When we spotted a new iPhone app on Ferrari’s Facebook pages, we instantly had to investigate. It turned out to be a genuine Ferrari factory approved app that brought you real recordings of the current car range. App downloaded and installed we took a 458 for a test drive. Tap on the photo and you get a dashboard replica and the engine starts automatically. Shame there’s no actual engine start button. You’re in neutral so tap the UP shift button to go through the gears. Tilting your iPhone increases the throttle. You get the full rev range recorded for real at Ferrari’s Fiorano test track, allegedly. Just where did they find the room to hit the 320km/h speed we saw in 7th gear ?!

Sounds are rich and raucous, and we found the experience quite evocative. Main instruments are reproduced faithfully and simply, but we yearned for a visual feast. Maybe the experience of too many racing games left us wanting to see a representation of the Maranello test track, as a challenge to match revs and gears to. You could of course, plug your iPhone into your car’s radio system and try to match the driver’s gear and throttle inputs, and thus change your Fiesta into a Ferrari! Avoid the Automatic Speedometer option as you’ll want to change ratios manually for a fulfilling fling. The 430 Scuderia, presented in Race mode suffers slightly from a sort of synthetic stepping in lower rev range on accelerator lift-off, but we can live with that. We also found it difficult to replicate the throttle blipping that you might use in the real world. Put your phone flat on a table to momentarily attend to some other pressing, more meaningful purpose, and you’ll find a full 9,000rpm screaming at you! Quit the app though, and the sound fades graciously. Overall the deeper growling sounds of the 599 GTB or California are more relaxing. To compliment the aural attacks you’ll find some technical spec pages and image galleries, but that’s your lot.

In the UK you have to shell out UKP 1.19 (US$ ) for the privilege of generating a Ferrari fanfare. Whilst cheap, you can’t help wondering when you will ever use it once you’ve proved your geekiness down the local pub. In sum, not an app you’ll keep using for long. If it was free it would be a good PR exercise for the manufacturer, but as a paid app it leaves us with a slightly vacant, is-that-it feeling.