Here's an interesting question (of course, I'm biased! LOL!)... Taking into consideration the competition, i.e. what other manufacturers were doing with respect to road cars at the time, What do you think was (is) Ferrari's best decade? The 60's with the 250 GTO and SWB and 275GTB...and 206 Dino, etc.? Or the 70's with the Daytona (I know it first appeared in 69 but...), 365 BB, 512 BB, 246 Dino and, of course, the 308? The 80's with the 288 GTO, F40, Testarosa, 328? Or?? Again, take into consideration what other companies were putting forth at the time, as well. This, of course, in addition to beauty and charisma, etc. I'm still self-debating ;-)
Oh boy... this will be fun to follow For ME, the 80's - 308, 328, 288, F40, etc... But I'm biased. Maybe the 125 S in 1947 that started it all... TOUGH CHOICE!!! Jedi ps - you started this thread in 308/328/Mondial AND own a 328... so I suspect you have a similar bias
By far it was the sixties. - 500 superfast - p4 - 250 GTO - 250 SWB - 275 GTB - 250 cali's - 250 TDF - Dino 206 - 312 p The list goes on but these were the glory days
You're in the wrong section of F-Chat. Hard to pic though, I like your selection, but am a huge fan of the 308 and it's derivatives, i.e. the 288 and F40, the later being my pick of all F-Cars.
re: the ps, ...or an ulterior motive (). Scott shared with us, this very afternoon, that he'll be taking possession, this very Thursday, of his '77 steel dry sump 308! Oh, yeah! Coop
Which decade? Looking at the pics/data of the 458 Italia, I'd have to say "this one." Otherwise, I'd say the 80's for road cars simply because of the "little" Ferrari (3x8) and the TR. Certainly for REAL Ferraris (race cars, which was all that Enzo cared about) the 60's. Mostly the early 60's since the Ford GT40s blew them away at LeMans for several years running in the later 60's.
As much as I love my 308 and the cars of the 80s, I have to go with the 60s answer. That was simply a spectacular time for Ferrari and the list of cars given by Andric is just hard to beat by any manufacturer anywhere at anytime. Maybe I am a heretic in that way, but holy crap!! Think about the history of the cars on that list. PDG
While I am not the biggest fan of the road cars, it hard to argue against 1999-2009. The success of the 360/430/599/etc on the street combined with the string of F1 championships is a pretty strong indicator.
So is the thread - you might get more unbiased answers in the General Discussion. I make it no secret that I'm a huge fan of the 348, but would have to acknowledge the 1960s rather than the 1990s as the glory days that brought Ferrari its reputation. The 348 is still the Ferrari I aspire to own though. All the best, Andrew.
The question is manipulating. The best decade was the first one, 1947-1957. 166, 195, 212, 250MM, 375MM, TdF etc etc. This was the time when the roadcars were closest to the racecars, many 1-offs, all the barchetta's and Le Mans berlinetta's, the times of Touring and Vignale....
The answer to this question is entirely subjective; people can create criteria (race wins, one-offs, etc.), but the choice of criteria itself is subjective. Much of the answer of this question depends on how old you are. Here is a rough timeline of Ferrari history, with arguments for each decade: Pre-1960: Racing, one-offs, etc. 1960s: Cars made legendary by race wins and romantic baby boomer fantasies. 1970s: Exotic styling and high performance in an era of ugly and sluggish cars. Daytona wins the Cannonball Run, Dino wins the Cannonball Run, and 308 sets record for most speeding tickets in fewest miles. 1980s: Peak of the "exotic car era," Ferrari becomes a household name thanks to Magnum and Crocket/Tubbs, every kid has a Ferrari poster on his bedroom wall. Drug dealers and Scarface ensure future coolness of 1970s-80s exotics. 1990s: The 1990s sucked. Sales slowed, everyone exchanged their pastel suit for gray and put their socks back on, and owning an exotic car meant you were insecure and/or compensating for something. 348 trounced by a Honda, the F50 is ugly, F355 a nice car but maintenance disaster. And Schumacher's best years were in the 2000s. 2000s: Schumacher. 360 sales success thanks to home equity loans and real estate boom. 1990s over. 2010s: 458. Clearly, Ferrari's best decade was the 1970s or 80s!
My vote is more of an overall automotive design vote than number sold. I have always maintained that I love this decade for all european cars over any other. 1958-1968 Pontoon Fender 250 TR (probably my favorite Ferrari of all) 250 GTO P3/P4 Dino 206 250 California 275 GTB 250 GT Lusso
The 250 GTO is, IMHO, the second prettiest car made in the "modern" era. First is the Series 1 E type but Ferrari has a bunch of cars in my top 10 while jag only has the one...
The journalist in me says "best" is always a nightmare, because you have to define "best". So here's how we can all be on the same page 1)Best can be judged objectively against contemporaries -- but the objective criteria must be defined: In which decade were Ferraris most successful against their competitors (including racing and road cars) in terms of sales, which Ferraris most outperformed competitors of the decade, which decade delivered the most race wins...? 2)Best can be a subjective judging against others Ferrari built:In which decade were Ferraris the best combination of prettiest, sexiest, gotta-have, performance, winning in races...? 3) Best can be an objective classification against other Ferraris, which can mean some gauge of historical sales (production, days to "sell out" production, days on wait list), specific performance (meaning overall performance of a 458 vs Enzo vs. 250GTO vs. 365 GTB/4), or race wins (F1, FIA production classes, club racing...) In #1, you'd basically have to choose between the 1950s, 1960s and the 2000s, since these were the two decades of greatest dominance. In #2, there's no right answer. In #3, it's "the last ten years" for performance and sales, since the most modern cars have been the best perfomers by the numbers, and sold the best. As for race wins, it would be the M.Schuey years, but only if it based on F1. Ferraris won a hell of a lot of races overall in the 50s and 60s. While I don't necessarily believe that the last ten years have produced the prettiest cars, Ferrari has been at its BEST in the 2000s by objective criteria.
Ha! I thought this might garner some attention! BTW...you fine gents will note that I did specify "road cars", though obviously the 50's and 60's cars were often dual purpose. I also made mention to take into account what other manufacturers were doing at the time. Anyway...it's a fun thread and, as with so many subject areas in this fine forum, there are no right or wrong answers, only subjective opinions
Hard to argue with this. Of the best looking, most historically significant sports cars ever made, a good portion came in the '60s. IIRC, the Dino 246 and Daytona are also late '60s designs, which makes it an absolute slam dunk, IMHO. Those last two are on the Official Bullfighter Cars to Own Before I Die List, and several of the others are on the potential Official Bullfighter + Sandra Bullock Wedding Registry. Can't go there... I'd say it is easy to argue against them on the basis of design and importance. Those cars brought Ferrari firmly into the mass produced, video game era, and left behind Italian style for generic aero-sculpting. On a performance basis, I think the 2010- decade has already surpassed the '99-'09 run with the 458 and cumbersome 599 GTO package. If you're thinking F1 as the raison d'etre for Ferrari, then yes, the Schumacher era was pretty damned good.
I'd even put the 250 GT SWB ahead of the GTO in terms of style, though not significance. I love the E-Type Series 1, but the Ferrari is simply incredible. Either way, the interiors of these cars put everything made after the early '70s to shame. It's just not even close. (I appreciate sat nav, airbags, etc., for their functionality, but aesthetically they are a blight.)
...taking into consideration what the competition was doing at the time....has to be the '90s. What company successfully competed with this lineup? F40 Mondial T 348 512 TR F50 550 456 355 360
Actually -- a lot of companies. Mercedes had a great run of 500s (SL, C, S) and AMG cars. Porsche went from near disaster to 993 Turbo, Boxster. BMW had the pre-Bangle 7,5,3 series cars, plus the Z3 and M coupe. Even Chevy put together the ZR1 and C5 in the same decade (along with the C5R). The Mondial T, 348 and 512TR were really "behind the times" by the 1990s in terms of style, ergonomics, and/or performance....just like my 328 GTS was in the late 80s thanks to well-performing Japanese cars. Still, there's no doubt that the 1990s were very good for Ferrari and Ferrari was very good to us, as well
