Ferrari 599 GTO in Beijing

This is the Ferrari 599 GTO, the company's fastest ever road-going car.

The GTO is powered by a 661bhp six-litre V12 with 457lb ft of torque, propelling it to 60mph from standing in just 3.4secs and on to a top speed of 208mph. It is linked to a six-speed gearbox which can shift in 60 milliseconds.

See the Ferrari 599 GTO pictures

The car delivers peak power at 8250rpm, but Ferrari says fluid dynamics and component improvements mean there is no loss of flexibility even at low and medium revs.

In order to achieve its pace, Ferrari says the car, which will be limited to just 599 units, shares more with the hardcore track-focused 599XX than the production model 599.

Examples of this cross-over of knowledge include the car's ability to generate 144kg of downforce at 120mph, says Ferrari. This has been achieved through changes to the nose of the car, where a front spoiler incorporates a separate lower wing, and the adoption of F1 style wheel doughnuts, a disc positioned outside the brake disc, that ensure hot air exiting the wheel arch stays close to the side of the body and reduces drag.

By using thinner aluminium and glass, Ferrari has also been able to save weight over the standard 599. Coupled with the carbon-ceramic brakes, and lightweight transmission and exhaust systems, the 599 GTO has a dry weight of 1495kg, and delivers a power-to-weight ratio of 448bhp per tonne.

The main changes from the standard 599 are focused on the chassis, however, with Ferrari engineers keen to find the optimum balance between electronic driver aids and a body set-up fine-tuned to be close to the limit.

Ferrari claims that the result is “the almost complete absence of understeer and a truly communicative chassis.”

An indication of the car's pace is given by its lap record beating run around Ferrari's test track at Fiorano. The company claims it lapped the circuit in 1min 24sec - a second faster than the previous record set in a Ferrari Enzo.

Inside the cabin, the GTO has been fitted with longer and more user-friendly carbonfibre gearshift paddles. While the standard 599 has an 'ice' traction setting, it is replaced in the 599 GTO by a CT-Off function which turns traction control off.

The car is also fitted with Virtual Race Engineer, which monitors the status of the car and gives feedback on vehicle performance.

Ferrari has used the GTO tag, which stands for Gran Turismo Omologata, twice before, for the 250 GTO released in 1962 and the GTO, released in 1984.

No prices have been released, but a leaked brochure for the car last month - which Ferrari denied was accurate - suggested a starting price of around £285,000.