Some Questions for a School Project

You'd better head to the library, young man!

I'll answer one question.

After years of resistance, "Horse ahead of the cart", Enzo was forced to adopt rear engine design by competition from Lotus and other F1 teams of the early 60s. Jim Clark's Indy 500 victory is widely accepted as the turning point on this issue.

Anyone else want to help this young man with his homework? LOL!
He was propbably overwhelmed by the response if you Google "Ferrari".

 

A brief answer to #7) They are a lot more expensive!

 

No problem man, that's how we all learned!

Happy Holidays Rob!

 

4 and 5:

I _think_ (someone may need to double-check my numbers), that the latest worldwide production numbers are something like:

Enzo: 349
575: 800
456: 290
360: 3150

As far as how long it takes to produce them, I'm not sure, but I can estimate how many they make a day as follows: The factory is open 11 months of the year (closed in August), minus weekends, assuming 1/2 day on Friday, and assuming a smattering of other off-days, I'd say there are around 300 production days a year, so they make about 15 cars / day.

If anyone has corrections to any of these figures, do shout 'em out.

nlh

 

do a search for victorybydesign or go to victorybydesign.com and order the ferrari dvd for $25. it might be informative and fascinating for your project. otherwise, there is a download link somewhere that is in real media format and well worth the download. while it doesn't say why they specifically put the motor aft of the driver, it hints that that's the next progression in making their race cars faster. the lamborghini muira was the first road car to put the motor in the back, but I cannot recall the timeline as to when the ferraris had their race cars with a mid engine layout vs. the front engine. you'll get more details with the video. well worth the watch.

also, the vid will explain #6 a bit when it comes to a monocoque chassis and brakes. Ferrari had always been the last to try out the latest technology into their race cars. things have certainly changed since then.

 

Why did Ferrari start putting engines in the mid position?

For the road cars you can partialy blame Lamborghini with their Miura and Countach. The Miura was the first (that I know of) street car with the engine behind the passenger compartment, and at the time ferrari was making the Daytona as their flagship, which had a front mounted 12.
Once Ferrari realized that it could regain some sales from Lamborghini by putting a 12 behind the driver, it built the Berlinetta Boxer. it had a racing derived Flat-12 and IMO one of the best bodies ever put on a car.

By that time Lamborghini was making the Countach and later on Lotus the Esprit, so Ferrari made the TR series.

Since the F512M Ferrari has not made a Mid-12 (excluding the limited production F50 and Enzo)

So Ferrari made a mid egine car to get sales and also to race, but that aspect has been covered above.

 

The 250P was the first rear engine prototype, which was after the F1 cars. Then Enzo tried to convince FIA that the 250LM was a legitimate evolotion of the already homogulated GTO, which was front engined!
When they turned hime down he withdrew the factory cars. The 250LM ran that year as white/blue NART entry.

 

I thought the deTomaso Mangusta came before the Muira.

The reason that all real racing cars have the engine in the middle are:
A) reduced polar moment
B) compact packaging
C) weight

A barbel has high polar moment. The same shaft with the weight in the center has much lower polar moment. Polar moment indicates how easily an object can be taken from rest and begun spinning around the center of gravity. A vehicle with large polar moment takes large forces from the tires to begin turining, then more forces to hold a steady turn, then more forces to start leaving the turn, and finally even more to quit turning. All these forces cause drag and heat the tires. A car with lower polar moment can be steered into a turn faster and steered out of a turn faster. They can also spin faster, so the polar moment of modern mid-engined cars is a careful balance between the polar moment achievabel, and the reaction time of the driver. If the car is faster than the driver (in rotation initiation) it will be hard to drive and easy to spin. The first mid engined race cars (and road cars) had (at best) ricky handling, but the lowe rpolar moment and weight advantages gave them an instant advantage that the front engined cars could not match. Modern mid-engined cars have a delicate balance that makes them easier to drive at the limits of traction and in beautiful 4 wheel drifts.

A mid-engined car can have a compact and robust driveline because the drive shaft is not required, not ar things like torque tubes and the like. The chassis does not need to be stiff enough to handle the TQing of the motor to the rear suspension, and thereby can be lighter. These advantages also exist in rear engined cars (ala Porsche).

 

Reply to 5)

In 2002 Ferrari SpA sold 4236 Ferraris.

I also know that they will produce 399 Enzos, and not 349 like told above.

And in the first half year of 2003 they delivered 86 enzos. (Found that somewhere in the financial result of Ferrari of the first half year of 2003).

Hope this is a reply to your question.

 

I believe it was 196 SP 0790. Others?

 

Ferrari has never made a rear engine car that I'm aware of. They are MID engined (forward of the rear axle). Porsche 911's are rear engined. There were a few race cars in the early 60's that were mid engined; the Miura and some French car (Matra?) came first as production cars. The Lotus Europa was the first mid engined car that competed with the Corvette in price; he S1 came out in 1969.

 

I had thought that the mangusta began proguction in late 1969 (august is my best guess) ant the miura in may.
still, the Mangusta, Miura, and to a much lesser extent the ford GT40 road car, of which im not sure how many made it to the streets.

The decision for the road cars switching to Mid engines was probably to keep Ferrari as the pinacle manufacturer in both image and performance.
The driving dynamics, for an abundance of reasons, just cannot match those of a mid engined car.