Ferrari Models Way Better Than Their Predecessors
Maranello doesn’t tend to muck about when it comes to producing cars. Its history is littered with the types of vehicle for which most gearheads would walk over hot coals to palm the keys. But for all the history and all the success, there were some efforts that did skew a bit sideways.
There’s a saying across the pond that when the Ferrari F1 program is good, its road cars aren’t terribly awesome - and vice versa. It isn’t entirely clear from where that phrase originated but your author probably heard it for the first time on Top Gear about 20 years ago. There’s a solid chance it’s been around far longer than that amount of time.
[Images: JoshBryan / Shutterstock.com, BorisPhotographer / Shutterstock.com, bepsy / Shutterstock.com, Sport car hub / Shutterstock.com, ]
Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.
Take the 458 Italia as the prime example of a Ferrari which was leaps and bounds better than its predecessor. When it arrived in 2009, just in time for the financial crash and bankers to lose their enormous bonuses, the thing was described as such a leap forward from the F430 that about the only thing they had in common was the badge on its nose. Despite being the first mainstream Fezza not to be offered with a stickshift manual transmission, the 458 looked tremendous (especially next to the carp-mouthed F430) and packed a 4.5L V8 good for 562 horsepower and sprint to 60 mph in just over three seconds.
Care for a Ferrari in the style of an old school grand tourer? You could do worse than the Ferrari FF, a car which returned the term ‘shooting brake’ to Maranello and dragged a 650 horsepower V12 engine along with it.
Technically a follow up to the 612 Scaglietti, a car whose headlamps were impossibly small for its bodywork and couldn’t hold a style candle to the attractive 575 Superamerica, the FF is often unfairly maligned for paving the way for today’s Purosangue thanks to all-wheel drive and a cargo friendly cabin.
There was a full decade between the Ferrari Enzo and ridiculously titled Ferrari LaFerrari but a case can be made that the latter technically replaced the former - at least in terms of where it slots on the totem pole in Maranello. Ferrari enthusiasts and their nasal voices are likely to jump all over us for that declaration, which is fine.
The sheep’s-head ugly Enzo couldn’t hold a candle to the LaFerrari and its gorgeous styling, nor could it stand up to a decade of tech advancement from powertrain to driver aid and everything else in between. Look for a V12 engine in the LaFerrari, linked to hybrid guts and a KERS system which combined to make somewhere in the neighbourhood of 950 horsepower. Outrageous butterfly doors and a production run limited to 499 units cement its place on this list.
