Ferrari FF Design Critique

If you read their press release you’ll see that they use the phrase ‘shooting brake’ for the first time, recalling to mind the Aston Martin shooting brakes which you pictured were owned by rich swells who went out on their estate to shoot a few grouse and wanted to go in a 150 mph car so they wouldn’t lose any time on their way back to the castle/chateau, whatever.

In America, cars of this shape were called “station wagons.”They were what families had before they invented the SUV. Nowadays many firms with cars with similar rooflines offer cars of similar shape but strive mightily to avoid the words “station” or “wagon.” Ferrari wouldn’t date use those words though they probably wouldn’t mind comparisons to the Aston Martin shooting brake (how about matched Italian shotguns as an accessory?).

I reacted one way upon seeing the pictures of the new FF, back when I had not seen the car in person. Fortunately, I threw that review away, because after attending the Beverly Hills Rodeo Drive car show, I saw it in person. I glimpsed it about block away and I remember thinking “What the hell is that Ferrari?” Later in the show I came across it (held off from the seething masses by a rope of course) and got to appreciate it up close. Here’s my cursory take on the design and marketing, as a critic:

The idea of having the grille teeth extend outside the grille cavity is pure brilliance as far as thinking of a new way of presenting the same “eggcrate” grille (Having the grille teeth extending outside the grille cavity is not a new idea. Remember the 1955 Chevrolet Biscayne, one of Harley Earl’s dream cars?)

The headlights are “decorated” with LED “gems” (their words, not mine) which they say give it a distinctive look at night.
That is part of the new bling—to have a car that can be identified at night merely by the unique shape of its headlights or taillights. Only trouble is—LEDs are fast “trickling down” to every car at every price
level so what looks cool now could be old hat by next year.

Thoughts on Marketing
Let’s say you can get over what you don’t like about the styling. There are many other things to like—like a 660-hp. V12, and a 209-mph top speed, 4 mph faster than the much more impractical late great ‘05-’06 Ford GT. The price tag of $359,000 seems a tad high, but then there are always a few hundred who have to have the latest Ferrari so what it costs new is almost irrelevant. In fact, word is that the first year’s production is already sold out, so like the California spyder, if you weren’t standing there, checkbook in hand the moment it was unveiled, you’re much too slow for the Ferrari world, chum.

Now as to the necessity for four wheel drive, well, I would have thought, back around 2002 when Porsche came out with a four wheel drive SUV, the Cayenne, that it was totally going against all Porsche stood for. Boy, was I wrong. They’ve sold thousands of them. Ferrari owners, especially those who buy cars that pricewise run for over a third of a million, likely own ski chalets in Aspen or Telluride, so they see no reason to leave the Ferrari at home when they go out to hit the slopes. Thus, with the FF, Ferrari took a quantum leap in rethinking the philosophy of what constitutes a Ferrari—they are clearly exploring: how many life styles can be encompassed with an appropriate car from the brand? Actually, Lamborghini had four wheel drive first but that was for traction on paved roads where the FF will take to the rough roads and even snow or ice-covered ones. There’s already a video on the net showing the FF careening through a snow covered landscape—a landscape that you would never envision a Ferrari on before. (I think they cheated on that preview though by flying the FF by helicopter to a mountaintop location that they could never have reached with the car alone no matter how good its four wheel drive).

Plus while we ‘Mericans like to think of ourselves as the biggest Ferrari customers, making a Ferrari that can take rough roads or snow covered roads makes sense in the third world, and we predict that Chinese and Indian buyers will take a bunch of these FF cars off their hands. In a press release Ferrari said Chinese sales rose 44% in the year 2010 alone. And count on Russia, too, as many firms are going public in the next few weeks, each wave of IPOs creating a whole new crop of instant millionaires.

And so it is. We enthusiasts for cars of the prancing horse marque who always thought Ferraris were for the track first, and street second, now are forced to reconcile our minds’ images to Ferraris packed with families, on their way to the mountains with skis on the roof. Somehow I don’t think this will result in Enzo reaching a high rotational speed in his grave. My gut feeling is that he would like it, as it exactly fits his philosophy going right back to the early ’50s where , for the street he made what rich folks want as long as it funds the racing….

The drawing: For FF tifosi, the author/artist is making available prints of the top illustration, in his super-realist style, in size 12″ x 18″ , including 1/2″ borders, each signed and numbered. Write photojournalistpro@hotmail.com