The ENZO Ferrari
The Enzo Ferrari or Type F140 is a 12 cylinder mid-engine sports car named after its founder, Enzo Ferrari. It was developed in 2002 using Formula One technology, such as a carbon-fiber body, F1-style automated-shift manual transmission. The carbon-fiber-reinforced ceramic composite disc brakes.
Also used are technologies not allowed in F1 such as active aerodynamics and traction control. The Enzo Ferrari generates substantial downforce, which is achieved by the front underbody flaps, the small adjustable rear spoiler and the rear diffuser working in conjunction.
The Enzo's F140 B V12 engine was the first of a new generation for Ferrari. The design of the V8 engine is found in the Maserati Quattroporte, using the same basic design.
The F140B V12 engine
The engine in the Enzo is longitudinally-mounted and the car has a rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout. The powerplant is Ferrari's F140B naturally aspirated 65° V12 engine with DOHC 4 valves per cylinder, variable valve timing and Bosch Motronic ME7 fuel injection.
Car Design
The Enzo was designed by Ken Okuyama, the then Pininfarina head of design, and initially announced at the 2002 Paris Motor Show with a claimed limited production run of 399 units and a price of US$659,330. The company sent invitations to existing customers, specifically, those who had previously bought the F40 and F50. All 399 cars were sold in this way before production began.
Enzo Ferrari the Man
Enzo Ferrari led a wonderful life and went on to lead a successful car racing career. He also built one of the best-loved sports car companies in the world, setting up and running one of the most successful racing championship teams ever assembled.
Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria Ferrari was born in 1889 in Modena, Italy, and grew up with little formal education. At the age of 10, he witnessed Felice Nazzaro's win at the 1908 Circuito di Bologna, which inspired him to become a racing driver.
Ferrari also dreamed of becoming an opera singer, but the deaths of his father and brother from the flu in 1916 forced him to grow up quickly, and he left school to become an instructor for Modena's fire service workshop.
During World War I, Enzo served in the 3rd Mountain Artillery Regiment of the Italian Army. He became severely sick during the 1918 flu pandemic and was discharged from the Italian military service.
In 1920, Enzo joined the racing department of Alfa Romeo as a driver and won his first Grand Prix in 1923 in Ravenna on the Savio Circuit.
Following the birth of his son Alfredo (Dino) in 1932, Ferrari decided to retire from racing and focus on the management and development of the Alfa race cars building up a race team of superstar drivers. This team was called Scuderia Ferrari (founded by Enzo in 1929) and acted as a racing division for Alfa Romeo. In this period, the prancing horse emblem began to show up on his team's cars.
In his later years, Enzo Ferrari formally resigned as president of his company in 1977, although he effectively retained control of the business. Shortly after being conferred an honorary degree in physics from the University of Modena, Ferrari died on August 14, 1988, in Maranello. Throughout his lifetime, his cars won more than 4,000 races and claimed 13 world championships. In recognition of his accomplishments, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994.
Suspension, gearbox, and brakes
The Ferrari Enzo used the F1 transmission and had a gear shift indicator on the steering wheel telling the driver when to change gears. The Enzo has an automated sequential manual transmission (known as the F1 gearbox) using paddle-shifters to control an automatically-actuated electrohydraulic clutch and shifting mechanism, with LED lights on the steering wheel telling the driver when to change gears.
The gearbox has a shift time of just 150 milliseconds. The transmission was a first-generation "clutchless" design from the late 1990s, and there have been complaints about its abrupt shifting. The Enzo has four-wheel independent suspension with push-rod actuated shock absorbers, which can be adjusted from the cabin, complemented with anti-roll bars at the front and rear.
The Ferrari Enzo used carbon-ceramic brake discs, a first for a Ferrari road car
The Enzo uses 19-inch wheels and has 15-inch Brembo disc brakes. The wheels are held by a single lug nut and fitted with Bridgestone Potenza Scuderia RE050A tires.
Ferrari's Prancing Horse emblem is a symbol of automotive elegance and raw Italian horsepower. The prancing stallion came from Count Francesco Baracca, a renowned Italian air force pilot during World War I. His plane had that same design printed on its side. Baracca considered a national hero by Italians, had nearly three dozen dogfight victories before being shot down on June 19, 1918.
It wasn't until 1923 that Enzo Ferrari met Baracca's mother and father, who asked Ferrari to use their son's design on his cars for good luck. The emblem's yellow background symbolizes the color of Italian city Modena, Italy, where Enzo was born. The two letters accompanying the horse–S and F–stand for Scuderia Ferrari, the name of the brand's racing division. Stripes on the top of the logo in red, white, and green represent the Italian national colors.
The horse shield subsequently evolved, and in 1947 on Ferrari's first production car, the 125 S, the Ferrari logo and brand we know today were born.
Commendations
In 2004, American magazine Sports Car International named the Enzo Ferrari number three on their list of Top Sports Cars of the 2000s. American magazine Motor Trend Classic named the Enzo as number four in their list of the ten "Greatest Ferraris of all time."
However, the Enzo Ferrari was described as one of the "Fifty Ugliest Cars of the Past 50 Years", as Bloomberg Businessweek cited its superfluous curves and angles as too flashy V-shaped hood, scooped-out doors, and bulbous windshield.
Auto Vino rare and exotic car storage is proud to preserve and protect the heritage of Italian Motorcars in a museum-like setting to display beautiful examples of Art-on-Wheels for those who have a passion for rare, exotic, and fast cars, and for those too who don't.
The car presented here is privately owned and not for sale.
