What a Ferrari should look like

and that goes for sound like, too.

That's a proper sports car. What year is that?

My favorite. But I can't decide between the coupe and convertible. Maybe I'll just have to have one of each!

The concept F1 car revealed yesterday is what Ferrari thinks one should look like going forward.

HopCar said:

That's a proper sports car. What year is that?

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Parks, my best guess is a 1963.That was about the time I saw the SWB Berlinettas racing. Wonderful cars, and the sound . . . . .



BL, the coupe is alright, but to be a proper Ferrari it has to have Borrani wheels.

Automatic transmissions and alloy wheels . . . . .blasphemy!!!

Craig, those F1 cars revving to about 10,000 rpm sound like a bunch of angry bees. Not melodious at all. Where is their sense of decorum?

I like to think there's plenty of room in my life for all the sounds of horsepower extraction

CPseudonym said:

I like to think there's plenty of room in my life for all the sounds of horsepower extraction

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I suppose I don't have that much room left.

Actually, F1 cars rev to about 18,000 rpm...last I heard.

My two all-time favorite designs. 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO and the 1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa. The Testa Rossa was built for racing: Le Mans, Sebring, etc.

Xsbank said:

Actually, F1 cars rev to about 18,000 rpm...last I heard.

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Yep, there is no mellow rumble. They just scream.

I recently finished reading: "Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans"

A quick and interesting read. Especially if you're a fan of Carroll Shelby and Ford GT40's.

Thanks BL, I'll hunt it down.

Ferraris have flat plane cranks. Hence the sound of ripping fabric at high revs though the gears. Bello!

Moonstruck said:

Craig, those F1 cars revving to about 10,000 rpm sound like a bunch of angry bees. Not melodious at all. Where is their sense of decorum?

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Angry Bees, probably because they changed the engines last year to new V6 turbo hybrid power units.There is talk about increasing output to 1,000 BHP in the next couple of years.

You gotta love a cute baby, first saw this as a 12 year old, it was love at first sight, to think that this car was designed nearly 50 years ago.

Last weekend I was up at a 12hour endurance race at Bathurst, west of Sydney.All the usual suspects were there, but what really stood out from the pack was the exhaust sound of the Bentley.

It was quite different in tone and pitch. The only way I can describe the sound is as a low pitched deep almost brutal growl, more like a diesel engine than than the screaming Ferrari's & Merc's. I almost expected to see the chauffeur behind the wheel.

Andy G said:

Last weekend I was up at a 12hour endurance race at Bathurst, west of Sydney.

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You lucky dog! Watched the highlights. Great track.

I was a major F1 and Le Mans fan when I was a kid/teen back in the 60s and 70s but have since lost all interest in it as the sport went the way of everything else and moved away from people and toward automation.

We (Boeing) have had an exhibit presence at the FI track in Abu Dhabi since it opened and our exhibits people are there every year for the event. This year, the guys who were there told me how disappointing the race has become. The advent of the hybrids has pretty much wiped out the noise. The exhibits guys, who spent several days pretty close to the track, said they could carry on conversations at normal levels during trials and the race itself, where in the past they had to wear ear protection.

Sort of like the hydroplane races here. When I moved here all the boats were powered by Allison and Rolls Royce V-12 aircraft engines and I could hear them racing where I lived which at the time was some ten miles away from the course as the crow flies.

Then someone tried a turbine, and now they're all turbines. Not only do they sound boriing but they rarely break. It's just a bunch of boats whooshing around the course for a few minutes and that's it.

The people I know who even bother going to the hydro races anymore go for the Blue Angels, not the boats.

In F1 you can't even see the drivers in the cars. All that can be seen is the top of their helmets. I liked it when they sat upright with the huge steering wheels. You could really see them working. When they went to enclosed track venues and took the road courses out of it (except for Monaco), the sport lost much of its excitement.

Daytona is a closed course, but I found a place where the drivers made the turn from the tri-oval into the infield. I could see right into the cars when Phil Hill, the Rodriguez brothers, and David Hobbs were driving. I even saw Sir Jack Brabham. I never saw Jimmy Clark, and that was a disappoint. I was at the '72 Watkins Glenn when Francous Cevert was killed. Team Tyrell with Jackie Stewart and Jody Schecter pulled out of the race. i I was over Graham Hill's pit, and could even read the stop watches. Peter Revson was killed at the next race, South Africa. It is understandable that something had to be done to increase safety.

They provided some great memories.

Cevert died '74 Glen. My Dad was there. Brought me home a JPS Lotus model (Ronnie Petersons maybe?) because I was so mad that I didn't get to go. I They put the chicane in "75. I got to go that year.

Moonstruck said:

I never saw Jimmy Clark, and that was a disappoint..

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Jim Clark was my favorite F1 driver. Living in Hawaii other than two years off for good behavior from 1965-1967 in St. Louis and Colorado, I never had an opportunity to go to a race. But I and my equally enthusiastic friends avidly read Road & Track and other magazines to follow his and other drivers' careers. Built models of the cars we liked and so forth.

Same thing with the America's Cup. The big J-boats were way before my time although I think they were the most beautiful sailing vessels ever designed, but the 12-Metres were almost as good. Today, while the Cup boats are amazingly fast and it's probably a much more exciting race for the spectators to watch, the boats themselves leave me cold.

In the late 90s during one of our canal trip in the UK we had the opportunity to go on Sceptre, the British contender for the America's Cup in 1958. A good friend was at the time one of the owners of the boat which was being used for charter for cruising and racing mainly in the waters off Ireland and Scotland. Other than some rather rudimentary changes to accomodate the people chartering the boat, Sceptre was mostly identical to the way she'd been when she raced for the Cup. What an amazing vessel, and I can still remember my wife and I being totally stunned by the height of the mast when drove up to her slip.

The two photos are of Jim Clark.

No room for a sports car on the decks of most of the cottaged up trawlers on this form. Another good reason for more deck and less house on a boat.

Fiat on a N76, no sports car but...

As long as it has a V12.

Northern Spy said:

Cevert died '74 Glen. My Dad was there. Brought me home a JPS Lotus model (Ronnie Petersons maybe?) because I was so mad that I didn't get to go. I They put the chicane in "75. I got to go that year.

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You are most likely correct. I remembered '72 because I thought I had driven up when my M-B 280SEL 4.5 was new. It must have been a year or so old. Comfortable ride though. I took my whole family and even sister-in-law that lived in NYC. We had paddock and pitt passes. We sat on top of the pits, and were up close and personal like with all the drivers. We even talked to Jody Schecter in the paddock area. It was still pretty loose then if you had a lanyard pass.

Actually, we were both wrong it was 1973. I spoke with my Dad on the phone about it. Your right about the getting close with a lanyard though. My uncle owned the local radio station and we were lucky to get press passes. Spent lots of time in the Kendall tower because of that.

Northern Spy said:

Actually, we were both wrong it was 1973. I spoke with my Dad on the phone about it. Your right about the getting close with a lanyard though. My uncle owned the local radio station and we were lucky to get press passes. Spent lots of time in the Kendall tower because of that.

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I must say the women around those drivers were quite nice.

I'm looking forward to this!

Here's What We Know About the Upcoming Ford vs. Ferrari Le Mans Movie - The Drive

Meh, I don't need yet another finicky thing that requires constant expensive maintenance. Ferrari has certainly made a number of very nice cars, but they're just hideously expensive to just keep running, let alone maintain. There's certainly other vehicles in that bracket that are just as bad, if not worse. Lambos practically require R&R the engine just to do belts or water pump. I'll pass.

Yeah but that 275GTB(think that's what it is) sold for 27 million dollars.

I'd rather have a car collection of 135 $200,000 cars.