Would you be disappointed if a new Ferrari had plastic engine covers?

Just joined FC, bit of background... been a car designer for a couple decades, very passionate when it comes to performance cars, love Ferraris and my current favourite is the 599 w/the engine in the front (and the XX achievement in HP / Litre naturally aspirated), like the horses pulling the carriage...

So... I do have an older Dodge Viper, always appreciated the appearance of the Italian infuenced engine design, cast aluminum / mag red painted parts with machined highlights, also the fantastic crossram style intake manifold with long runners. Here's an engine bay pic of my 12 year Gen 2 beside the Gen 5, the latter being my disappointment.. = tacky.

Feelings that this new Gen 5 Viper is losing it's underhood character, in exchange of having or wanting to cover up stuff, and in my career, knowing that covers provide insulation for NVH (injectors, etc..), and some times for PedPro (Pedestrian Protection) when a body slams onto the hood to protect from sharp objects under the hood, but in this case, the requirements aren't surely needed, and seems to be a loss or lack of effort to make a good looking engine.

I appreciate a good looking engine, and I think Ferrari gets that too? Thoughts?

Cheers,
Mike
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Ferrari have been putting some of their motors on display under an engine lid with a glass window. I KNOW they get it. I think it's "a given." Pretty obvious...

 

Just my opinion, sports/performance cars should have a good looking engine. The cover helps to keep uneducated fingers out of the way and make the engine look better to those that do not know what they are looking at. I think it helps ease fear among that same group. Cars that sell for high end prices can afford to keep the engines pretty. Ferrari is very much about it's engines. I think they'll be seen. Now if they build an SUV all bets are off.

 

I've been disappointed in everything Ferrari has made since the 612 in the 2+2 category (And the 456M was better looking than the 612), the 575M in the 2-seat V-12 segment, and the 430 in the rear-mid V-8's. I just cannot get past the Japanese LED headlight BS. It looks awful to me, but then I'm 54 and first fell for the Dino 206/246, Daytona Coupe, and 365/512BB when I was a kid.

Basically, everything Ferrari makes now looks like it could have come from Nissan to me, and who the heck wants to pay $400K for a Ferrari HATCHBACK?!?!?!. The FF positively disgusts me, and yes, I've seen one in person. It's gross. Might as well cover the engine up on that one so it can't see the car it's in. lol.

But, these things are cyclical: I hated the 328, 348, Testarossa, and 400 through 412 too. They didn't return to my sensibilities until the 355, 456 and 550.

Cheers,

George

 

Carbon fiber is plastic.

 

The air-boxes on the F355 are already Plastic.

 

The vast majority of drivers would have no interest or understanding about
what they see when staring into an engine bay with NO plastic engine covers.
The least minority of drivers do have an appreciation and knowledge of what
they see within a bay without engine covers. I have not purchased a new car
recently enough to recall if a salesperson raised a hood to display the sea of plastic.
But a sea it is and it is there for some reason. Maybe manufacturers want to
instill reliability by disassociation of form and function.

 

I think Ford struck a good balance with the new Boss.
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FF is pretty hard to take. Seems like it was designed as on April 1st. Or for an episode of Punked.

 

Shhh...

IIRC the 599 has a silly piece of plastic in front of the engine reminding everyone (who knows how to open the bonnet) that the car is a Ferrari 599.

I think the Boxer was probably the final high point of Ferrari engine design/display -- clamshell bonnet, and the engine wasn't tarted up like a hooker. It's just all business. Ditto the Daytona and 275 GTB/4. The 308 QV/328 were tidy in a nice European sense, but didn't shout "hot rod".

I general, I agree with you about plastic engine covers. Most of my daily drivers have them now, but then I don't bother to look at the engines on cars built much after the '70s.

 

Then I want plastic all over my ferrari....please....

 

The plastic covers, I believe, are for noise reduction.

Pete

 

To date the Ferrari plastic or CF has been functional. Lets hope the powers to be in Maranello don't go and do something stupid like the Chevy folks did with that stupid piece of plastic and plexiglass on the hood of the ZR1.

 

While this might be the justification,

In my opinion, a lot of the plastic parts are to hide the hideous looking metal under the plastic. Before plactic came along, designers had to make the various engine parts LOOK like engine parts. {Designers as in non Ferrari designers.}

 

Seriously? The noise absorption qualities of plastic can't be all that great...

 

Yes those were high-points but I dunno. The 360 engine is really pretty. I dont think the red wrinkle paint is too hookerish on it...

Looking into the engine bay is a pleasure, at least I think so.
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Looks sweet to me. Rather have this image on my TV all day than those lame reruns on cable.

 

I think that in general modern engines don´t look so nice like old ones, so they need to cover them with plastic. Now there are many cables for sensors and plastic tubes around there. In the old days they could put a direct air intake from to the hood to the carburettors and that´s all they needed.

But that 360 engine does look neat!

 

A friend of mine has a new ZR-1 and I can't believe they put the plexiglass in the hood and then covered the engine with a plastic tea tray. A window is made to look at something, so why cover it up. Lift the hood and it is no different.

 

+1000

The most ridiculous design EVER to come out of GM. Worse than the Pontiac Axtek. The designer that thought of it should've been fired. The executive that approved it should've been publicly humiliated by Muppets.

 

Cables can be wrapped and well routed.
Sensors could be made with some modicum of style.
A lot of the air passeges (hoses) could be made internal to existing parts with a few machining operations. {That is, imaging how screwed up a Weber carburetor would look if all those internal passageways were routed in hose outside of the carburetor body.}

But this takes money (i.e. time on a manufacturing machine). Ferrari appears to do a lot of this. Ford and GM not so much.

As an example, there are lots of little hoses coupling the bottom of the ITBs on a F355 to the airbox of the F355 that COULD have been ruted through the ITB itself, dramatically improving the appearance (and longevity) of these parts.

 

the engine is very important in a sports car and especially in ferrari. Plastic and hiding and lack of details in such a car is not right

 

Thank you for the replies, it was related to a discussion that I started up on the Viper Club of America forum... wondering what you guys thought.

http://forums.viperclub.org/threads/652391-Plastic-engine-covers-look-terrible..

Cheers,
Mike

 

I, personally, like the Viper's new engine bay. I think the X-bar looks fine (as in form follows function fine). I think the plactic coil covers and air intake system looks about as good as they could at their cost targets.

 

Lt's say your engine is on fire. You have a small extinguisher. Are you going to
patiently unscrew the plastic over (which may rquire a special wrench) so you can
determine the location of the fire? No you are going to try to spray under the cover. But maybe empty your extinguisher in the wrong area! Plastic covers are a way automakers
can save a lot of money by not having to prettify the engine , just having a flashy cover.
but in a performance car it puts your engine in danger.