Four-seat Ferrari FF announced

FF stands for Ferrari Four, signifying that the car has four seats and four-wheel drive; it will be the Italian manufacturer's first 4x4.

The FF was shaped by Pininfarina, a design house responsible for a number of previous Ferrari models. It has an extended roofline which gives it a silhouette that is vaguely similar to that of the closed versions of BMW's Z3 and Z4, a feature that is presumably intended to improve headroom for rear seat passengers. The FF's four-seat layout is, perhaps, a response to the Porsche Panamera and Aston Martin Rapide but unlike those cars it has two, rather than four, doors. Boot capacity, at 450 litres, is generous.

Ferrari says that its new drive-train, which it calls 4RM, is much lighter than other four-wheel drive systems. It is paired with a 6.3-litre V12 engine producing 660 horsepower at a high 8,000 rpm; the gearbox is a transaxle dual-clutch type. The company claims a 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) time of 3.7 seconds, and a top speed of 335 km/h – that's over 200 mph.