Why so much Cali hate?

Ferrari had a pretty good record at Le Mans. Ferrari won 9 times with a string of 6 consecutive wins in the 1960's.

Later the company decided to focus on Formula 1.

Ferrari is a tiny company producing only a few thousand road cars a year. To gain a little perspective, most of the other manufacturors they compete against on the track, ie Mercedes, Toyota, BMW sell millions of road cars a year and have much larger engineering and financial resources.

Ferrari's story is David vs. Goliath in real life.

As much as people like to point out the weak points of Ferrari- they really don't know what they are talking about. The caliber of Ferrari's racing team and production cars are truly amazing accomplishments for one of the smallest automotive companies.

 

^Does the small budget & scale of economy explain why Ferraris are not known for its reliablility and spontaneously combust at times. Or is it simply excess amount of "Passion" injected into the stallions?

 

Correct. NART. Car resides in Indy Museum and is very special. I mis-posted year. That said it's still 43 years since they've won Le Mans and the fact remains that the most sucessful sports racing car ever built was an Audi.

 

You're right that many don't really have any idea about what they're talking about. You for example. Ferrari's F1 budget is enormous courtesy of the worlds largest purveyor of Cancer.

 

Tobacco money is being phased out of F-1. When was the last time we saw their Ads at the races. Too bad that does little to reduce smoking.

But the fact that a company that produces less than 7 thousand cars a year can attract so much business/sponsorship is amazing.

But maybe your point is that Ferrari spends too much on F1?

But then there are businesses and people who are willing to throw money at them to be a sponsor or customer.

Whether that money is a good investment is up for debate.

I guess in the larger scheme of things racing and exotic cars are frivolous and a waste of time and money. Heck why spend so much on a machine that might get you killed.

But people often do stupid things.

 

It's a nice car...but it's not a nice Ferrari. Does that make sense?

-G.B.

 

Mmmm... maybe the Porsche 956/962.

 

In terms of overall Le Mans wins. Nope. In terms of the fastest sports racing car ever built? Nope. I agree that Porsche has much more recent sports racing heritage than Ferrari as of course does Audi.

Malibu Guy

Are you kidding about Tobacco? Phillip Morris remains Ferrari's major sponsor. It's colors and Bar Code specifically designed to look like Marlboro Red on TV, not Ferrari's Rossa Corsa, are proudly displayed on Ferrari F1 Cars at every race.
Spin that.

 

Le Mans is not everything in this life.

Did you expect that a 20 years old car could be faster than something built today?

A Ferrari P4 is slower than an Acura sports-car, and you and me know wich one is greater.

 

Even though Steve's character in the Movie "Le Mans" felt that all else was just waiting I agree that there's more to life than Le Mans but no matter how you dodge and dance the fact remains that Le Mans is the most important sports car race in the world and has been for many, many years. The fact that also remains is that of all the cars that ever raced the Audi R8 finished First OA there more times than any car existent.

P4's, 962's and R 8's are pieces of history. The new California is a car, derived from a Maser, with a big butt, that Ferrari hopes will appeal to women and IMO therein lies the answer to the question posed by the title of this thread.

 

OK, OK, OK - I too miss Ferrari in legitimate sports car racing.

I just wonder if the company soured on Lemans style endurance racing after the one-two punch from first Ford and then Porsche from the mid 60s on...maybe they just don't care that much anymore. Ferrari was going through a stage of merger/sale/what do we do next, and maybe the level of effort in both F1 and sports prototype just wasn't sustainable. Maybe that attitude still prevails in today's Ferrari world.

However, you can say that the 575M/599 or the 430 COULD certainly be developed into a sports racer. As was the Corvette and the Aston Martin.

Porsche probably set the ultimate example with the many racing type variations of the classic 911.

Can you honestly say any of that about this California? Here I think we may have the answer of why many Ferrari enthusiasts find this car to come up lacking (besides the fact that it is butt-ugly).

 

I agree.

 

My mistake. Thanks for the info. I didn't know that the bar code was Phillip Morris! I 'm not a smoker and sure don't like Tobacco industry and the harm it does. (Not trying to spin that point.)

 

Beyond the souring after the Ford and Porsche knock downs in the 60's, how much does the fact that Sports Car/Endurance racing really provides but one spectecualr event a year versus F1's twice a month for eight months of the year have to do with Ferrari's focus on the open wheels? One weeks' media focus vs. three quarters of the year's focus.

 

Exactly - everybody already associates Ferrari with the "fastest sports cars in the World" anyway...F1 is giving them much more brand value than questionable and maybe Quixotic attempts at LeMans. (where a less than stellar showing could HARM the brand)

So, its the old Prince Charles decision all over again --- let's see: Diana...Camilla...Diana...

Except that Ferrari made the right decision.

 

You can say that but in reality audi has had literally NO competion the ENTIRE TIME. And if it wasnt for cautions the last two years would have been overwhelmingly dominated by Porsche's LMP2 car. The R8 was a great car no doubt but it didnt really face the competition marquess like Porsche and Ferrari have. The R10 faced competition in ALMS with the Porsche, and very late the Acuras but other than that there was nothing, the Peugots just plain suck.

 

Losers always explain why what happened really didn't or means nothing.

Winners let the record books speak for them.

 

But they used to build really great bicycles, no?

Red lights going off in cockpit - have we let this thread get off track?

Hate...hate...building and rebuilding upon the hate - hating it as much as a lesbian mudwrestling death match between Martha Stewart and Suze Orman...

 

Not even a little.

Some of us learned our right to aimlessly punch ends just short of the innocent face as children.

 

Q.E.D.

 

It is not a "nice car"...

It'd still be butt-ugly with a Hundai badge on it.

...It makes the execrable Nissan GT-R look good.

 

I smell a Troll.

 

Not even a little.

 

Jean Todt said it himself, at the unveiling of the California in Hong Kong!