First Drive: Ferrari Portofino

"The same sex, but a different type of customer," says Nicola Boari, head of Ferrari product marketing, adding that these new California customers hadn’t heard the word that you should only use their Ferraris on days with a blue moon.

“California customers use their cars 150 per cent more than typical owners of Ferrari sports cars,” he says. “They used their cars every day and 30 per cent of them used the rear seats.”

And when you consider that the California was launched just a Lehmann Brothers collapsed and the world’s finances imploded, it’s not done badly for itself, occupying 35 per cent of Ferrari's total sales, which last year numbered 8,398 vehicles. So these are an important bunch of Ferrari owners and they've taught the company a few lessons. 

“We had to learn new things," admits Boari. 

And a fair few of those new things have gone into this new replacement, the Portofino, named after a fashionable Italian Riviera village over 9,500km from California, which provided at least inspiration for Clough Williams-Ellis's Portmeirion and a full-sized replica at the Universal Studio resort in Orlando, Florida.

The car is all new but retains the same premise as the California, which is a front-engined, rear-drive sports car, with basically the same drivetrain: a bi-turbo V8 with 39 more brake horsepower and a rear seven-speed dual-clutch transaxle. 

The aluminium intensive body is new, but similarly sized as the California, being 16mm longer and 28mm wider - dealers told the factory that the size was about right. It's lighter by 80kg, thanks mainly to a lighter body construction and interior, and stiffer thanks to more integral construction and new under-floor panels. They've also spent some time disguising the height of the rear deck, with shapes and colours, though the space required by the folding hard top still makes this a rather weird-looking sports car. You can spend a King's ransom on the optional carbon-fibre panels, but actually the pure and unadorned shapes are quite modern and attractive.

The interior has been heavily reworked with a new and much-needed electronics package, and new air conditioning, centre touch screen and sat-nav system. You can even have Apple CarPlay, though it'll cost you £2,400 and you can't have Android Auto. Redesigned front seats are lighter and thinner, freeing up 5cm of rear leg room and the boot will carry up to three airline carry ons with the roof up. The redesigned dashboard is attractive if a bit busy and the driver's binnacle is a strange mix of analogue rev counter and digital speedometer and ancillary instruments.

That switch-festooned steering wheel might look great, but it takes some learning as it contains the indicators, horn, lights, damping, and traction and chassis-setting switches, plus the starter; the gear change paddles are fixed behind the wheel. Most of it becomes obvious after a while, but the indicators aren't well placed for the hands and the switch action is poor. The rest of the dash is mostly good, with clear graphics and a fast response from the sat nav. Some of the facia switch gear is a bit low rent though, with a grating action and wobbly dials.

The 3.9-litre V8 uses twin-scroll turbochargers for better low-speed pickup and engineers have reworked the air intakes to improve breathing and made a completely new big-bore exhaust with electronic valves in the rear silencer boxes to improve scavenging and the exhaust noise. It has variable boost technology to try to replicate the torque delivery of a naturally aspirated engine and the torque is capped in the lower gears to try and encourage the engine to rev harder. Raw figures are impressive for this 600PS/760Nm unit, with a top speed of 199mph, 0-62 in 3.5sec, EU Combined consumption of 26.4mpg and CO2 emissions of 245g/km.

It starts (relatively) quietly and the engine rasps when blipped. The driving position is good with lots of adjustment on the steering wheel and seat, but a very small pedal box which catches out those with big feet. You sit quite low and it's difficult to predict where the corners are, so manoeuvring isn't simple and you need to splash out £1,536 for a rear-parking camera. Similarly the dual-clutch transmission takes up drive slowly so shunting back and forth on light throttle openings isn't the most elegant procedure. 

Once under way, the ride is initially on the harsh side, but at speeds above 30mph, the magnetic-fluid enhanced damping reacts quickly and the ride is really quite good. Those 20-inch Pirellis ride relatively quietly though the rear suspension on our car was noisy and the passenger-side door rattled badly.

Get out of town and the Portofino comes into its own, with that extraordinary engine firing you up the road with a snarl and crackle from the quad exhaust snaps as you change up, though Comfort or Sport mode doesn't make a huge difference to the ride, gear changes or exhaust noise. For a turbocharged engine, the throttle response feels instantaneous and the power delivery is seamless and alarmingly abundant. At almost 1.7 tonnes, the Portofino is an immensely quick motor car, but it's also top-of-the-class stable as the stability electronics and the clever electronically controlled limited-slip differential work to keep the steering calm and the chassis planted on the road. Those carbo-ceramic disc brakes, too, are immensely powerful, though they squeal at low speeds and the pedal response is inconsistent until you are on it like jam on toast.

This is the second-ever Ferrari with electronic power steering (the F12 was first) and for the most part the system is precise with decent on-centre response, but it feels artificial, occasionally imparting too much torque on turning in and not giving an entirely accurate picture of the available grip. Fabrizio Toschi, Ferrari test driver says the polished roads of the Southern Italy launch location did the car no favours in this respect and we'll take him on trust, but certainly the Jaguar system in the F-Type gives more feedback.

All in all, however, the Portofino is absurdly easy to drive and live with and you need to keep reminding yourself that this is a 200mph sports car capable of carrying, well, two adults and two very small children and luggage. Ferrari has learned from its California customers, but the red cars from Maranello continue to perpetuate a predominantly male driving appeal and I don't think that's going to change until it produces its new SUV. For all that, however, Portofino, while rare, absurdly expensive and a bit weird to look at is a hugely likeable car. Give Portofino a go, girls, you might seriously like it.

The Numbers

Engine: 3,855cc, 90-degree V8 turbocharged 

Transmission: seven-speed dual-clutch, rear wheel drive via electronically controlled differential.

Power/Torque: 600PS (592bhp) @ 7,500rpm, 760Nm (560lb ft) at 3,000rpm

0-62mph: 3.5sec

Top speed: 199mph

Price as tested: £166,180 see text.