Why so much Cali hate?

FIAT is more than just FIAT, they put the same essential engines in Ferraris, Maseratis, and Alfas.

...And the F1 cars don't wear the corporate logo out of respect for Agnelli.

Didn't the whole line use the 124 hand brake lever from the 330s up to the TR?

FIAT having run tail-tucked from the US long ago I can only imagine what's under the "skin" these days.

 

Yes it does exist and the Ferrari exec is Roberto Corradi, Product Development Director. His piece to camera starts at around 1m 30s. The comment on women customers is made around 2m 37s.

http://www.autocar.co.uk/VideosWallpapers/Videos.aspx?AR=233655&Page=6&CT=V

 

In my opinion, Ferrari is diluting their image so much with the trinkets and products such as this, that it is not that desireable to own a new Ferrari any more. If more people start sharing that view they will be in for very tough times.

 

Montezemolo has cribbed from Madoff: Soak the nubes with fantasy on the reputation of the real thing.

 

At 2:37 he says, "also, the new customer we have in mind must be [a] woman."

The Cali was made for women--which puts it squarely in the sights of the Porsche Boxter. What is next, the 599 and the Scud will have the same front end as the Cali? (Just like the 911 looks like the Boxter!!)

This is starting to look like the beginning of the end of "style."

 

It's flat plane?

 

I doubt anyone contemplating buying a new or used Ferrari will decide not to becuase of the California. That would be really silly!

Dave

 

The 330 was introduced in 1966, before Fiat acquired Ferrari. I don't know where they sourced the brake levers.

The F1 cars wear the Fiat logo due to financial ties and corporate structure, not due to engine or other content from the Fiat parts bin. Ferrari competes in F1. Fiat makes cheap road cars.

Yes, Maserati did get a version of the Ferrari V8 for its coupe, but I don't know of any Ferraris getting 'hand-me down' engines or components from Fiat. GM probably had a bigger influence, as in former-GM division Delphi's electronics.

I think Ferrari have made some missteps over the past decades, but overall I'd say the Fiat ownership has been among the most benevolent in the automotive world. Look at what Ford did to poor Jaguar.

 

No kidding! Look at what Ford did to Aston M.

And while the Fiat Alfas are very uneven, let's face it, when Fiat took over, Alfa was already a zombie, so all in all they seemed to have done a decent job of keeping Alfa going and allowing them to maintain some of their own identity.

 

What, you mean apart from saving the company from going under? Injecting much needed cash for development of the DB7 (which 100% saved the company) and letting them use their r+d facilites all over the world? I'd say Ford did plenty for Aston Martin.

 

Yeah, you are right about that. The thing though that always sticks in my craw is that 12 cylinder engine they made out of two Taurus V6s. Erp! Excuse me!

 

That's a misconseption i'm afraid. The Aston is a six litre, at that time the Ford V6 Engine was a 2.5, "two together" would have only bought that up to 5 litre. The Aston engine features crack-rods, a modine cooler and a completely different block to that Ford. It does share it's coil packs, e.g.r valves and a few other assorted items. I worked at the Aston factory in R&D at that time, and was involved with the development of that car. Initially four engines arrived in crates from the U.S for appraisal, but after that all the development was carried out in conjunction with Cosworth engineering. All that said, some of the Ford switchear they used was pretty low-rent!!

 

and the aston v12 is a hell of an engine...

 

Я не знаю.

And, I'll bet that bimbos and pool boys couldn't care less.

Either way, the M3's is a very nice engine and it revs much higher.

 

Wow...

Ford couldn't figure out how to bore out an engine (2)?

...They deserve bankruptcy.

 

I don't know about that but, quite unlike the 2+, the current Aston line is gorgeous, the V-8 Volante being everything the 2+ only pretends to be.

 

Because I'm sure that is what the situation was. If this statement was a joke, it wasn't funny.

 

Funnily enough, Ford is doing the best out of the three.

 

Do you really mean to declare 'the Aston v-12 was not derived from the Mondial v-6 because two such Mondial engines can only sum to 5liters'?

If the engine was not thusly derived, why didn't Ford sue every automotive journalist for libel, or at least release a statement in contradiction?

 

I'm sure the architecture of the different blocks was shared, as Ford does with their modular engines. It does not mean that the blocks were the same.

 

The blocks were certainly not the same. They were cast by Cosworth engineering in Northampton, and shared very few components, mostly ancillary. As i said, it's a misconception. Open up the two engines side by side, they are entirely different inside and out, and i've had plenty of those v12's apart.

 

I have no idea how the engine was derived, and, it seems, neither do you. The part I was talking about is your statement that Ford couldn't figure out how to bore an engine, as stated below, and quoted in my first email.




"Ford couldn't figure out how to bore out an engine (2)?

...They deserve bankruptcy."

 

And so I'll ask again: Do you then mean to declare 'the Aston v-12 was not derived from the Mondial v-6 because two such Mondial engines can only sum to 5liters'?

As to Ford and bankruptcy: For the largest pusher of personal pickups and SUVs, bankruptcy's too good for them, their conduct is treasonous.

 

Treasonous?!? Really? LOL.

 

Indeed. Look it up.