Assume for a moment that you won the lottery, or at least married Paris Hilton, so maybe $23,500 doesn't sound like much. But those of us with more modest means are bound to have a different reaction when it comes to cars like the Ferrari 575M Maranello and its newly available GTC Handling Package, which adds $23,500 to the $235,539 price of the F1-gearbox-equipped model.
A $23,500 handling package? A nice new Mazda Miata--the whole car--goes for around that much.
Regardless, that extra $23,500 offers up state-of-the-art ceramic brakes, a stiffer suspension, sport exhaust, stickier tires and special wheels, and adjusted calibration for the paddle-shift sequential F1 six-speed transmission.
The improvements are essentially imperceptible. But this is Ferrari, where improvements are made not when needed, but when possible. It isn't as though anyone has been criticizing the performance of the 575M. But Ferrari says that already 45 percent of the 575M customers were opting for the firmer Fiorano suspension, 85 percent for the F1 gearbox, and the company noted a "growing request for brake technology developments and sport exhaust." Granted, some Ferrari loyalists have complained that the 575M's V-12 doesn't produce a sufficiently compelling exhaust note, particularly at lower rpm. But those requests for "brake technology developments" easily boil down to this complaint: "The Enzo and the 360 Challenge Stradale have ceramic brakes, so why can't we?"
Now you can, and, undeniably, these Brembos are a work of art. Up front, the discs are 15.7 inches in diameter and 1.4 inch thick, with six-piston calipers and special brake ducting. In the rear, the discs are 14.2 inches in diameter and 1.3 inches thick, with four-piston calipers. Special alloy wheels are wrapped with Pirelli P Zero Corsas (255/35ZR19 front, 305/30ZR19 back). The front brakes are such a tight fit inside those wheels that, separately, you'd swear they'd never fit.
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