Ferrari Roma

That relentless irritant Chris Evans paints all his Ferraris white. Well, he doesn’t do it himself, obviously; I expect he gets a man in. Either way, I’ve always thought that’s a pretty terrible thing to do to a Ferrari. And then along comes a hen’s teeth-rare opportunity to get behind the wheel of a Roma, and it’s white. Utterly body-in-white white…

Credit where credit’s due, though; it’s a testament to the quality of the great Flavio Manzoni’s design work that Ferrari’s latest 2+2 Gran Turismo wears it so well.

Manzoni cites the marvellous 250 GT as the inspiration for the Roma’s svelte couture. However, I get more than a whiff of Ferrari’s most beautiful GT, the 365 GTB/4 -dubbed Daytona- from both bows and stern. The slope of the front wing from atop the wheel arch to the nose, allied to a headlamp side placement that mirrors the location of the stunning predecessor’s indicator lamp strikes me as pure Daytona. And astern, the recessed transom of yore reappears, paired 365 GTB/4 circular lights now replaced by modern slivers inset into the top lip in the manner of running lights in the leading edge of an aircraft wing.

In truth, photographs do the Roma no real justice. Those 250 GT-aping hips appear somewhat over matronly and the plane of the bonnet perhaps a tad over sculpted… Have no fear, in the flesh it all fits together fabulously.

On board, I must confess, I’m not so sold. From a driver’s perspective, everything is pretty much where we left it in the fabulous F8 Tributo, but all the switchgear except the steering wheel-mounted manettino has vanished, replaced by capacitive multi-touch controls. And the driver’s instrument binnacle is now a 16-inch curved HD screen which you can personalise, and must be navigated via a touchpad on the steering wheel.

One of the great Ferrari cockpit joys is the huge yellow rev counter that sits dead centre in the driver’s binnacle. But the lovely, crisp, analogue instrument found in the F8 has vanished, and been replaced by a fuzz-centred digital replica which simply does not pass muster.

Gone too are door handles, air-conditioning and door mirror adjustment switchgear, and manual volume control for the radio -though I honestly can’t remember ever having listened to the radio in a Ferrari. Point is, driving a car such as this is supposed to be a feast for all the senses; that’s always been a substantial chunk of the Ferrari appeal. And in this respect, relegating the cockpit experience to that of touch-pad and -screen fiddle cuts no mustard at all.

It’s still largely a lovely place to be, mind, with passenger participation abetted by a digital panel which will furnish the other half with enough information about what the car is up to to enable them to shout at you with the greater vigour of the better informed.

I wouldn’t subject anyone but the very small to the rear accommodation, but am happy to report that with the seat back folded you can actually transport a replacement B&Q glass shower screen with only minimal jostling for position.

Now, Enzo Ferrari used to say that when you bought one of his cars, you paid for the engine and got the rest for free. Given a car sporting some £50,054 worth of optional extras, I’m not sure the Roma I drove entirely subscribes to that adage, but Ferrari’s serial award-winning 3.9 litre twin-turbo V8 remains an extraordinary unit.

For installation in the Roma, the engine has been awarded new cam profiles, more aggressive valve lift profiles for both intake and exhaust, a revamped exhaust that uses an oval-shaped flap rather than a traditional silencer, and a revised catalytic converter and gas particulate filter…

Forget all notions of turbo lag; there simply isn’t any. Variable Boost Management software adjusts torque delivery to suit whichever gear you’re in and, via a new eight-speed dual-shift transmission nicked from the SF90 Stradale, throttle response is instantaneous. The attendant noises off could never hope to match the V12 utterances of the 812 Superfast or, indeed, the glorious old Daytona, but the baritone bark will still have the hairs on the back of your neck trooping the colour as the 7,500rpm redline approaches.

Thing is, however, with 124mph coming up in 9.3 seconds from a standstill, you’ll be travelling astonishingly quickly by then, and at the time of year in which I drove the Roma, you’d have had more luck making love standing up in a hammock than you would getting proper heat into the tyres. Not that I could finger flick my way to a display screen showing tyre temperature anyway -galling.

Fabulous composure and wonderful brakes it may boast, but combine these with cutpurse-quick steering and razor-sharp reflexes and the cold weather Roma demands your close attention pretty much at all times. Its marginally more languid GT manners only really shine through on a motorway, and that’ll immediately leave you yearning for unrestricted tarmac on which this glorious powertrain can chew through continents at TGV pace.

Ultimately, then, the gorgeous Roma left me wanting more: more warmth in the air, more heat in the tyres, more certainty of grip with which to push harder towards limits which, on damp, cold, late autumn Mudfordshire roads, remained resolutely out of reach. Frustrating, but still fabulous.