And now, as we squirt up a straight road towards the autostrada, the distant front wheels are climbing ridges and white lines, making the nose move about without telling me anything of this through the steering. There seems to be a worrying interface of rubber squidge between me and the road. This is going to be one intimidating car once the masses are working hard in fast corners.But, good grief, it is fast. The vista seems to compress as I let the engine reach its 7,600rpm limit, the mid-speed bass note morphing into an edgy, saxophonic blare as the revs rise.

And no one objects to the spectacle, because this is a Ferrari in Italy and something to be celebrated.And, to my surprise as I am not a lover of these things, the F1A shift is proving to be a delight. I pull open the long door, whose hinges push its front edge away from the body as it opens, just like the door of a Matchbox toy; optimum access is the aim, helped for rear passengers by front seats which automatically ease forward when the backrest is tilted.Sit in, gaze at the ample aluminium detailing among the lagoons of leather, feel annoyed that the dashboard badge is a cheap piece of plated plastic. Start the engine, listen to its burbly tickover, pull the right-hand paddle for first gear.It feels big as we slowly nose out into the busy traffic. It is waiting in a piazza within the Scaglietti factory, hefty and curvy and growing on me fast.

Derived from the already monstrous motor currently used in the Ferrari 575 Maranello, it is feast of crackle-red and aluminium, fed by a hefty pair of air ducts. It sends its ample outputs to a rear-mounted trans-axle which can — for a heady £7,000 — be an F1A unit with paddle shifts, a credible automatic mode (hence the “A”) and no clutch pedal.Ferrari says that 95 per cent of the buyers who have already bagged the first 18 months of production (without even driving the 612 — faith indeed) have specified the F1A.So it is fitting that the car I am about to drive is so equipped. On my desk I have a piece of Ferrari. It is a curl of aluminium shard from one of millions of such fettlings which lie shin-deep in the chassis-grinding room at Stabilimento Scaglietti, Modena. This enables people to couple the usual Drivethedeal discounts with finance as low as 9.9 per cent for a PCP. Drivethedeal has recently launched a new finance service allowing motorists to order cars through their site on either Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) or Hire Purchase (HP).Once you have chosen the car and saved possibly thousands of pounds, you can then generate your own finance quote over two, three or four years with or without maintenance. This will appeal to people who would like to take advantage of Drivethedeal’s discounts and spread payments over the period of ownership.”If you think that leasing is for you, always ask yourself two questions: firstly, do I want to own the car at the end of the leasing period? Secondly, what will I actually be paying under the terms of the lease, or the actual cost of the finance? If you don’t want to keep the car, and indeed prefer to change to a new model every few years, and you think that the price you are being asked to pay for that freedom and new-car reliability is fair, then leasing may be for you..