I love curves.. as in the 360.. and the 430 always felt a little to jagged to me.. they seem to be adding back curves.. I like what I see!
Thinking about it, I'm not a fan of the headlights. What I always liked about Ferraris (and Porsches) were that they were the fastest cars around without needing to have that "bad look" in their "eyes". In contrary, their "faces" were always friendly. I hope the lights we see here aren't the final version, or that the guy who photoshopped the whole car got something wrong...
The rendering does not appear to have stayed faithful to the prototype/mule's headlights. Look closely at the spy photos and it's apparent. There's hope, at least in that detail.
anunakki, your quick pchop is well done, but looks like a morphed and elongated Mitsubishi Eclipse without the door-line intersection.
You're right! The prototype headlights look as if they came directly from the 599... maybe they actually ARE 599 headlights and the final ones will look completely different from all we speculate about now...
True...though I think the bigger resemblance to the Eclipse is the way the rear canopy merges with the body. Ferrari threw in some Bangling but ultimately you can put a dress on a pig but its still a pig. Of course we are all just looking at someone concept art...real thing could end up much different. but still I dont have much faith anymore. Give me back the TR and 355 and 288 GTO...those cars had STYLE. I wish I had more time to screw with that illustration as there are definately things that can be done to improve it.
Now I know how one person can look at a grilled cheese sandwich and see "lunch' while another can look at it and see "Elvis".
I guess different strokes for different folks, but from what I can see on these most recent pics, this looks prettier than the F430, and much better styling than the 599 and California. I was worried they were going to try and make the next mid engined 8 cylinder car look similar to the rest of the cars in the current lineup. Glad I was wrong! I was thinking about trading up next year for a 430 spider, but if this thing looks at good as the glimpses I'm seeing now are, I may try to get one of these.
This is at least a little more hopeful then the Kaleefornia look alike pic floating around. My guess is they're still kicking around the final version of the front and rear bumpers. A lot of the styling can be derived just based on that.
Well, to me at least, there IS no such thing as too curvy. I love the lines of the Elise and the Zonda, and this car looks like it took cues from them. I have to say after the relative let-down as the styling of the 599 and the California was unveiled, it looks like almost everyone is seeing this design as a big positive. Look at the Cal threads and 4/5 folks are down on it. Must be 1/10 here down on these looks. The car's going to be a stunner. I was thinking of replacing the 360 with a 430 a few years down the road. If this car shakes out like I hope, I may just skip the 430 and go for this thing!
Okay I took 5 minutes to quickly mock something up.... Im not in love with it but I think its better than what I see in the 'spy shot' image. i would rather Ferrari scrap the whole 360/430 and start fresh...but if they are going to just make it an evolution I would prefer they didnt steal styling concepts from the japanese...sigh. Below has more fluidity of line and less japanese influence...of course its not THAT much different than a F430... which again is why I think they should start from scratch. They took the 360 as far as they could. Image Unavailable, Please Login
..... and what is the problem of stealing styling concepts from the Japanese - especially if the Japanese concepts look better than many modern Italians? Remember Ken who was the head of design at Pininfarina? IIRC he was Japanese, which would mean modern Ferraris including the Enzo, 599, P4/5, even the Birdcage had heavy Japanese influence. Last I recall the P4/5 and Birdcage 75th were real beauties and the Enzo is the realization of F1-on-street.
Looking closer at the 'canopy' it appears that its shape is intentional...... looks like a retractable hardtop! There are tell-tale seams. Maybe the berlinetta version will have a more conventional roofline?
The japanese are making mass produced regular cars...not exotics. Exotics should lead the way not follow Nissan or Mitsubishi or GM or Audi. Japanese cars are ugly these days...MOST cars are ugly...this is the dark ages of auto design. Again my point is Ferrari should be leading not following...unfortunately they have been following for over a decade now... Also, if you are implying my point was somehow bigoted you are very very wrong and it says a lot more about you than me.
If the dimensions are smaller than the 430, it may look ok in person. Its very Italian. I prefer the sharper edges and visable air intakes of the 430. Any prediction on 430 prices after this is released? I think you may see a bounce in that market.
If this is close to the final product I do find it interesting that fuel is now up front and away from the engine. Maybe a key point to cutting down on engine fires and putting more weight forward.
Previous releases of new V8 models (recent history) tended to increase the values of the immediately preceding model. But with the current economy, it is hard to know. If there are huge waiting lists, and this puts Ferrari on (or back on) folks lists, they may be "frustration migration" of those far down the list to 430's and 360's, plus the usual technique of buying a used car to brown-nose the dealer into getting a better spot on the list for the new model. If the style, improved performance, etc. don't stimulate a 2-3 year initial waiting list surge, or if the MSRP is high enough, I don't think there will be that much support for previous model's prices. Also consider that dealers are no longer constrained to sell at MSRP, thus that could tamp down demand, esp. given current economic conditions.
Looks like a kit car on an Eclipse platform. First they copy Lexus and now they copy Mitsubishi. Lexus invented stacked tail pipes as Ferrari has copied Lexus and Honda S2000. Honda copied Nissan and GM. GM copied Ferrari and AMC copied Ford. And now the Eclipse is being replicated. When will purity of design get back to par in Maranello.