Ferrari Enzo

The race track has always been the testing ground for the advanced technological research that later went into Ferrari's road cars. The very first Ferrari, built in 1947, was a 12-cylinder racing car. From that first 12-cylinder, 126 more were born, destined for both track and road. The Enzo Ferrari is not only the marque's latest V12, it is also a pinnacle of excellence drawing on the experience of victories in the last four years of the Formula 1 World Championship, thus endowed with the very latest automotive technology.

Company founder Enzo Ferrari always felt that design of the road cars should stem from the racers. Therefore, it was entirely logical that the company's latest creation should bear his name. The Enzo, built in a limited run of 399, is an outstanding expression of the concept of extreme sportiness, developed for road use, yet epitomizing the most advanced concepts of Formula 1 racing technology

Ferrari set out to develop the Enzo as an integrated system designed for extreme performance, in which even the limits of the performance achievable by the driver were enhanced, thanks to a man-machine interface typical of Formula 1.

Never before has style been derived so directly from function as in this model. Pininfarina wanted to create an uncompromising car that would break away from the approach used for the GTO, F40 and F50 that preceded it, to develop a new formal language that looked to the future. The engineers tried to create visual links with the world of Formula 1, to which the Enzo owes its technology, while highlighting its compactness and lightness. The result is a complex, sculpted form.

The use of advanced composite materials for the bodywork, with parts made of sandwich panels of carbon fibre and Nomex, allowed the designer to structure the bodyshell while keeping the weight to a minimum, and creating "extreme" stylistic forms.

The front, with its two air intakes for the radiators and a raised central section, is an interpretation of the Formula 1 front section with a small pointed, raised nose and air-intakes under the spoilers in a gull-wing effect. The sides, also benefit from the use of composites, shaped to optimise air-flow with respect to internal fluid dynamics. The large spoiler has been eliminated from the car's rear section which now boasts small aerodynamic appendages and very efficient ground effects.