Supercars - Ferrari - Enzo
Ferrari Enzo Review
Andy Enright Takes
Time Out To Consider The Significance Of
Ferraris Latest Hypercar
The trouble with Ferrari
is that its a marque beloved by the fawning
sycophant. Objectivity is lost in the
clamour for favour, to be there at the
hallowed gates of Maranello when the latest
model is launched. Only with the benefit of
hindsight and the safety net of consensus
can a Ferrari be critically acclaimed.
Theres little reason to suggest the Enzo
Ferrari will be different.
Gushing hyperbole will crash over it, but
early indications hint that Ferrari may have
got this one right where it got the F50 so
wrong.
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Many Ferraris are
predictable. You win the lottery, play for a
Premiership football team or make it big in
dotcom insolvency and chances are youll buy
a Ferrari.
A red one. Some would call it definitive,
others formulaic.
For those who dont want to tread this path,
for the truly monied tifosi, Ferrari has
long offered alternatives. Cars that tread
the fine line between genius and reckless
folly, hypercars that have become standard
bearers for the whole Ferrari brand.
"The Enzo is brutal, angular, and from some
angles spectacularly ugly."
The mid eighties 288GTO was the first, the
most beautiful and became one of the most
sought after sports cars of its era. Next
came the seminal F40, launched in 1987 but
still held by many to be the greatest road
car ever. The F50 was next, representing
Ferrari attempting to sell F1 technology to
the masses. Hugely powerful but poorly
packaged, the F50s rarity alone will
guarantee demand.
Only 350 were ever built. The Enzo follows
in this tradition and aims to demolish all
previous yardsticks of road car performance
and handling. As Luca di Montezemolo,
Ferraris dapper supremo noted, "We wanted to
go further with a road car design than our
company has ever gone before. I had to be
sure everyone understood that this was to be
a super-extreme Ferrari, so I asked our
designers and engineers to go a little too
far with their work in the beginning,
knowing that they could restrain the design
and technology a little, if necessary." At
first glance it appears that little
restraint was in fact required. The Enzo is
brutal, angular, and from some angles
spectacularly ugly. Theres a functionality
about it thats beautiful though and in a
world where Renault Clios are described as extreme, the Enzo
does justice to the term. The huge butterfly
doors with their arching window lines, the
F1-style frontal treatment, the exposed
mid-mounted engine, the warty tail lights
and the box section flanks make a Lamborghini Murcielago or a McLaren F1 look decidedly
mass market.
The work is credited to Lorenzo Ramaciotti,
MD of Pininfarina and Diego Ottina, a
Pininfarina veteran, along with aerodynamic
expert Stefano Carmassi. Work started at
Pininfarinas Cambiano studio in early June
1998 and three studies were subsequently
created before being whittled down to one in
January 2000. Project leader Giuseppe
Petrotta was the ringmaster charged with
project managing the Enzo build. The results
are a testament to his Formula One
expertise.
With a 6.0-litre V12 generating 660bhp,
shifting a mere 1365kg shouldnt present too
many problems. 62mph flashes by in 3.65
seconds, 124mph in 9.
5seconds and the maximum speed hovers
somewhere around 217mph. Whilst the McLaren
F1s speed record of 241mph is safe for the
time being, itd be a brave man whod back the
McLaren to put a lick on the Enzo around a
race track. Fitted as standard with Ferraris
F1 sequential manual paddle shift gearchange,
the Enzo is far from the raw, back to basics
racer the F40 was. Traction control, launch
control and the most astonishing set of
brakes fitted to any road car all make the
team sheet.
Those stoppers are huge Brembo carbo-ceramic
numbers, specially designed for the Enzo and
which are effective from cold and can
generate the sort of deceleration trauma
when hot last witnessed when the captain of
HMS Nottingham decided to nip downstairs for
a cup of char. Likewise the Bridgestone
Potenza RE050 Scuderia tyres were custom
designed for the Enzo. Little more than
hand-cut slicks they can deliver monstrous
grip in the dry, although its doubtful too
many owners will want to take their £425,000
toy out if the weather looks like its on the
turn. Recent V12 Ferraris have gained
something of a reputation for being somewhat
shy in the vocal department.
The Enzo rectifies this. Reassuringly quiet
at ambling speeds in order to pass EU
drive-by noise regulations, depress the
accelerator a few inches and it clears its
throat with the most primal bellow. Theres
nothing synthetic about this sound, its just
the sound of automotive fury. Inside the
claustrophobically dark cabin the aural
barrage directly behind your head threatens
to climb through the bulkhead.
A proper Ferrari engine, then. Acceleration
defies description just keep your eyes open
and hang on. Here is a synthesis of
electronic governance and ridiculous power
that works. The control systems add to the
driving experience rather than detract from
it, but the temptation to switch them off,
to experience 660bhp with nothing more than
your right foot to marshal them will be too
great for some.
Yet somebody is going to be the first to bin
an Enzo, to be the poster boy on
www.wreckedexotics.com. That would be too
much to stomach.
Michael Schumacher recommends you keep the
traction control switched on and Id concur
with Schuey. Being impervious to fawning
hyperbole, the final judgement. Its a
dreadful car, Ferraris worst in living
memory. Its neither quick enough nor good
looking enough to be remembered as a future
classic, only its rarity making it in any
way memorable.
And as you might well deduce, Im a
singularly unconvincing liar
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: Ferrari Enzo
PRICE: £425,000 on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 20
PERFORMANCE: Max Speed 217mph / 0-60mph 3.4s
PRODUCTION QUANTITY: 349
