- Oct 9, 1999
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Controversy already surrounds the most exotic road car Ferrari has ever
built. Even its makers aren't entirely sure what to call it: the 'Enzo
Ferrari', the 'Enzo' or perhaps even the 'Ferrari Enzo Ferrari'.
There's certainly nothing politically correct about the Enzo, as we'll
name it for now. Badged in memory of Ferrari's late founder, it packs a
six-litre 48-valve V12 powerplant serving up a frankly outrageous
660bhp. That's a significant 89 horsepower more than the new Lamborghini
Murciélago has to deal with. And of course, the Enzo is set to be mighty
fast. The 0-62mph acceleration benchmark is claimed to be covered in a
scant 3.6 seconds and it'll scream on to top 217mph.
But brutal straight line speed isn't solely what the Enzo's all about -
it's intended to clock up some fairly extreme cornering forces too. It
has a lightweight bodyshell and a chassis inspired by Ferrari's
all-dominating Formula One cars, similarly being built from an advanced
combination of carbon fibre and aluminium honeycomb. Flaps in the sides that
open and close are matched to an automatically adjusting ride height to
increase aerodynamic downforce as the velocities build.
The F1 connection continues with a six-speed paddle-shift gearbox
that's reckoned to be capable of swapping ratios in just 150 milliseconds.
Buttons on the steering wheel allow the driver to select 'Sport' or
'Race' modes, the latter fine-tuning the dampers, traction control system
and the gearbox's responses for maximum on-track aggression.
Just 349 exceedingly rich Enzo owners are set to indulge in such
pleasures, rumoured to be paying in excess of £400,000 each. They, like you,
can read the outlandish Enzo's first ever road test in Top Gear
magazine's next issue.
And the controversy is set to continue, because Jeremy Clarkson has
already described it as "less pretty than Hilda Ogden"!
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