Oh, Baby, I'm in a Ferrari

Nov. 21, 2006 — -- If sex had a nationality, it would be Italian.

If it could live and breathe, it would be named Ferrari.

Sadly, not everyone can afford to drive one.

With the the latest edition to the Ferrari family, the sleek new Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, hitting the U.S. market this week, I finagled a meeting with Ferrari for a chance to see the modern muscle car firsthand -- and possibly even drive it.

Driving a Ferrari is a fantasy of any boy who has ever played with matchbox cars on the carpet of his parents' living room. I owned several when I was a kid.

Getting up close and personal with one of these powerful world-class racing machines was a unique opportunity and a dream come true. And it didn't disappoint.

Ferrari's North American headquarters is a 20-minute drive from ABC News' Manhattan offices.

The Ferrari headquarters is located on an unassuming suburban street, close to a Cadillac dealership, several community banks and gas stations -- not the ultratrendy modern neighborhood one might associate with an Italian muscle car.

The headquarters itself didn't have lots of Ferraris in the parking lot. And I was surprised to see there wasn't one displayed in the main showroom.

In fact, there wasn't anything in the showroom except a few red leather chairs, the receptionist, a few Ferrari posters and a foot-long model of an old model Ferrari.

Shortly after my arrival, an Italian man walked out and introduced himself as Matteo Sardi -- the public-relations manager for Ferrari in North America.

Matteo walked me to a downstairs garage to meet Andy Shaffer, a manager at Ferrari, which of course has one of the best jobs in America.

As my Ferrari minders, Andy sold me on the car and Matteo drove home the point that the car was definitely Italian.

I was about to feast on the 599 GTB, which two weeks ago had its North American rollout in the Pan American 20,000, a three-month race from Brazil to New York.

"This is the maximum of what we can do," Andy said. "This is the quickest production Ferrari ever made."