Auto Design

First written for Car Styling, Issue 173 (Tokyo, July 2006)

* Stories and cars from recent past you may like to read and see again.

LINEA PININFARINA.

Ten years after the front-engined Ferrari 550 Maranello replaced the mid-engined heirs of the mythical Testarossa in the upper, 12 cylinder, Ferrari class, the new 599 GTB Fiorano writes a new chapter in the history of Ferrari and of Supercar.  It is longer, higher, a lot more comfortable and yet it is lighter and dramatically faster around bends (and on straight lines). Even more relevant is the fact that, despite its dimensions, the 599 GTB looks more compact and nimble. (more on the car itself)

The fantastic performance of Ferrari technology called for a design capable of communicating the potential and of contributing to it, through aerodynamics, efficiency and the aesthetic harmony combining Ferrari power with Pininfarina elegance.

Creating a Ferrari design from a white paper is difficult, as the students have proven. Doing that with the unavoidable constrain of an established industry with the limited production volume typical of exclusive supercars is almost a “mission impossible”.

Indeed through the first design phase of the new Ferrari, designers had to work with so many “unchangeable” hard-points that the results failed to convince both Ferrari and Pininfarina executives. At that time the plan was to create the “heir of Daytona” from a shortened 612 Scaglietti, by cutting the wheelbase by as much as 250 mm. (eventually reduced to 200 mm.) and keeping nearly everything else unchanged. Including the A pillars and the windscreen; hence the car width. That would greatly affect the proportions, of course; and eventually the wheelbase was extended by 50 mm.

 

The first round of design research did not deliver the sort of “cool” and progressive sports car Ferrari expected, a sort of front engined F40. The rough full scale model made of foam to check the overall dimensions and proportion was not satisfactory.

Was is the fault of designers and the lack of inspiration or was it because of the too strict technical briefing? Lorenzo Ramaciotti, design director at that time, wanted to check it out and told his designers to forget all technical restrains and to come up with new concepts and ideas “from a white sheet”.

  

Ferrari was expecting a racy GT rough and though but cool. A car with the force, character and elegance of the classic two-seater Ferrari, rather than just thinking of a successor to the F 550 Maranello.

The experiment proved the designers right.

The first technical briefing was too strict and, given a bit more freedom, they came up with something much more promising.

 

Never mind the renderings provided by Pininfarina. They provide a rough impression of the work that went on at Pininfarina and display more creativity in communication than the real story, I suspect. Suffice to note that some of the renderings were already made in the summer of 2002, few months before the design project was “officially” given the “starting flag” by Ferrari.

 

The truth is that from the “white sheet” research came four interesting scale models and than the orientation towards a light, nimble and agile full scale model that was judged to be in the right direction.

 

That was in mid-2003 and for the first time Pininfarina designers had the starting point for their new Ferrari. Just a starting point and nothing more, because there is a clear difference form the full scale model approved in the Autumn of 2003 (shown by the pictures) and the actual design development lasted until few month before the introduction in Geneva this year.

By the end of 2003 there was still a long way to go and through the time it went along the suggestions by Jason Castriota. It was him that eventually was fully committed to the project with Fabrizio Valentini as design project manager, whereas interior design specialist, Giuseppe Randazzo was – once again – given the task to develop the new cockpit. “From the very beginning we translated Ferrari requests for a very progressive design, with a strong accent on performance into a sort of a modern street legal racer that people can drive through the week and race on Saturdays and Sundays.”

 

“We were looking for a sort of F50 for daily use with the DNA of the Ferrari 250GT, 275GTB and of the 365 GTB Daytona”, recalls Jason.

Through the long development those DNA elements came out and took a contemporary shape.

Like many designers did before him, Jason looked at F1 racing for inspiration and felt that the new GT had to have some of the F1 character. The drop-like shape of the cockpit behind the driver, the curvaceous shape of the side combining functionality and aerodynamics with visual appeal and the thin section at the front of the 599 GTB reflect Jason’s F1 inspired approach. However, the resulting “three-volumes” architecture was too similar to that of the classic Scaglietti and Maranello and was not quite right. Pininfarina designers felt the new Ferrari should have a “two-volumes”, fastback,  silhouette and looked for better ideas.

 

The solution came to light when Jason suggested to further accentuate the drop and make room for  the addition of fins completing the 3D development of the profile of the 599; possibly improving its aerodynamics. The intuitive solution, of the air being channelled through rear screen and fins, had to be confirmed by scientific wind tunnel tests to be consequent with Pininfarina and Ferrari “functional” design philosophy. That was promptly done

. 

Tests confirmed the new design makes a lot of aerodynamic sense and, according to Ken Okuyama: “the fins are shaped to converge air toward the centre of the tail and to increase downforce pressure by as much as 25%”.

With the fundamental guidelines in place, a lot of work went into the definition of the character and architecture of the car.

“We wanted to create a new trend, a new balance of harmony between elegance and strength, that are typical of all Ferraris by Pininfarina” explains Ken, who adds: “these days there is a lot of decoration in the car industry and fashion but to us elegance is more important.”

He explains: “usually when you use big wheels in a sport car like this the most natural shape of the side tends to follows the “coca-cola” bottle fluidity. This is fine, of course but to our standards that has now a strong retro flair. It has been done before, and over a long period of time. This is not appropriate for a modern Ferrari.

 

Consequently we took a new direction. Here the fenders marks the peak of the belt line and the bodywork wrap the front and rear wheels with two large arches. The front one runs high through the first section until it crosses and merges with the rear wheel arch, just behind the front fender where the sculptured side forms a depression that suck speed out of the engine bay.”

You have the impression to have seen that design language in other Ferraris but at the same time you know that nothing like this has been seen before in any Ferrari. The impression is produced by the way the surface is treated and the balance of elegance and strength that wraps the entire body.

 

Round and sensual shapes are organised in a new way and combined with crisp tension lines that paint and enhance the structural strength of the muscular body.

The engine bonnet is treated for functionality when it comes to air intakes, and a symbolic sculpture with the long, narrow and straight fuselage of a F1 Ferrari, emerging from it (see bird-view picture of the 559 GTB from Ferrari).

Lights and lamps, too, speak the language of advanced technology, elegance and strength, with their restricted volumes that leave as much surface as possible to the aluminium bodywork.

 

Consequently the front and rear, with their air intakes and outlets, aerodynamic diffusers and extractors nicely integrated into the shape (plus the fat wheels), do positively communicate a strong sense of purpose and commitment by one of the most powerful and fastest Ferrari ever.

The only disturbing detail is the squared “pentastar” design of the wheels that does not seems to be quite consequent with the “sweetheart” surface treatment of the car.

The passenger cabin is quite roomy and, in this respect, fairly comfortable, offering convenient access and egress despite the wrap-around bucket seat.

The striking impact of the exterior design gave us the feeling that the interior would be limited to the essence of highly spirited driving. Indeed there is everything you need to be in command of this performance-car, with the extra control switches (called “manettino” by Ferrari) on the steering wheel that allows the driver to adjust some of the car’s character and behaviour to his own driving style and mood.

As for the exterior design, there have been at least two different phases in the development of the interior. At first the approach leaned toward the cockpit of the Ferrari Enzo and F430 but when Okuyama took charge of the project he felt the 599 GTB needed something more consequent with the car mission and its newly set quality standards. Thus a new project with a fresh approach was started.

 

The interior design is honest in the use of material and skilled hand-crafting. It shows unprecedented quality and care for detail, even though its design is rather conservative and with an accent on comfort rather than racing.

The new adaptive racing seats featuring carbon fibre side rests are very attractive and right to the point, just as the door panel. The instrument cluster is quite spectacular with analogue and digital information provided to keep the driver always informed and in control.

However the overall impression, provided by the sophisticated (for design, material and colour combination) cockpit, is that there is too much stuff filling it, with the big and round air outlets of the powerful air conditioning, being rather invasive.

Here we would love to see some innovation and perhaps more of the digital technology demonstrated by some show cars in recent years, from head up display to touch screen replacing the knobs and controls now filling the central console.

The question here is “how much ahead of its conservative customers can Ferrari afford to be”.

Or perhaps we should ask if the market is indeed as conservative as the industry believes?

Click on this image for the complete photo gallery