Rumors of a Ferrari SUV have gone code red ever since Porsche did the unthinkable: built a truck and banked enough bucks to begin their "Maus that Roared" Volkswagen takeover. Last month, WorldCarsFans gave a name to the Ferraristis' pain: the Ferrari FS 599 Fuoristrada. Their "Italian contact with insider info" sets the SUV's "target" world debut for the 2010 Geneva Auto Show. Needless to say, this unconfirmed not to say entirely speculative "report" set the internet abuzz. Over at StreetFire.net, commentator Bromano83 claimed he actually saw Elvis the Ferrari SUV– in Carmel, Indiana (live webcam here if you want to keep an eye out for the Italian off-roader). While no one in their right mind– both inside and outside Ferrari– would seriously consider the possibility of diluting the world's strongest automotive brand with a truck, there are those who point to the Lamborghini LM002 (a.k.a. "Rambo") as proof that people in the Italian automotive industry are prone to mental illness. Anyway, TTAC's house photochopper Andrei Avarvarii sent us this image, which puts the FX in the FS. Given our name, we make no comment whatsoever about the existence of this vehicle. Except for: noooooooooooooooooo.
[For more photochoppistry, click over to www.avarvarii.com]
This SUV should be released as a Maserati. Forget the racing heritage and the unloved MC12 which can not break out of the shadow of the Enzo on which it is based, Maserati is now defined by big saloons like the Quatroporte. For them, a jump to an SUV wouldn’t be much of a big jump at all, we could easily picture Silvio Berlusconi emerging from a Maserati 4×4.
Leave Ferrari alone!
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Still, I think chances are it won’t happen, lucklily. The Italians have learned a view lessons about brand dilution already in the latest decennia.
It might be more palatible if Ferrari had given this SUV some attachment to racing, like entering it in the Paris-Dakkar rally or the Baja 1000.
Besides, Lamborghini can be excused for making the LM002. After all, the company did start out in life making Tractors. “Rambo” was more to its roots than the Countach or Miura could’ve ever been.
the LM002 was awesome…the Countach type of awesome.
I heard that Ferrari was negotiating with Ford for the rights to the name ‘Edsel’
OK, so Ferrari builds a few very exclusive and expensive SUV that will be a major hit in the Middle East as well as California with the current poser Ferrari crowd. If they keep it out of the hands of the masses the exclusivity of the brand will remain.
Or, Ferrari moves downmarket with their sportcars and decides to make a $75,000 “special” that will dilute the brand faster than any misguided SUV ever will.
Oy veh.
http://www.automarket.ro/stiri/ipoteze-ferrari-suv-7651.html
So is this site taking credit for the image now? Just wondering what kind of a deal you have worked out with Mr. Arvarvarii…
If a Ferrari SUV looked like that pic, it wouldn’t be such heresy. It’s a very sexy design.
Here’s the business side the marketing guys might pitch to the corporate bean counters:
Fiat could take the underpinnings of the current all wheel drive SUV they have in development and throw in a turbo diesel six. Then wrap an Alfa Romeo shell around it, Bam you’ve got a BMW X3 killer.
Next shovel in a normally aspirated V8, perhaps the same as the one in the Quattroporte, Kabang you’ve got the Maserati version, a Mercedes GL contender.
Finally, strap twin turbos on that V8 and stick it in a shell that looks something like that beautiful image up there, Boom you’ve got the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S sweating bullets.
The Ferrari faithful would cry a river of tears, but think of all the money the company would derive from that one chassis, suddenly they’re competitive with the best German product. A gold mine.
Hey, aint this the same company that is building a Ferrari theme park in Dubai!
Need I say more………
Nooooo a Ferrari SUV AND an Alfa Romeo SUV, sacrilege I tell you. Here come my river of tears :(