It’s Pure Italian Glory
Home building can be a quick ticket to riches if the competition is producing nothing cozier than Hearst Castle or friendlier than Death Row.
Such appears to be the happy future for Ferrari.
For the only nocturnal fantasies opposing the pace, price and chest-thumping vanity of Ferrari’s new 456GT coupe are Lamborghini’s fearsome Diablo and the brazen Bugatti EB110.
All play at or beyond 200 m.p.h. Each is an instant collectible with a six-figure sticker. These are racers in street clothing and the most prestigious of production super-cars.
But driving a Diablo is a neck-cricking, back-aching, ear-shattering exercise in self-flagellation. It is difficult to reverse the car without a papal blessing and two fender-walkers. Any journey exceeding 30 minutes should be considered a human rights violation.
The Bugatti offers only tiny seats for the vertically challenged, maybe retired jockeys with $350,000 to invest in an exotic that has no connection to a storied past beyond recent purchase of the name.
Yet this 456GT--the first all-new Ferrari since Enzo himself went out of production--is a pure Italian glory. For lyricism and classical substance it should be set alongside Pavarotti and Buitoni pasta.
The machine also represents another attempt at a brave change of direction for Ferrari: a move from slightly primitive, maschio two-seaters to a softer, larger touring car that can be driven without wrestling harsh mechanicals and ducking spray from its flared nostrils.
The dark side is that this Ferrari may not earn deafening praise from purists, whose enthusiasm has been known to include prancing stallions on red pajamas.
The 456GT, for heaven’s sake, comes with such delicate touches as speed-sensitive power steering and anti-lock brakes. The suspension is adjustable from inside the car--sport, intermediate and touring settings--and none will threaten cheap bridgework. There are two air bags. It is possible to shift gears without looking down.
And if the big aluminum knob and chrome shift gate still represent too much manual labor, the 456GT can be ordered with automatic transmission. That rumbling and groaning you hear is not from Vesuvius, but from whichever end of eternity is now home to Enzo Ferrari.
The 456GT is a 2+2 coupe, which means two occasional seats behind driver and co-pilot. They are shaped well, but smaller than adult requirements. La dolce vita is likely to disappear on long trips from Venice to Sicily.
Ferrari, of course, hasn’t had too much luck with its larger four-seaters, in particular the V-8 Dino of the ‘70s and the V-8 Mondiale of the ‘80s. The biggest problem was an engine mounted amidships. It upset balance while overheating the lower portions of rear seat passengers.
“So one importance of the 456GT is being a four-place car with the engine mounted in the front,” says Gian Luigi Buitoni, president and CEO of Ferrari North America. “Also, the car represents Ferrari’s return to the tradition of a V-12 engine, which we haven’t done since Daytona in the ‘70s.”
The car also is part of a post-recession, post-Enzo re-engineering of Ferrari with deliberate expansion of the lineup to offer different cars to a broader buyer base.
So is this why the 456GT comes in grays, greens, blues and silvers and will be sold with automatic transmission in apparent defiance of the scarlet and manual traditions of Ferrari?
“Absolutely,” says Buitoni.
Buitoni was in Northern California recently presiding at the morning opening of Ferrari of San Francisco in Mill Valley. He took the rest of the day off to play with close friends, potential customers and a pearl-gray prototype 456GT at nearby Sears Point Raceway.
The car is softer, rounder, and at rest appears to be at absolute peace. There are cooling ducts on the hood and sides to suck hot air from the engine and front brakes--but no sharp vanes suggestive of Testarossa testosterone. Shoulders are wide, the stance low--but major curved surfaces show character lines put there by sculptor Pininfarina to set the gran tourismo look of long distances covered in a great hurry.
Glances in passing will not immediately identify the 456GT as a Ferrari. In its rounded bustle and sloping hood there appear hints of another 2+2: Porsche’s 928GT.
Longer looks, however, will notice its touch of menace, the egg-crate grille, four exhaust pipes peeking from the rear skirt, the double clusters of rear lights and black prancing horses in yellow badges on hubs and hood that belong to no other legend than Ferrari.
Another Ferrari tradition is prices guaranteed to produce gasps. At $207,000 the 456GT might create seizures. Possibly the only way to rationalize it is by knowing that only four dozen 456GTs a year will be shipped to this country and exclusivity never comes cheap.
Conversely, you could buy a dozen Jeep Wranglers for the same price. Or a condo in Fort Lauderdale.
The car has a two-word interior. Simple. Elegant.
On one hand . . . it’s as though nothing has changed since the ‘40s and the first Ferraris.
Two large analog dials sit dead ahead, tachometer and speedometer to deliver instant information on road speed and engine efficiency, which become cardinal when touring grandly. Secondary gauges--fuel, clock, oil pressure, water and oil temperatures--are centrally mounted, in a line, with vital signs constantly feeding a driver’s right eyeball.
The overview is an interior that is clean and ageless and will never tire its viewer.
On the other hand . . . with automatic air conditioning and remote releases for fuel and trunk, these insides are as modern as tomorrow.
Seats, front and back, are upholstered in Connolly leather. For the first time in Ferrari history, a sound system comes with the car. The trunk contains a five-piece matching set of pigskin luggage, embossed with the car’s model number.
And if this sounds just too cuddly and suburban for Ferrari, key the ignition, blip the throttle and shiver to the old opera that is a 12-cylinder exhaust ripping from alto to soprano.
Dual personalities are at work here.
On U.S. 101, moving smartly from Mill Valley to Sears Point, throwing down no gantlet to accompanying traffic, the 456GT purrs and prowls. There is no tugging, so familiar to Ferraris, when leaving one gear for the next. The power assist allows steering by hand and wrist, not both shoulders and body weight.
Occasionally, you shift down. Then roll in just enough right foot to make needles leap and the engine note change from growl to bark. Just to make sure the V-12 isn’t taking a nap.
On its softer side, if it weren’t for the slight tautness of ride, if not for the car’s sense of untapped might, this could be a Lexus SC400.
Nah. The 456GT is a devil in waiting, eager for the mild treachery that is any length or turn of Sears Point with its adverse cambers and decreasing radii.
The car is not designed for this kind of thrashing. But it’s a Ferrari. Pur sang prevails. It’s in suspension geometry, nicely weighted steering, a tubular steel chassis and aluminum body panels, a 456-horsepower V-12 spinning six forward gears, and an underside flap that changes pitch to reduce rear-end lift once the car reaches 75 m.p.h.
None is a unique setup. But each system is honed to world standards in a Ferrari as its legacy of a half-century of competition wherever cars are driven in anger.
So the 456GT made Sears Point its playground. It wasn’t geared for the wriggling circuit. Suspension was on the soft side and the tail prone to twitch naughtily in corners.
But it accelerates from rest to 100 m.p.h. in a wink over 12 seconds, incredible for a two-ton road car. On the short pit straight, inches before hard braking on Testarossa discs and downshifting twice for the hairpin, the 456GT is nibbling 140 m.p.h. while lounging in fourth gear.
This is a virtuous, balanced, stable car that comes to a halt as briskly as it moves into the next county. It is capable of committing enormous interstate illegalities, but is equally happy on Sunday ambles to Ojai. Such qualities make this four-place adrenaline stirrer quite the most civilized car ever to come from Ferrari.
And the 456GT is available as we drool.
But hurry. Ferrari of Beverly Hills and Ogner Ferrari in Woodland Hills will be closed Christmas Eve.
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1995 FERRARI 456GT
Base Price: $207,000.
The Good: Splendid progression into more civilized car carrying more people. Watershed car marking Ferrari’s return to front-engined V-12s. Magnificent styling, huge heritage.
The Bad: The price.
The Ugly: The Price.
1995 Ferrari 456GT
Cost
* As tested, $207,000 (includes two air bags, anti-lock brakes, automatic air, CD sound system, leather interior, power steering, matched luggage. Only available option: $2,200 for one-way air freight from Italy).
Engine
* 5.5-liter, 48-valve V-12 developing 436 horsepower.
Type
* Front-engine, front-drive, gran tourismo 2+2.
Performance
* 0-60 m.p.h., as tested, 5 seconds.
* Top speed, manufacturer’s track test, 192 m.p.h.
* Fuel consumption, EPA city and highway, 10 and 15 m.p.g.
Curb Weight
* 3,726 pounds.
