Everyone a bit skint then?
With Bentley wedging a diesel under the Bentayga's bonnet, and now Ferrari popping a downsized turbocharged V8 into its GTC4Lusso, you might think the super-rich are feeling the pinch. They're not. The new GTC4Lusso T serves one purpose, which is to help shift more in China where tax laws punish cars of greater than 4.0-litre capacity.
Thing is, this downsizing lark sounds pretty good to us; after all, the GTC4Lusso T might lose four cylinders, but it also bins its V12 big brother's four-wheel drive. This, then, is very much a Maranello take on tax avoidance, and the numbers stack up nicely, with 610hp and 760Nm from that blown V8, and a 0-62mph time just 0.1 seconds slower than the V12 model, at 3.5 seconds. It'll also manage 198mph, though your richer pals in their V12 can all laugh at your poorness as they pull away adding another 10mph on top of that.
Anything else?
Inevitably, chucking all that four-wheel drive hardware in the bin will have meant the chassis engineers have been busy. The GTC4Lusso T has its rear-wheel steering reconfigured to suit the different turn-in characteristics of the rear-driven car, while Ferrari's epic electronic arsenal of driver controls has been tweaked accordingly, too. Expect it to be a pretty sensational thing then, Ferrari promising it'll have zero turbo lag thanks to Variable Boost Management and variable torque curves between third and seventh gears for consistent, linear acceleration.
It must be lighter, too?
Yes, though the GTC4Lusso T still has a dry weight of 1,740kg, so it's no lightweight, but significantly it shifts some of its weight bias more rearwards for a 46/54 front-to-rear split. Sounds good to us.
Fun for four, still?
This is Ferrari's most practical car, by some margin, so four fit in just fine. There's an upgrade on the entertainment system if the V8 lacks the aural charm of the 12, but we seriously doubt that. If it matters to you, and it won't, it'll return 24mpg officially (good luck with that), and emits 265g/km of CO2. The latter figure is not quite enough to see it sneak under the UK's top whack for road tax, sadly. No prices as yet, but expect it to start at about £200,000 before you've ticked a single option box.
Kyle Fortune - 22 Sep 2016
