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Could it be, perhaps, this is a car aimed at ghastly track-day enthusiasts whose wives hate them? Certainly the idiotic four-point racing harnesses would suggest this to be so. Why would they be fitted otherwise? No really. All they say to me is: "You're going to have a crash so enormous, a normal seatbelt and an airbag won't be able to save you."

No matter. The upshot is 503bhp in a full-on fury car that weighs a full 100kg less than the standard version. And boy can you sense this on the road where it is unbelievably, staggeringly, joyously noisy. This is the one sensation you take away above all the others. The noise. The drone. The headache.

You are dimly aware of some speed, and surprisingly compliant suspension. You vaguely register the speed of the flappy paddle gearbox and how smoothly it changes these days. And then you have to have another Nurofen.

I loved it. I loved it because here was a Ferrari that drove like a Ferrari and had the passion of a Ferrari as well. It felt raw, and crude and dirty. It felt like its favourite item of clothing would be a mac, and that if you parked it up in suburbia, it would steal women's underwear from their washing lines and peep at all the housewives while they were showering.

And that's before I showed it a track, where it got better and better. I still maintain a flappy paddle gearbox doesn't work in everyday use - you try to parallel park on a hill - but in the Ferrari, on a track, the changes are so quick you don't feel them.

And then there's the braking. When I first tried carbon ceramic discs, just three years ago, on a McLaren Mercedes, I thought they were a silly spin off from Formula 1 that either squeaked if you used them gently, or hurled you through the windscreen if you were a bit more firm. Not any more. In the Scuderia, they stop you fast, and with feel, and endlessly. They are brilliant.

And so's the engine. Maybe there's a small torque hole in the standard car's V8, but there isn't in the Scuderia. It's a wall of power - and sound - all the way up to 8,700rpm.

And through the bends? Well it feels like a standard 430 - which is the highest praise - only a bit better, a bit livelier, a bit more willing to change direction. Apparently, it's so grippy that it can generate 1.5g. That's incredible.

Ferrari says that round its race track, the new car is quicker than an Enzo. Hmmm. Ferrari says that every new car they ever launch is quicker than everything else they've ever made. It is not as quick as an Enzo and that's an end of it. It does 0 to 60 in 3.6 seconds and does only 199 flat out. But it's much, much nicer to drive.

Yes, there's computer stuff. The e-diff talks to the traction system behind your back, for instance, but you feel part of the machine - you feel like you're in something created by enthusiasts, not technicians.

As you cannon out of a bend, marvelling at the wall of sound and the extraordinary grip, you are pinned in your seat, unaware that the ride height is down, or that the air is being parted more cleanly. All you care about is that you don't want it to stop.

As a driving machine, I know of nothing to match this. With a radio - a loud one, so you could hear it - a better looking body and proper seatbelts, it would be just about perfect.

With a honeymoon island, life is easy. Just pick the nearest. And the cheapest. With supercars, it's even easier. Just pick a 430 Scuderia.