The Latest News And Reviews
Throughout The Car Industry

A Ferrari FF in a Helicopter: One Great Piece of Video.

On: Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 4:16PM | By: Chris Weiss

Ferrari has been anything but shy when it comes to pictures and videos of its FF concept. We really thought we wouldn't see an FF video that came close to the last one, which featured the FF scorching nearly every type of terrain on Earth. But Ferrari's managed to come close, releasing a video clip of the FF being whisked into the Italian Dolomites, where it'll be made available to auto journalists for testing. As has been Ferrari's M.O. all along, it isn't doing any run-of-the-mill, dry-track testing; journalists will get to put the all-wheel-drive system to use on a specially-designed snow and ice course at Italy's Plan De Corones ski resort.

Ferrari has been doing its damndest to demonstrate that the FF won't be just any old Ferrari; it will be the most versatile Ferrari of all time, thanks to its 4RM all-wheel drive. The concept will go on to become Ferrari's entry into four-wheel-drive vehicles.

In its latest video, a CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter from Viterbo's 1st Regiment Antares lifts the FF model off the ground, and with the help three Agusta 205 helicopters from the 4th Regiment Altair from the Italian Air Force in Bolzano, swoops past rugged, chiseled Dolomite peaks and dizzying, snow-packed cirques to a final destination at around 7,010 feet. Skiers standing in line (or queue, if you prefer) watch as the helicopters swarm past and drop the bright-red FF at its final testing destination. Even in Europe, it's not every day you get to schuss alongside a brand-new, fresh-from-Geneva Ferrari.

Over the course of the next month, nearly 200 journalists from influential auto publications around the world will get their chance to test drive the FF under what Ferrari calls "fierce conditions" on the purpose-built winter driving course at the start of the ski resort. Journalists will access the course by ski lift, as that is the only means of transportation to get there.

What they'll find waiting for them after the lift ride is a V12-powered, four-wheel-drive, 2+2 Prancing Horse concept with 651 horses and 504 lb-ft of torque. The FF hits 62 mph in 3.7 seconds and tops out at 208 mph. As Ferrari's previous videos have demonstrated, the FF will allow journalists to cut through the Dolomite snow like a knife through butter.

We look forward to reading the first impressions and full reviews out of Italy. Until then, here's some sweet heli-Ferrari footage:

PRESS RELEASE

The FF at the top of Plan de Corones at 2,350 metres

Maranello, 10 March 2011 - Only a couple of days to go for the start of the FF tests by the press, where journalists from all over the world will drive the new V12 Ferrari for the first time on the roads of the Alto-Adige region: two Ferrari four-seaters with four-wheel drive have been taken to the top of Plan De Corones in the Dolomites at 2,350 metres, where a special ice and snow track has been prepared for the cars, located at the start of the vast ski area, where the journalists will test the cars under fierce conditions.

The cars have been taken to this area, which can only be reached by the ski-lifts, with a CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter from Viterbo's 1st Regiment Antares and the help of three Agusta 205 helicopters from the 4th Regiment Altair from the Italian air force in Bolzano. The cars were loaded into the transport helicopters and flown around the Dolomites, before they were carefully unloaded. In this much-anticipated event, with headquarters in Brunico, almost 200 journalists from the world's most important publications will participate over the next four weeks. After the great feedback generated by the FF at the Geneva car show now this revolutionary 12-cylinder from Ferrari is finally debuting on the road.

Photo Gallery (click a thumbnail to enlarge)