|
Design and Ferrari have been an integral part of the deep history that follows this brand. Ask anyone about landmark cars that wore the prancing horse badge and nearly every single one of them would have design being one of the prime reasons for it making it to that list. Names like the Ferrari 275 GTS or the F355 or the 250 GTO or the Dino were cars lusted after, not only because they wore the scarlet colour, but because they looked sensuous.
The modern Ferrari is sensuous for some but lacks purity for others. And the reason why this topic of discussion started was after pictures of the F458 Italia were released to the public. Now, it's more of a digitally enhanced model so I shall wait to pronounce the death knell before I see it in the flesh. And that's because the modern Ferrari hasn't looked as good in the pictures as it does in the flesh.
Take the Enzo for instance. It looks like someone at Fila and not Ferrari took a pen and designed it. But take a look at it in the flesh and you find different aerodynamic bits not visible in photos that actually elevate it to a higher plane. It happened to me once again when I ended up seeing, and later driving the F430, the predecessor to the Italia. It looked, well, a lot like the 360 Modena (which I'm still convinced is one of Maranello's poorer designs) in the pictures but closer inspection in the flesh only dispelled some of my notions and made me realise it doesn't look half as bad as I thought.
So some of you might not like the Italia for the way it looks (already enough talk of Enzo inspiration is doing the rounds), and I wouldn't be surprised. It looks a bit like the Lotus Evora from the front three quarters1 if you ask me, which may or may not be such a bad thing, but Ferrari, please don't fall for the LED daytime running lights trap, they are just a passing fad. I miss some of the stronger Ferrari elements, like the horizontal slats that lead to the engine and brake ducts from the nineties or even the ducts on the shoulder line. These were striking elements that distinguished a Ferrari from 'other supercars'. I like the centrally mounted exhaust tips or the strongly designed diffusers, but these are just first impressions. I hope they impress me more when I see it in the flesh - maybe that's exactly what Ferrari wants us to do.
|
