Ferrari Prez Luca De Montezomolo stood up to sportscar peer pressure at the Paris Auto Show, promising never to foist a four-door on the faithful Ferraristi. Automobile reports that when asked about the Rapide/Panamera/Estoque four-door coupe fad tearing through the premium sportscar segment, the Scuderia boss simply wished his competitors “good luck.” Of course if you want a Ferrari engine and achingly good looks, you can always cop a Maserati Quattroporte and laugh as you watch your billionaire buddies try squeeze their kids into the back of their Estamerapide. Anyway, De Montezomolo also told reporters that though Ferrari customers don’t care about fuel efficiency, the firm would draw upon its Formula 1 experience and try to integrate fuel saving innovations. Though the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) might make the leap from F1 to the street, Ferrari will not build a roadgoing version of its V10 racing engine. Ever. After all, someone has to maintain some standards in this age of four-door coupes, Porsche SUVs and V10 Lambos.
Ironically, Ferrari (almost) started the whole thing with their stunningly beautiful four-door Pinin http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2187/2291933431_9d8d62d43e.jpg?v=0 which they came very close to building in the late eighties.
Of course they could build a V12 Maserati 4-door and call it a day. Although the current Maserati 4-door is a great car to work with. No need to double the price.
Imagine if GM had bought Ferrari back when GM was buying anything that rolled. Today we’d have two Ferrari sedans — one Epsilon, one Sigma, a CUV, a mid-size SUV (hybrid), a fancy pickup truck, a Soltice-based roadster, a Korean-built econobox, and a line of hearses. Oh, and we’d be waiting for the plug-in Ferrari Volte, due any day now.
Kudos to Ferrari….the Panamera and Rapide were ok to begin with (didn’t count the CLS or the upcoming 8 series as contenders anyway), but the Lamborghini seems like overkill.
Considering my username, I do applaud Ferrari for sticking to their guns. Then again, didn’t they toss around the idea for a Ferrari hybrid? ::shudders::
And yes, the Maserati Quattroporte is beautiful. The current Maserati lineup, with the Quattroporte and the GranTurismo, are the two greatest things the Italian auto industry has going for it. The influence from Ferrari and Alfa Romeo since Maserati was added to the Fiat empire is obvious…
What Ferrari V10 racing engine?
tony-e30, the Ferrari F1 engine is a V10.
J.on, I could have sworn that F1 uses V8 motors now. Maybe the V10 they’re referring to is one of the older designs?
Correct. F1 is now 2.4 liter V8 engines. But the switch over from the 3.0 V10 was fairly recent. I think.
F1’s conversion from V10 power to V8 power started during the 2006 season IIRC. Some teams continuted to run V10’s in 2006 (Ferrari were among the V8 runners) but the V8’s were manditory for 2007 and beyond.
I really like the M5, M3 and RS4 sedans. Ferrari is late to the party, hence no partying for them. The 612 is already as heavy as an RS4 and near M5, yet about as powerful as the five. Then we have the RS6, E63, C63, and CTS-V. We have a lot of options. I like for Ferrari to build really good cars. Still the California, 599, and 612? When the hell did they put performance first? I say Ferrari outta build a 4 door or at least lower prices, but again who needs Ferrari? I like them to continue to build better cars I guess, that way the next wave of lower priced sporty cars can raise the bar also. Although they hardly need Ferrari either.
Just because people don’t care about mpg doesn’t mean you can make a car that performs worse than a Z06 and gets 8 mpg less.
Seriously, no direct injection in a $200,000 car?
Funny, Ferrari has gone on record saying they *might* develop hybrid technology and make some attempt to go “green” (bahahaha, sorry, putting Ferrari and green in the same sentence cracks me up everytime).
Reject one fad to follow another?
Perhaps they will pull a fast one like MB and release a coupe that has four doors. Erm, I mean a four door they claim is a coupe.