Top Gear on 288 GTO, F40, F50, Enzo

Is this the ultimate Ferrari group test? - BBC Top Gear

Cheers
Mike

 

Surprised by the F50's "win" in this article, if you can call it that.

Jeremy always disliked the F50. Nice to see someone from TG disagree with him.

It is the best of the 4.

 

Awesome piece and thanks for sharing!

This image resembles the Red Arrows in flying formation!
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The original Red Arrows, airborne!
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Thanks for starting my day off great Joe!

 

Evo conducted the same group test ten years ago and came to the same conclusion.

 

Great article. I completely agree with everything they said. Still on the fence about owning a 288 GTO. F50 does give the best driving experience as long as you keep the revs up. But it does have scary oversteer. F40 boost is fun and its old-school nature makes it really a challenge to drive very fast. Enzo needs to be driven fast to enjoy. But it is very fast. As the article states, you can work around the sluggish shifts. You just need to keep the revs up and your foot into it.

 

Is it possible for someone to post a link? Out of both the cars I always rather drive the F40 for some uncomfortable whoosh sounding fun, on the other hand the F50 is easier to sit in and to drive, the wife rathers that but at the end she dislikes both.

 

George - Is this the ultimate Ferrari group test? - BBC Top Gear

Cheers
Mike

 

Lots of people on here who have driven much more impressive stuff than me but I have flown a hawker hunter (plane used by the red arrows)

 

Very true. I'm just interested that TG was the publisher of that same conclusion.

Not that Jeremy has the only say-so in the organization, but just that it's interesting that the collective position on these cars is changing, even in the world of TG.

It is a testament to the long unspoken qualities of the F50. I think it's cool.

 

No, sorry, it is not. They use Hawks, the Hunter is a very old plane, long since retired.

 

The Black arrows used the Hawker Hunter, who I think were the predecessors to the red arrows I believe, so you are both correct

They still fly hunters out of my local former RAF station St Athan, as a company restores them at the old base, but its no longer an operational RAF base but mainly occupied by the army these days

 

Yup! Showing my age Hawk was the updated version - can't claim to have flow one of those

 

Great article, its amazing after lurking in the shadows for so many years the F50 is finally being properly appreciated.

 

Also, quick video from said story.

Great to see them all together on the airstrip.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEiMuoa5cE4]Ferrari Enzo, F40, F50 & 288 GTO - Top Gear iPad Magazine - YouTube[/ame]

Cheers
Mike

 

AWESOME!, you would think it would be between the F40 and F50, although it would be hard to choose a clear winner in my books.

 

Did anyone else feel a little let down by the article? It's not that I don't agree with what is written, but considering just how epic an occasion this was, it seems like very little written about actual experience of driving the cars on the track.

Everything felt like it was written in a vacuum. Not just the cars either, but even when talking about a gearbox, turbos, brakes or chassis it all felt very general. He managed to summarize the Enzo's chassis performance by saying it was as good as any car ever. That was it.

Talking about the F40 he mentions how evil the transmission is, goes into great detail describing how technically obsolete it is, but does very little to describe it any meaningful way while driving. Same with the brakes. He says the brakes aren't great, but wow. Seriously, that was it.

Maybe I was just spoiled by the EVO article 10 years ago or so, but this could have been written by someone who read that article and was summarizing it. I'm not claiming that happened, it clearly didn't, not to mention he likes the F40 more than they did, but after getting all the cars together and all the film work it feels like a massive missed opportunity.

I don't want any of the cars to be trashed and to be honest he seemed very careful about that, but this almost was like someone driving each of the cars individually. They were compared, but it sounded very superficial, comparisons that could have been made with a look at tech specs and the year the cars were launched.

I was hoping for some more nitty gritty I guess. Something more akin to Chris Harris and his take on the F40 and F50. I'm not arguing for or against Harris here, but he gets into specifics that I would really have loved to hear. How often will we get a chance to hear just how much faster an Enzo is than F50 or F40, how they all really feel in a faster corner compared to each other. Maybe even the same corner.

I liked it, but again, feels like a missed opportunity in such a rare situation. What he came away with was that they were all great. We already knew that. I don't know if this was a situation where the photo opportunity and occasion of having all the cars together was the real point, but to me it wasn't enough.

 

What you wanted in this Top Gear article is what EVO delivered in their identical test several years ago.

Also, you're just describing the main difference between TG and EVO in general. TG is much more mainstream (numbers, generalizations, pictures, video), EVO has always been about "the thrill of driving." That's why their articles are so involving and their videos are so tasteful--they really make an effort to communicate not only the details of the cars they drive, but their experience of bringing those details into sharp focus.

Edit: You mentioned the EVO test. Didn't write my response accordingly. Yes, it read like an massive missed opportunity. You can't cover 30 years of supercar history in 14 short web bits. EVO did a much better job.

 

F50 is definitely my favorite of the group.

 

Evo also did a test of F40, F50, Zonda, Carrera GT, McLaren F1, and a few others (Sep 2013) which is worth a read. Whilst they don't formally announce a winner it seems the clear standouts are the F50 and the F1. I was quite surprised the Zonda didn't fair better

 

Drive all four of them and it's quite easily the best all rounder. It's certainly my favourite.

 

Their standouts included the Carrera GT as well.