Tour de Force

A crop of new GTs shows the romance of touring is alive and well. Rob Scorah gets behind the wheel of a Ferrari 612 and finds his inner GT man

It's not easy to be romantic about driving these days, but if there's one thing that can still turn the most jaded petrol head dreamy-eyed, it's the letters GT. Even after years of dilution, of being slapped on the end of every faux-leather interiored, air-con upgraded, mass-market coupé, the term Gran Turismo still reverberates with cultural references and high aspirations.

It promises the freedom to get out and drive a long way. To breakfast in London and have dinner in Monaco or Cannes on a whim. It's the antithesis of the drones chained to the M25. Grand touring was a beloved ideal as far back as the 1960s and 1970s, long before the motorways became clogged. But has the recently upgraded crop of intercontinental bullets from Ferrari, Aston Martin or Bentley brought a new spirit to the genus? Is GT man enjoying a renaissance?

At the top of its class and definitive of the GT breed, Ferrari's 612 Scaglietti is a good choice for a trek. With a 540bhp V12 engine, it's a big machine, nearly as wide and as long as a Range Rover. But its low roof line, curved, muscular loins and rounded tail hark back to the Ferraris of the 1950s—driven by playboys and princes, these cars dominated the endurance races, such as the Carrera Panamericana and the Mille Miglia. And the 612's scalloped sides are a reference to the ultra-cool, one-off 1954 Ferrari 375MM that Italian film director Roberto Rossellini bought for his wife, the actress Ingrid Bergman. They give the car just a whiff of headscarves and big sunglasses on the Riviera.

The 612's interior is that of a luxury car, offering a rich contrast of textures—brushed aluminium, polished steel and hand-sewn leather. What's more, I feel supported, alert and in control in an infinitely variable series of driving positions. Some old Italian tourers—the magnificently flawed 1970 Lamborghini Espada comes to mind—had the driver sitting with bent legs and crooked ankles, wishing they could just get one knee out of the window for a better posture. In the comfort of the 612, on the other hand, the driver's concentration is allowed to focus on the road in front.

Behind the thick, leather steering wheel, the driver's fingers touch the cool, brushed-aluminium shift paddles. The 612 has a F1A six-speed, electro-hydraulic, semi-automatic transmission. Many people's hearts sink at the prospect of an automatic performance car, but the 612 is capable of changing gear in just 0.2 seconds. In fact, most of the big GTs are starting to use this Formula 1-derived technology. It allows you to drive with better poise and less energy, especially over distance. Just think of it as a very slick manual without a clutch.

Pushing a button on the steering wheel takes the transmission out of fully automatic mode and hands over gear-change control to the driver via those steering-wheel paddles. Press another button and the 612 goes into sport mode, recalibrating its suspension set-up, while gear-shift speeds and valve timings are remapped.

Though the ride is beautifully smooth, the almost two-ton 612 holds its body down firmly and the back end hunkers down under acceleration. Floor the pedal and you feel a superbike-like aggression. But you're shielded from it, and for that reason, probably more able to control it and live with it for longer periods on the road. Under 100mph, this car is still way within its limits. It reaches the low hundreds the way most cars hit 55mph, and with as much or as little drama as you want to add with your right foot.

Aston Martin, meanwhile, has also drawn on its back catalogue for inspiration. The current 470bhp, V12 DB9 recollects the curvaceous haunches and sultry mouth of the DB4, DB5 and DB6 from the 1960s. And, by association, it brings to mind the doyen of all GT men, James Bond.

But in the Ian Fleming books, as opposed to the films, Bond was very much a Bentley man. Bentley has fiercely held its ground in the top-class GT market. Indeed, Bentley can claim a long GT heritage and a real-life hero of its own in Woolf Barnato, the company's owner in the 1920s. Barnato took Bentley to victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and raced his own car (a Speed Six) against the express train Le Train Bleu all the way from Cannes to Calais. In proper GT-man form, he won.

Like the Aston and the Ferrari, the Bentley Continental GT uses a V12 engine, this one a 600bhp twin turbo-charged unit. Even bigger than the Ferrari, the car gets a fair amount of flak for being little more than a dressed-up VW Phaeton. It's always hard for ardent fans to see the brand diluted, but a great car has to be as much a set of ideas as a series of components for the anoraks to identify.

But it lives up to Bentley's ideals of a world-class GT. Ettore Bugatti used to call Barnato's cars the fastest lorries in Europe—and this is one damned fast and beautifully built lorry, uniting the essential GT elements of good looks, comfort and huge performance.

Elsewhere, Jaguar's XKR (and especially the high-performance XKR-S) also offers the required mix of comfort and performance, thanks to its 4.2 litre, V8 supercharged engine and a comfortable, gadget-filled interior.

Fulfilling the GT concept is a tough brief for any designer, as the GT driver is a complex and demanding character. For a start, the car's looks must be distinctive but not brash. What works for the flaunt-it-and-floor-it, traffic-light grand prix isn't suitable for crossing Europe. In that respect, the Ferrari fares better than Aston's DB9, or the larger-than-life presence of the Bentley, favoured by those keen on tinted windows and rims. And it's a proper GT will always look better in a sobre shade.

GT man, real or invented, always seems to be chasing singular dreams in his powerful, stylish vehicle. With a GT, it's not all about the money—wait a year and some of these cars will have dropped a big chunk of their value. But you don't need the latest model to live the dream. Show yourself to be a real connoisseur and choose a 1960s Maserati or Iso Griffo. A Jaguar XJS or well-kept 1970s Mercedes convertible will do just as well. What it's really all about is being yourself in your own world, naming the place and the state of mind you want to be in.

So the next time you're being siphoned through some speed-regulated motorway works, take a look out to the hills. You might see a lone sports car heading away to the horizon. That will be GT man, off on another mission.