La Ferrari The Ford

This exchange got me thinking.

Earlier in a different thread I had posted:

"One of Ferrari's in house designers told me that P 4/5 influenced F 70/LaFerrari.
This was 8 months ago. I believed him then and I believe him now."

Today, 05:20 AM:

GTE

"Disagree. P4/5 (talk about a ridiculous name) is retro design. Not the most interesting way to go, design wise. I'd say, leave those icons as they were. La Ferrari is nothing to do with retro design. Perhaps the design concept is inspired by the 330P3 and 312P, but it is still a very original design. Far better than P4/5."


ENZOBOY

give u a pic.

"One of Ferrari's in house designers told me that P 4/5 influenced F 70/LaFerrari.
This was 8 months ago. I believed him then and I believe him now."

I mean the design concept is inspired by the P4/5 not the 330p4.The most important thing is LF is the very first in house designed car,without PININFARINA,but goes to PINIFARINA'S CONCEPT.As a Designer,I would not do that...a Copy means not almost same shape,the LF gets too many elements from P4/5,they are perhaps deferent shape,but same concept,side profile,the roof and back view,etc.Maybe batter,maybe worst,but simular concept is there.

When Luca first learned that Pininfarina had made P 4/5 he was totally outraged.

Andrea told me he knew how angry Luca was when he shut the Helicopter off. Usually when Luca came to PF they kept the Helicopter running because his visits were short. He dropped, in took a look, ordered changes and left. This time he told them to shut the Helicopter down.

"How could you do this?!!!!"

"How could we do what?"

"MAKE THIS CAR WITHOUT TALKING TO US FIRST!"

"A client asked us to do a one off and we did. This is something we've done for years."

"Show it to me!"

"That's up to the client."

"What are you talking about???"

"It's the clients choice. I can't show it to you without his permission. I'll call and ask him."

Without waiting for an answer Andrea turned and walked out of the room.

He went into his office. His assistant brought him an expresso. He sat at his desk and sipped it. He put the cup down stood up and walked back to the room where Jason and Paolo were waiting with Luca.

"The Client says you can see it."

PF uses the roof to show cars. There's an freight elevator that goes there and a turntable built into the roof. It takes a while to get a car up there but when they arrived P 4/5 was on the turntable covered by a Blue Sheet.

Jason and Paolo walked over to the car grabbed the edges of the Sheet and looked back at Luca.

Andrea nodded and they lifted the sheet.

Andrea later told me that that was the first time in his life that he had ever seen Luca stop talking.

After more than a moment Luca said:

"That's a Ferrari..." He said softly.

"Who is this American?"

"He's a client and a collector."

"What does it's name mean?"

"He asked us to build a car that captured the spirit of his P4 and our P5 show car."

At that point Jason in horror realised that Luca did not full understand and he ran down the stairs, back to his studio, grabbed two blown up and mounted photos off of his wall and ran back to the roof.

When Jason got back to the roof Luca was walking around P 4/5. Jason handed the photos to Luca. Luca studied them and handed them back.

"What is the story of this American's 0846 that I keep hearing about?"

Andrea answered:

"Simply after it was damaged Ferrari scrapped it and years later he found the pieces and put them back together."

"We threw something our and he found it? That's funny."

Luca turned headed back to the Helicopter and flew off and P 4/5 became Ferrari P 4/5 by pininfarina.

La Ferrari. The Ford.

One of my cars is called "The Ford". I've been thinking about why. Basically during the Ford Ferrari Wars it was the first Ford to become "The Ford" that beat Ferrari and the name stuck. Enzo had dismissed the earlier Ford GT's as English cars that Ford stuffed an engine into so "The Duce" Henry Ford the second had a Ford built solely in Dearborn and sent it off to war.

I've come to realize that war is where Enzo and his cars became what the were. War has changed. F1 is a LOT different today than it is today. It's not Flyboy's and Bloody Red Baron's it's become hyper technical and over polished.

Behind The Ford in our Trophy Case is a hunk of The Ford that went to war. In 1967 during the race it's tail blew off and Bruce McLaren stopped the car, ran back, retrieved it, held it in place, and drove back to the pits where it was reattached with duct tape and a hindge was fashioned by cutting and using Shelby's belt.

One piece of that tail was scooped up by a fan before Bruce got there and that Fan kept it until he died. Many years later his children sent that piece to me. That piece of "The Ford" show's just how violent war is. I'll shoot a close up later and post it.

This video shows some of the war I was part of. Exposure to war has shaped my view.
When the Fog of War Turns into The Art of War cars become "The Ford".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6Ur4L2uOdao
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PF Present. They've still got it.


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The Turin Boot!

 

My P4 and their P5.

 

Napalm In The morning...
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