lights, wipers, turn signals, volume, and just about anything you might want to do. All without ever taking your hands away from 9 and 3. It’s awkward and unusual at first, but I found once my hands learned how to do everything I really appreciate the efficiency of it all.
The dual clutch transmission behaves nothing like Porsche PDK. With the Porsche cars you dramatically change the shifting personality of the car when switching between normal, sport, and sport plus modes. In sport plus a Porsche will hold gears longer and ambitiously downshift to keep you in torque. This means higher revs, which brings strong engine braking. That makes it easier to induce lift oversteer. That makes the car fun. When I drive a Porsche in Sport Plus mode I almost never need to flap the paddles. When I want high revs the transmission is already there.
The Ferrari is nothing like this. In the Ferrari the transmission will just follow your lead. If you're not heavy on the pedal the car will upshift all the way to 8th gear even at 40 mph (65 kph) and trundle along at 1000 rpm, even in "race" mode. The turbos give the engine enough torque that you won’t really mind, but it’s slow to kick down to a lower gear and doesn’t feel nearly as responsive as you’d think a Ferrari should. Just setting race mode doesn’t make the car feel racy at all.
What you have to do is hoon the car a bit. Floor it. Manhandle it through a corner. Turn sharp. Brake hard. A few seconds of being a hooligan and you start getting shifts with attitude. It will hold lower gears longer and resist upshifting. You get more revs more quickly. It's raucous.
And if you calm down, in a matter of seconds the car does too.
I’m growing to appreciate this Jeckll/Hyde behavior for a grand tourer like the Portofino. The more I develop the habit of using the shifter paddles the more I'm rewarded by the car. I can say, trundling along in 8th gear at Autobahn cruising speeds is truly a zen experience in this car as the road just whizzes by beneath you. In the twisties it feels lively and nimble.
Another interesting difference from Porsche is the traction control and stability control. In a Porsche GT car I get the sense that the engineering team has spent all their energy making the car as performant as possible. I have confidence that the software is always maximizing grip and performance as much as physics wil allow. In the Ferrari any hard acceleration sends the back tires squirming and wiggling. You fishtail a little bit, launching you forward in a flurry of drama. You look and feel like a driving god. That's the computers doing their magic. The Italians sacrificed some of those precious CPU cycles to the sense of occasion. It’s fun, but maybe a little bit affected.
Suitability (The Mission)
I held off creating the thread until we'd had the car for a bit. We've already been on one road trip (Santa Fe, NM) and according to my Road Trip app we've put about 55 miles (88 km) a day on it since we picked it up. In a few weeks we're headed back west to Park City, Utah and I'm sure we'll learn even more about the car on that drive as well. So far I'm super chuffed. There's no justifying the expense but I struggle to think of another car that's better suited for us and what we hope to do with it. It has absolutely exceeded my expectations so far. I'm sure equi will follow up with her thoughts...
Obligatory anti-frankiess pic:
Last edited:
