Before commencing production of the Enzo in 2003, Ferrari contacted a select list of previous F40 and F50 owners inviting them to purchase one of the 349 limited production run vehicles. All of the cars costing US $659,330 were thus sold in advance.
Designed by former lead designer at Pininfarina Ken Okuyama the Enzo can generate 775 kgs / 1709 lbs of downforce at 186 mph to aid handling. The design seems to have split opinion as to it’s attractiveness between those who believe form should follow function and those who believe in higher aesthetic values.
Dripping with technology from it’s Formula One programme the Enzo carries a carbon fiber body and technologies banned from Formula One like active aerodynamics, which have recently been reinstated to the top echelon of the sport, and traction control.
Before it’s launch at the Paris Motor Show a bikini clad Demi Moore stepped into the show car on a California beech for a scene in “Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle“.
The brakes all round are manufactured from a Carbon fiber reinforced Silicon Carbide (C/SiC) ceramic composite, another carry over from the Ferrari racing programme.
Such was the demand from customers not originally invited to own an Enzo that a further 50 were made for sale and a 400th was donated to the Vatican for a charity auction at Sotherby’s where it fetched a cool US$1.1 million, which is the kind of price one would expect to pay for one today if one became available.
Inside the cockpit gears are shifted using an electrohydraulic shift transmission operated by paddles on the steering wheel with LED lights advising drivers when to shift, another transfer of technology from Ferrari’s racing programme.
The Enzo’s front to rear weight distribution was designed to be 43.9 / 56.1 % again to optimise the handling at speed.
Capable of reaching 60 mph in a lightening 3.14 secs and 100 mph in 6.6 secs and covering the quartermile in 11 seconds the Enzo highest speed ever recorded in an Enzo is 221 mph and has been timed around the Nurburgring Nordschliefe at 7m 25.21 secs with a broken electronic damper. Interestingly the F430 Scuderia has since equalled the Enzo’s lap times at Fiorano, Ferrari’s in house test circuit.
The jewel in the crown of the Enzo is the 651 hp 65 degree V12 which shares the same basic architecture as the contemporary V8’s used by both Ferrari and Maserati.
Three pre production Enzo’s were disguised as to look like Ferrari 348’s, the third of which raised $195,500 in the same auction as the 400th Enzo. The Enzo was used as the basis for a number of other models including the FXX, FXX Evoluzione and one off P4/5 by Pinninfarina carrying Ferrari badges, along with the Maserati MC 12, MC 12 Corsa and one off Maserati Birdcage 75th concept car.
Thanks for joining me on this “Full Throttle” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I will be looking at a Lotus 47. Don’t forget to come back now !
