THE F70 (LaFerrari) Thread

Given how much money they get from Bernie and Co. there's no way they'd leave F1.
Great advertising exposure at minimal cost.

 

Ford wouldn't have the money now to spend 4x the funds, like it did back then...

 

Note question mark. I'm responding to:

"2012 Ferrari company can't live building cars of the past"

I'm saying that as they don't compete anymore at the top level of Sports Car Racing, Sports Car wise they are living in the past.

Their F1 effort is paid for by sponsors and frankly a Ferrari LMP1 effort could likely be funded by sponsors so why they don't compete at the top level of Sports Car Racing remains beyond me and for me is a huge difference between Enzo era and Luca era Ferrari.

From increased sales of Ferrari Sports Cars I agree that most don't care whether Ferrari competes at the top level of Sports Car Racing but I still feel the new Enzo would be a better car if they did.

 

Bravo! Racing improves the breed...

 

I wouldn´t be so sure about that. I don´t see so many sponsors decals on the Audis, and they´ve been there for years (and winning quite often). Even in F1, with all the media and TV coverage, there are sponsors quitting.

Furthermore, many big names of the industry (way bigger than Ferrari) couldn´t keep F1 and a SP programmes simultaneously (the last one who tried that was Mercedes in 1999, with the results we all know).

In summary: impossible? Absolutely not. Easy? I wouldn´t bet for that.

Besides that, don´t forget that the decision of leaving Sports to concentrate in F1 was taken a long time ago, when Enzo was still there. It was probably a painful decision for the Old Man, he probably had a very good reason to do that.

 

Toyota, BMW and Audi (VW) could have kept their/ (started a) F1 Program(s) and Sports Car Racing going but felt it wasn't in their interests to do so.

Personally I still think Sports Car Racing has much more to do with the cars we drive than F1 does and would rather see Ferrari compete at the top level of Sports Car Racing than F1 but fully understand than many wouldn't.

 

I think if Enzo had not taken the decision then, Ferrari would have been a very different car company by now given as to how it would probably have bankrupted the company.

That aside, whilst I really rate LMP and other forms of the sport, F1 has the audience that sponsors need whereas other relevant worlwide formulae do not. So given the choice they simply had to focus on F1, known as it is as the pinnacle of Motorsport.

 

Sponsors yes but manufactures no as I really believe Audi's Le Mans domination really sells a lot of cars for them and had they spent that amount in F1 it wouldn't have but Ferrari buyers may very well care more about Ferrari Racing F1 than Sports Car Racing.

I still do believe that Sports Car Racing teaches manufactures more about Sports Cars than F1 does. F1 13 inch high profile tires have much less relevance than the ones that Audi races with do to the tires we drive on and many F1 systems ,anti Stall for example, require a lot of developement and have little relevance to the cars we all drive.

 

If someone is interested in my opinion (something which I doubt), I´d love to see Ferraris in Sports Cars, rallying and even in cycling. But if I´d have to choose one and only one, I´d choose the same that the Old Man chose: Formula 1.

Why?: because I think that race cars are more and more detached from road cars so the technology transfer is not so important as it used to be. But most of all, because racing just "pour le sport" must be a goal in itself, so if you race just for the glory, you have to do it in the biggest place, and right now that´s F1.

Sadly, now race cars, of any kind, are just PR stunts for selling cars on Monday, but that´s another story. Back to the F70.

 

i laughed

 

Sports cars do have a closer relationship to road cars than F1 does but in terms of marketing f1 makes more sense to Ferrari than to a mass market manufacturer.
I'd love to see Ferrari compete in sports cars but I get a bigger thrill when I see an independent succeed there than when one of the big boys win.

 

Le mans is now dominated by diesel hibryd cars. How can Ferrari match the top of the racing series with its heritage?There's no place for high revving red cars..... Ferrari cannot put Le mans implication into its own benefit.

My perception is that Ford Gt40 beat Ferrari in LeMans partly for the distinctive construction of the two. It use low revving, high capacity engines, opposite to Ferrari's low capacity high revving cars. For those times, the processing of the mechanical parts was far from today's standards and high revving engines were highly disadvantaged by this reason, although 1000 times more charming.

Ferrari is using a lot of the experience from F1. They started with 355 with studied aero under the car, the first paddle gearbox. lots of the technology is incorporated in the engine. Best power/unit displacement for every car Ferrari design, most complex and useful traction/dynamic systems.

F1 is a competition that still count on pure performances, on a long competition like todays Le mans its more a matter of efficiency.

Audi can sell its success on Le mans the next moment after the finish. You can read TDI both on a A6 TDI and on to the R18 prototype... Can you see Ferrari using the winnings of LeMans to tell you that your hypercar is the most efficient way to travel in speed? Is this useful for them?

I also want to see Ferrari in other competitions than F1, but the more I think about the more I realize maybe that is not the best place for Ferrari.

 

Well, the rules which favoured the Diesels were just a candy that the ACO threw at the manufacturers to fill the grids with other things that were not an Audi. But this has changed.

The reign of terror of Diesel engines is reaching an end, both on tracks and on the roads.

 

Given the highly constrictive engine specs in today's F1 that's a tougher case to make but F1 is still a better fit for Ferrari, as a corporate entity, than Sports Cars.

 

Nine 458 GT2s will be running the Le Mans 24 hours. The GT2 knowledge is very relevant to high-performance street cars.

Ferrari took 5th at the 6 hours at Laguna Seca.

 

They ran and won, and quite a few folowing places as well

right now LPM1s and F1 cars are not that differen't and there is abut as much road relevance from Le Mans cars as there is F1 cars...

Yeah maybe LMP1 are a little closer, but both are so far removed from read cars that the difference is negligible ...

I do however agree, and wish, for Ferrari to return to LMP1s...maybe when the new 2014 regs start living up, and Porsche, Audi and toyota build up the hype...They enter, now that would be glorious, Scuderia Ferrari vs Porsche System Engineering last seen in the 60s droool

 

i agree fully. the audi example has proven how to make hay by racing on sunday and selling on monday!

and i personally have never ever bought a car based on a manufacturers f-1 showing but i have almost always bought a car based on what it has done in sports car racing.

 

Audi's LeMans results have not made me want to purchase an Audi. If I was going that way I'd purchase the VW equivalent and save myself a fortune ...

I perceive both VW and Audi cars as soulless. Is that fair, don't know.
Pete

 

No offense guys, but can we get this back on track regarding the Enzo replacement, most of this thread belongs in the racing section. Again, no offense to anybody.

 

+10000

 

This.

 

Interesting as it is, I agree.

 

Has anyone here heard something about the Enzo replacement? The last spy photos were seen 6 weeks ago.

 

So what is the ruling of owning a new Enzo, never mind the money, i heard you have to own many Ferraris to be on the list

 

Originally Posted by Napolis
How about Bugatti. They still haven't sold their 300 and that Puppy's been for sale since what 2005?

Found it:

Motor Trend September 2012 Page 18

450 Veyrons planned for total production - 360 have been sold.