Ferrari 599XX

The Ferrari 599XX made its public debut at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show. For some reason, back then, it missed the AUSmotive rounds. Although the car was featured here a few weeks ago thanks to Steve Sutcliffe and Autocar. Sutcliffe was the first non-Ferrari person to drive the car and he described the experience as “absolutely chuffing mervellous”.

Now, of course, the 599XX is back in the media spotlight thanks to its sub-7 minute lap time at the NÃ¼rburgring Nordschleife. Ferrari are claiming that as some sort of record, with various caveats attached. But how do you categorise a car of which less than 30 will be made, can only be driven on the track, and will never be raced? Anyway, more on that later.

For now, just feast your eyes on the pics after the jump and think what you would do with a specially engineered 6.0 litre V12 producing 540kW if it came up to you in that chassis and asked “how you doin'”.

Ferrari have broken the 7 minute barrier around the Nordschleife with their limited 599XX hyper car. The time set was 6 minutes 58.16 seconds. At the wheel was long time Ferrari factory test driver Raffele De Simone.

Ferrari claim this is a new lap record for production-derived sports cars. That’s a wink and a nod to the Radical SR8LM, which set a lap time of 6 minutes 48 seconds in August last year.

The 599XX features a specially developed 6.0 litre V12 engine, producing around 540kW of power, and is a track-only car based on the 599 GTB Fiorano. The 599XX also inspired the recently launched 599 GTO.

Let’s leave the semantics over rights to be claiming records to one side for a moment and simply revel in what is a truly stunning lap. Doesn’t matter who makes them, what their daily capabilities are, anything that can lap the Ring in under 7 minutes is a very special car.

Video of the lap can be seen after the jump, along with extra pics, all accessible as wallpaper-friendly 2000px super images.