Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends Sports class brings the best Italy has to offer

The first Test Drive video game was released back in 1987. The franchise was then owned by Accolade, and it featured the Lamborghini Countach, the Ferrari

Testarossa, the Lotus Esprit Turbo, the Porsche

911 Turbo and the C4 Chevrolet Corvette. Though small, that's not a bad selection of cars for a title when video games we're just hitting their awkward adolescent phase.

Fast-forward 25 years. Video games have come of age, and the Test Drive franchise--now owned by Atari--will release its 16th title, Ferrari Racing Legends for Xbox and PlayStation 3 this summer. We gave you the overview in February, but now its time for specifics.

Ferrari Racing Legends will feature 36 tracks and nearly 50 cars under three main umbrellas: Sport, GT and Monoposto. Today, we have an exclusive preview of the cars in the Sport class.

-- 1947 Ferrari 125 S

-- 1951 Ferrari 212 Export Vignale Spyder

-- 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa

-- 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO

-- 1967 Ferrari 330 P4

-- 1989 Ferrari F40 LM

-- 1994 Ferrari 333 SP

-- 1995 Ferrari F355 Challenge

-- 1997 Ferrari F50 GT

-- 2005 Ferrari FXX

-- 2006 Ferrari F430 Challenge

-- 2009 Ferrari F458 Italia

Each Prancing Horse model is rendered with a fully detailed cockpit. A first-person driver model will interact realistically with the controls. For example, if a player switches gears in the game, the virtual driver's hand will reach down and move the shifter.

Additionally, publisher Slightly Mad Studios made sure the game works with multiple driving wheel controllers, exhibiting the proper force feedback and responsiveness.

Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends will be available before the end of spring, and autoweek.com will have a full review before it hits store shelves. We might even have a few copies to give away.

By Jake Lingeman