This is without a doubt the most wildly entertaining device ever fitted to a production car. It’s called “launch control” and it does exactly what the launch control in Michael Schumacher’s Formula One Ferrari does when the starting lights go out on race day.

It works like this: at a standstill you push a button on the console of the Ferrari Challenge Stradale, then you mash the throttle and watch the rev counter swing past 8000rpm. Take your foot off the brake and the car’s computer engages the clutch as fast as it can without breaking anything. The result is an unholy yowl from the engine and the screech of spinning tyres accompanied by clouds of smoke as the rubber vaporises.

Try this dramatic getaway around any of the small villages outside Ferrari’s home town of Maranello and the proud locals will cheer, although I can’t guarantee the same result in Milton Keynes.

Launch control also provides the real clue as to what this new Ferrari is all about. The Challenge Stradale aims to give drivers a racing car experience in a road-legal package. It is based on the 360 Modena but incorporates a raft of technology from the competition-only derivative of the 360.

The Challenge Stradale costs £133,025, some £23,250 more than a regular Modena equipped with its own version of the F1 gearbox. But it is 243lb lighter, develops an amazing 50% more aerodynamic downforce to keep it stuck to the road and deploys an explosive V8 with 25bhp more than standard. In addition, it uses F1-derived carbon-ceramic brakes that can be absolutely hammered without fading.

Ferrari’s engineers reduced the car’s weight by using super-light titanium on some parts of the suspension, carbon fibre on things such as door panels and interior trim, and a specially constructed aluminium floorpan that’s half as heavy as the standard item. The results are spectacular. Here is a car that will leap from 0 to 62mph in 4.1sec and won’t stop accelerating until 186mph.

The gearbox is an F1-style electrohydraulic set-up that you operate with paddles behind the steering wheel, flipping the right one to change up and the left to shift down. (There is no fully automatic mode, unlike in the less focused 360 Modena F1.) The Stradale can make you look and sound like a hero. As I headed south out of Maranello over fast, sweeping roads it consummately dispatched long lines of slower traffic, leaving a glorious V8 scream in its wake. A Hollywood producer looking for a soundtrack for his racer-guy movie would go nuts for it, a baritone bark that hardens at about 4000rpm into a soul-stirring wail.

Then, when you shift down, the engine management computer delivers a glorious, perfectly matched blip of the throttle before the gear is engaged. Phone your mates and let them hear the noise as you zap up and down the gearbox and they’ll think you’re Schuey himself. No need to mention that the car’s F1 shift and its Nasa-grade brain are doing all of the hard work.

The Challenge Stradale’s handling is equally user-friendly. It rides on specially made, soft-compound Pirelli P-Zero tyres that provide not only sensational grip but a good ride, too, despite the lowered and stiffened suspension that enables the car to change direction instantaneously.

And so to Ferrari’s test track at Fiorano, where Schumacher shakes down his Sunday car. A couple of laps with Ferrari test driver Dario Benuzzi demonstrate the Stradale’s exceptional ability. He is playing the shift paddles with great flourishes, like a pianist, as he grabs another gear. The sensations are pure racer, the acceleration and braking brutal, way beyond anything a regular road car could handle.

The Challenge Stradale is a breathtaking experience, and I can’t imagine being able to stretch to £110,000 and not wanting to go the extra £23,000 for what you get over and above the 360 — a track-day car that you can drive every day.

Ferrari reckons it will sell about 60 Challenge Stradales a year to confirmed enthusiasts of the marque. They’ll be the sort of people who will know about options such as the “rosso scuderia” paint scheme, which is about as extreme as it gets among Ferrari anoraks.

Why? Well, television cameras slightly distort the true Ferrari red, which would appear too dark left to its own devices, so the F1 cars are painted a more neon-tinted hue that looks right when broadcast. And, for a price, Ferrari will paint your road-going Challenge Stradale that same brighter red.

An amusing detail, no question, but not nearly as hysterical as launch control.

Vital statistics

Model Ferrari Challenge Stradale
Engine type V8, 3586cc
Power/Torque 425bhp @ 8500rpm / 275 lb ft @ 4750rpm
Transmission Six-speed semi-automatic
Suspension (front and rear) double wishbones, coil springs, anti-roll bar
Fuel/CO2 15.8mpg (combined) / 415g/km
Acceleration 0 to 62mph: 4.1sec
Tyres (front) 225/35 ZR19; (rear) 285/35 ZR19
Price £133,025
Verdict A sensationally good drive that will also flatter the driver by doing all the hard work. The noise of the engine is just about worth the extra cash on its own