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Sitting outside my office window right now is a Ford GT, a big, hulking lesson in menace and power. It's as savagely beautiful as any volcanic eruption.

I'd sooner sell my nose than sell the Ford again, but even I will admit that, as a driving machine, it is no match for the Ferrari 430.

Oh, sure, on an autobahn, the baby Ferrari doesn't have the speed or the relentlessness of the monster Ford, but there's a crispness and a deftness to the 430 which makes it utterly bewitching everywhere else.

It starts with the noise - a mechanical howl - and it moves via the electronic diff through the seat of your pants and into your fingertips. You should really try this car on a switchback mountain road in the south of France. James May did and he was much, much faster out there than I was in the big Ford.

In the hands of a proper driver, it would be just about unbeatable. In fact, I saw Tiff Needell on Fifth Gear the other night, tearing round Snetterton in a 430 and it was, quite literally, poetry in motion.

Unlike its predecessor, the 360, it's not at all twitchy or frightening. Its back end does not kick sideways when you change down and the oversteer, when it comes, is not as sudden as a lightning bolt.

It is said that a reasonable everyday driver can get a 430 round the Fiorano track only one second slower than the test drivers.

Honestly, being inside is like watching the world from inside a high-speed camera. The world is flashing past at an almost comedic pace, but you're viewing it all in slow motion.

You have time to deal with the issues, and time to reflect on how much fun it all is. In essence, it's like a roller coaster: you get the thrills, but you never really think you're going to die.

The Ferrari doesn't feel like any other car. It feels like what all other cars aspire to be. And it also feels like it was made to last. It's epic.

Read Ferrari F430 Car Review