IT SEEMS Ferrari may have wasted its time re-engineering the latest GTC4Lusso V12-engined coupe-hatchback-shooting brake wagon for a V8 engine. What is the aim? To slice some dollars off the car to lure more buyers?

That’s unlikely. Ferrari is often the recipient of buyers who don’t need to ask the price. The reason the V8 has been borrowed from Ferrari’s own California T convertible is to appeal to the Chinese market where the V12 cops an enormous increase in road taxes.

But if the goal was to make it easier for Chinese buyers to own a four-seat Ferrari, then it has rebounded perfectly into other markets by introducing a sweeter, more involved driving experience that loses a fair amount of weight and gains a lot of athleticism that the V12 lacks.

The GTC4Lusso T (the numeral 4 is the number of seats, Lusso means luxury and the T indicates turbocharging) is the rear-wheel-drive, V8-engined sibling to the “other” GTC4Lusso, the V12 that has all-wheel drive courtesy of a curious front-drive mechanism.

Both look identical to each other and even carry over the architecture, including the wheelbase dimension, from the Ferrari FF (Ferrari Four, for seats and driven wheels) that preceded the GTC4 and sold from 2011 to 2016. Effectively, it’s the same car with a new name, the V8 option, a facelift and a new cabin.

The GTC4Lusso T (let’s call it the T) is obviously for the well heeled and, rather surprisingly, is incredibly docile and well mannered making it plausible commuting transport. So what does it have and how does it sit against other four-seat expotic rivals?