Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 10 i Enzo

‘LIFE,’ OBSERVED NOTED FERRARI enthusiast Ferris Bueller, ‘moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.’ This, then, is our attempt to stop and look around following a glut of Ferrari-related announcements, each of which has threatened to oust the last from our ageing and increasingly leaky mind. As we go to press, Bonhams is preparing for its annual sale at the Zoute Grand Prix, the classic car event held in the Belgian resort of Knokke-Heist. If the leaky mind serves, this year’s auction catalogue is by some stretch the best yet, and it features no fewer than eight very desirable Ferraris – ten if you include the hand-built, kiddie-sized Sharknose and 312T, which are reckoned to be worth as much…

Even from the passenger seat, I can feel the front tyres of the F8 Tributo working hard, sense their treadblocks grinding as they slur against the asphalt and pull the car’s nose to the apex. I’m not sure if I feel more sympathy for them or for the rears which, shortly afterwards, are unable to resist the torque of the twin-turbo V8 and overspeed, jinking the hips of the F8 a few degrees sideways. Test driver Fabrizio Toschi applies just the right amount of lock and, still sideways, we gather speed towards the next corner. It’s a scenario repeated at most of Fiorano’s corners and I have no idea how much of the control is down to young Toschi, who has spent months here honing the dynamics, and how much…

The problem with writing a stirring tale about Ferrari’s most recent engines, or anyone else’s for that matter, is that the days of inspired engineers toiling intuitively, one man putting his soul into a piece of automotive brilliance as much art as science, are over. Today, it’s all teams of largely unattributed people programming away at computer-generated, computer-verified perfection, the final result an asset to its brand but no-one’s baby. While the engines have never been more efficient or more powerful, nor indeed cleaner, there’s little romance in their creation. It’s all about numbers, ever-bigger (or smaller, if necessary) numbers. So when I write about Ferrari’s F140 series of V12s, culminating in the company’s largest and most potent road-car engine ever, the resulting story is going to be one of…

For anyone hoping to learn more about the history of a classic Ferrari in the UK, Tony Willis is typically the first port of call. His encyclopaedic knowledge, natural curiosity and calm, authoritative manner have helped establish the 73-year-old as the go-to resource for all things Prancing Horse. Tony’s expertise is based not only on reading material but inside knowledge, too: he sold Ferraris for three decades beginning in the 1970s, went on to forge a strong relationship with the factory, and later established Ferrari’s Classiche certification and restoration activities in the UK in the early 2000s. He was even responsible for all 31 Ferrari Enzos allocated to the UK, overseeing the process from order to delivery. Officially, Tony is now semi-retired, but he remains constantly in demand, providing valuations…

The cover story of the previous issue of this magazine celebrated ‘Ferrari’s V8 road racers’, bringing together a collection spanning five generations of special-series, track-inspired berlinettas. The glaring omission was the equivalent F355, for the very simple reason that Ferrari never built such a car. Given that those Competiziones, Stradales, Scuderias, Speciales and Pistas are among the most critically acclaimed and coveted of modern Ferraris, it does seem strange that it never happened. There was, of course, the 355 F1 with its race-inspired paddle-shifted gearbox, the first seen on a production road car. There was also the coveted – and rare – Fiorano handling package with its quick-rack steering and uprated running gear. Yet still the sense that the F355 had more to give lingers on, especially since there was…

IT’S A MEASURE OF HOW far the market has moved on classic car prices that, back in the late ’80s, Motor magazine could produce a mini-series that showed what classic you could get for the price of a quite modest new car. It was called ‘The Classic Alternative’. As a newly arrived road test assistant, I must have had a bit more time on my hands, as I found myself writing about half of them. Which meant I got to drive around the country and try some great classics for the first time. I took my long-term test Peugeot 205 CTi to meet a Pagoda roof SL, and a Daihatsu Charade GTti to meet a 911. Why? Well, the three-cylinder turbo Daihatsu sounded like a flat-six and its handling was…

‘Under three seconds is the official line for the 0-62mph sprint’ FRONT-ENGINED V12 SPIDERS (or ‘Spyders’, as they used to be badged) are as old as Ferrari itself, but half a century has passed since the last series-production model, the Daytona Spyder, hit the road. The Ferrari 812 GTS is the next link in that chain, unveiled alongside the F8 Spider (see page 15) in a recent event at Universo Ferrari. While the company has built front-engined, open-topped V12s in the years between Daytona and 812, each of those – 2000’s 550 Barchetta Pininfarina, 2005’s Superamerica, 2010’s SA Aperta, and 2014’s F60 America – has been a limited-run special. Specials they might have been, but with the new 812 GTS being based on the 812 Superfast, none can match the…

FOLLOWING HOT ON the heels of the berlinetta version, Ferrari has revealed the drop-top variant of the F8 Tributo at Universo Ferrari in Modena. The F8 Spider continues the lineage of the 488 Spider and the 458 Spider before that, and carries across all of the improvements from the F8, including engine revisions that have much in common with the 488 Pista. The centrepiece is, as you’d expect, a retractable hard-top, one that folds out of view in 14 seconds, and it’s this that dictates the F8 Spider’s overall look. Forward of the A-pillar and below the window line, the Spider differs little from the coupé, but the usual glass engine cover and its view of the 3.9-litre V8 make way for a pair of buttresses and a reprofiled rear…

AS THE END OF ANOTHER SEASON draws near, it’s time to reflect on a year that’s been busier than ever for the Ferrari Owners’ Club of Great Britain. Our two dozen area groups have put on more trips to Europe, drives out, barbecues, dinners and social events than ever before. if you own a Ferrari and you want to boost your social life, Ferrari Owners’ Club membership is the way to do it! In August the club was out in force at Festival Italia at Brands hatch, with our racers dominating the track action, while we also had a large display of road cars on the club stand. in September members turned out in numbers to enjoy our final picnic of the year, part of the spectacular Salon Privé at…

Stefan Marjoram is far too modest about his own abilities, and far too generous in his assessment of mine. ‘Spend an hour with someone who knows what they’re doing and you’d get the hang of it,’ he says in reference to Procreate, an illustration app for the iPad. I don’t share his confidence – the most sophisticated drawing device I’ve ever used is an Etch A Sketch, and I needed more than an hour to figure out how to set the clock on my new oven – but I can certainly understand the advantages of Stefan’s digital art set. ‘The app is basically a pared-down version of Photoshop, designed specifically for drawing. I can take my iPad out and about and do all the things I could previously only do…

During my childhood on the island of Jersey, I became besotted with a motor car. It wasn’t new even then, but it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Moreover, its owner was a man called Michael Salmon, a fine racing driver, as was his wife Jean. So naturally they became firm friends with the most car-crazed family on the island. By then Michael was running the Ferrari garage and, once I’d passed my driving test, he would toss me the keys to whatever car he’d nicked off the forecourt to bring round to lunch. Usually it was a small Daihatsu hatchback but once, and I kid you not, it was a Lamborghini LM002. But there was an exception, a car he actually owned. The car he always…

Buyers of the Ferrari 575M Maranello usually have to decide between a model with or without the Handling GTC package. One owner has swerved that dilemma by putting one of each in his garage. Not only that, but both examples photographed here are particularly significant pre-series models: the regular 575M is a pre-production vehicle, while the HGTC (without the rear ’plate) is thought to be both the 2004 Geneva motor show car, and possibly a prototype tested by Michael Schumacher. Rutland-based Car-Iconics supplied both 575s and kindly invited Enzo to Rockingham, just days before the Northamptonshire circuit’s closure, to learn more about these rare Ferraris’ provenance and to drive them on track. For reference – and not photographed, to avoid over-egging the red-car pudding – we also have Car-Iconics’ standard…

‘As a package, all wrapped up in those beautiful Pininfarina curves, it was just about perfect’ Has there ever been a prettier Ferrari than the Dino? Everyone has their favourites, of course, but in terms of pert loveliness I really can’t think of another to top it. I remember the first one I saw, in the paddock at Silverstone in the mid-70s, metallic blue with a cream interior. From its delicate, pebblesmooth nose to its delectably abbreviated tail, in an age of Hillman Hunters and Morris Travellers it looked wonderfully exotic and, to a teenaged me, fabulously expensive. Which was slightly at odds with reality because, as we all know, the baby Ferrari wasn’t originally marketed as a Ferrari at all, but as the first product of a Dino ‘sub-brand’…

JUST UNDER A YEAR after its world debut, we had the chance to ride shotgun in the 812 superfast-based Monza SP2 up Goodwood’s famous hillclimb course. though both the two-seat SP2 and its single-seat SP1 sibling might look very similar to the superfast on paper (plus 10bhp and minus 50kg), it’s what can’t be expressed in a stats box that really sets them apart. It’s certainly a very striking machine, the length of bonnet wrapped around the V12 accentuated by the complete lack of a roof or windscreen, the buttresses that house the dual roll-hoops inspired by the 750 and 860 Monzas of the ’50s. The ‘special Project’ nomenclature is far from marketing puff. with a pull of the leather loop just inside, and a simultaneous upward motion, up come…

Meccano SF71H model £39.99 | wonderlandmodels.com The Ferrari in which Kimi Räikkönen scored a famous win at the 2018 US GP is reduced to 325 parts, a number that makes the car only moderately difficult to assemble, according to Meccano. We’ll no doubt have fun proving them wrong. Ford versus Ferrari by John Starkey £15.99 | veloce.co.uk There are plenty of excellent books that cover the battle between the competition departments of Ford and Ferrari in the 1960s, but the narrow focus of this one makes it an easy read, and it will serve as a good primer for anybody planning to watch Le Mans ’66 in the cinema in November. Braun LE01 smart speaker £1099 | braun-audio.com Having secured the rights to the Braun name, Pure Audio has produced…

Let’s say you’re pretty experienced with the great Ferrari engines and the cars they power. Maybe an uncle had a Daytona when you were a kid, or a friend from school would invite you over and his dad would pick you up in a 550 Maranello. Perhaps you have a 430 Scuderia tucked up in the garage. Nice choice, by the way. Anyway, the point is, you understand power and response, the sounds and sensations of a Ferrari engine at full cry. So you’re pretty casual when the keys to an 812 Superfast are tossed your way. ‘Go for a blast,’ you’re told, and there’s a long straight ahead followed by a series of fast sweepers. Just a taste of Ferrari’s latest front-engined V12 supercar, but only a fool would…

When we think of the great Ferrari sports racing GTs of the 1960s, the names don’t take long to spring to mind: Short Wheelbase, GTO, LM. We know them all even if, as was the case with the LM, it was never even homologated as a GT. These were the cars that rammed home the advantage secured by Ferrari’s dominant prototype racers in the early part of the decade, becoming along the way some of the most revered, coveted and, yes, valuable road-legal racers ever created. So why, then, is the competition version of the 275 GTB not talked about in the same hushed tones? Why do people, who had pictures of GTOs on their bedroom walls when they were kids, squint as they try to remember even if there…

If you were writing a treatment for a Grand Prix movie aimed at a domestic audience, it might go something like this: two British World Champions in their blue-blooded British cars battle it out from race to race throughout the season, all leading up to a title decider in the final race. Except – and here’s the twist – from out of nowhere comes a third, an upstart from another team who before this season has won just one race at the top level of the sport. He’s British too, but his car is not: it is Italian. Which makes him the enemy. As the showdown begins, 7500ft up in the thin and dirty air of Mexico City’s eastern suburbs at the Magdelena Mixhuca circuit, all know that in two…

‘ON THE OPEN ROAD, the Dino is an absolute delight. The engine is completely smooth and utterly effortless throughout its range, being at least the equal in this respect of the 12-cylinder Ferraris, incredible though this may seem. The rev-counter is in the red at 148mph but luckily the dial is somewhat obscured by the steering wheel – one of my few criticisms – and so I timed the car at 151mph with a clear conscience. The Dino has just about the highest cornering power of anything I have driven. It bears no relationship to normal cars, being comparable only with racing cars. It simply goes round corners at speeds which seem absurd, the steering giving exactly the right feel at all times. The Dino never pushes its nose out…