By the way, I began to like the ROMA less and less everyday, I'm not interested in it anymore, not actually because for its wet sump, but because I finally saw it in real life, I would say it's very beautiful, but it's a very Aston Martin, I see no real difference between it and my DB9, in fact I think the DB9 has more personality to the ROMA, The ROMA is a very elegant car but it lacks personality, now I can be sure, I think you win, I give up, you were right and I was wrong.
Not at all, it's normal, it happens a lot actually!, the car is not that interesting in real life, though it's beautiful but it's not as beautiful as I thought it would be. The biggest shock for me was the grill, as you may know the grill was my fav part according to photos only, but in real life, it looked like a cheap plastic or whatever martial that is!! Finally, it's kinda of "ok cars", but does it deserve its price 220.000(EUR), IMO I don't think so!, I would buy it only if it comes with 100.000(EUR) maximum.
No, you are incorrect! The F12 berlinetta was a work between Pininfarina and the new Ferrari Centro Stile. But the main influences comes from Manzoni and his team (Andrea Militello for example) as you can clearly see at the design sketches of both teams. The sketches are marked with “Ferrari design“ and “pininfarina“. You can clearly see that the main influence comes from Manzoni and his team... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I still think that the pininfarina lettering on the f12berlinetta standard car is ok given the services that pininfarina has provided in its history for Ferrari. The LaFerrari then was the first car without pininfarina (Manzoni said this very often) and the 812 Superfast is a Centro Stile design too (as all new cars of the last years)... But you can say that the California T, the 488 GTB/Spider, the F8 Tributo and the GTC4 Lusso is a facelift design from the “old“ pininfarina cars (California, 458 Italia and FF).
The story of the design of the F12 Berlinetta goes like this. Donato Coco was named Ferrari chief designer in 2005 and the design studies for the future F12 started with him. The first drawings were made at Pininfarina during the end of 2009. When Flavio Manzoni replaced Donato Coco in 2010, he picked up a design theme that had already been developed in house by Andrea Militello and whose study orientation was carried out by Werner Gruber and Alberto Agnari. However, the collaboration between Ferrari and Pininfarina during the development of the exterior design of F12 had a top priority which was to seek an optimal aerodynamic avoiding any ailerons or appendices. That was the moment when Franco Cimatti who was Pininfarina responsible for studies and concepts, came up with the brilliant idea of the aerobridges on the F12 bonnet. I disliked Flavio Manzoni posture every time he talked or gave interviews about the F12 Berlinetta development. He always gave all the credits to himself and to his Ferrari team as if Pininfarina didn't existed. The truth is that the F12 Berlinetta exterior design resulted from a full and profitable cooperation between Ferrari and Pininfarina and that's why it has the Ferrari emblem in the front and is the last Ferrari to wear the Pininfarina emblems on the sides.
My F12 has this tag in the passenger compartment, on the wall behind the seats in the center. Marcel Massini Image Unavailable, Please Login
The 456GTM is still the prettiest 4-seat sports car ever made to my eyes. Interestingly, the Roma has similar lines, proportions, and a relative simplicity that’s refreshing.
i Agree that the 456 is a masterpiece of design, and is aging very well. It belongs to a time when Ferrari lineup was outstanding with the 559 and the 355.
Yes, Andrea Militello is an in-house designer working for Ferrari since 2010 (like his boss Manzoni). And you can clearly see on the sketches in my post, the first design ideas seem to come from him (and NOT from pininfarina). And Franco Cimatti never worked for pininfarina but for Ferrari (look at his profile at linkedin.com)! So, the influence of pininfarina exists but is not so strong as you describe it. But nevertheless the F12berlinetta is one of the most beautiful cars in Ferrari history and pininfarina deserves it to be mentioned on the car (as I said it before).
FYI Mr Cimatti is a member of fchat. Super nice gentleman, met him several times. Cimatti has now left Ferrari after decades and now works for Lotus. Marcel Massini
By the way, the first in-house designer of Ferrari was Frank Stephenson (since 2002) and Coco Donato followed him in 2005. But the real success with an in-house-team started with Flavio Manzoni in January 2010 (Andrea Millitello began there in February 2010). By the way, it was far too complicated for Ferrari to constantly develop the cars with pininfarina. This is only possible with an internal design team, with whom you can communicate faster on site. At least five new models were presented this year: almost impossible with pininfarina!
I was in Rome when they launched the car and I sat in three different variations of the car. The Interior is vastly different than Aston Martin. In person the clean lines are beautiful. I would go so far as to say that I would consider daily driving the car.
The information source for what I wrote about the F12 development comes from a 15 pages article that was published in the October 2012 edition of the French magazine Automobiles Classiques. I have a sample of this magazine and despite being written in French, I enclose a copy of that article which is one of the best that I know about the F12 Berlinetta development and design. After seeing your observations I read the article again and detected that I made a mistake in my text due to a bad translation. At a certain point in the article is said " If we believe Franco Cimatti, responsible for studies and concepts, it was Pininfarina that introduced the system of "Aero Bridge"……" . I have to apologize for the mistake and rectify what I wrote before. Franco Cimatti didn't work at Pininfarina and wasn't him that introduced the F12 aerobridges. According to what he stated, and Franco Cimatti is a very respectable personality, it was Pininfarina that introduced the F12 Berlinetta aerobridges.
I also attended the unveiling in Rome and thought exactly the same thing. A Ferrari that you would be happy to use everyday, even in slow city traffic. The performance and the numbers are still there, but to me the car is more about being transported in style than about racing. The interior is years ahead what we are used to, huge leap forward in my view, not just in terms of design but in overall quality as well. I think this is also probably the one car in Ferrari’s lineup that you really have to see in person to appreciate fully. It is all about proportions, clean lines, understated elegance - all of which is easily lost in translation in the photos. I myself loved it in person at the premiere, then came back home and was amazed at how different the renderings look compared to the real thing.