The Ferrari F50 was not introduced until several years after company founder Enzo Ferrari's death, but it's safe to say that that model would have been one of Enzo's favorite road-going Ferraris.
Admittedly, that isn't saying a whole lot—Enzo cared very little for road cars, and allowed their production only to provide income with which to run his famed racing operations. The F50, though, was about as close to a street-legal racecar as could be had in the mid-1990s, and surely Enzo could have seen past the (very) few comfort concessions to the hard-edged track weapon beneath.
Enzo Ferrari's preference for racing cars was deeply rooted in his past. Enzo's first successful career was as a racing driver for Alfa Romeo in the 1920s. Enzo went on to establish his own successful racing team, Scuderia Ferrari, where he proved his natural abilities as an organizer of racing activities and not just as a driver. Scuderia Ferrari was responsible for running Alfa Romeo's racing activities for several years. It was closed in the late 1930s, though, when Alfa thought it best to revert to an in-house racing program in order to more effectively compete with Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz, both of which were receiving massive funding from a German government bent on proving its superiority in motorsport.
After the closing of Scuderia Ferrari, Enzo founded Auto-Avio Construzioni to undertake engineering work. He built a factory in Maranello for his new company, but World War II intervened shortly afterwards and the factory was bombed.
Following the war, Enzo understandably wanted to reenter the world of auto racing to which he had long been connected. It was then that Enzo founded the now famous Ferrari brand of sports and racing cars, and by 1947 the company was racing with a new design called the Ferrari 125.
The early history of the Ferrari brand, and the later history for that matter, was filled with victory after victory after victory in motor racing. Unfortunately, competition was very expensive and was not profitable even for very successful teams. Enzo Ferrari continued to focus his efforts on winning races instead of winning customers with his few road cars, and this tendency brought his brand close to the brink of bankruptcy. Fiat intervened in 1969, taking over Ferrari and ushering in a new era in which road cars were produced in greater numbers in an attempt to make money for the financially crippled brand.
Enzo Ferrari, then, was a tragic hero in the tale of his company, nearly spelling the brand's end because of an admirable yet stubborn refusal to compromise his racing efforts. Enzo's passion for racing cars was evident until his death, and it allowed the Ferrari name to remain a symbol of competition excellence even after Fiat's takeover.
So while Enzo never held road cars in the same high regard as racing cars, he surely would have appreciated the F50's uncompromising link to Ferrari motorsports technology.
With the possible exception of the McLaren F1, the Ferrari F50 came closer to being a true Formula One racer than did any of its production car contemporaries. The Ferrari F50 was built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ferrari, and it followed a similar recipe to the brand's 40th anniversary special, the F40. Both cars were precision tools designed to forge a road-going link to the Ferrari competition legend. The F40 was powered by a potent twin-turbo V8, but for the F50 Ferrari opted for a more familiar power plant: the naturally aspirated V12.
Reinforcing the F50's ties to F1 racing, the car's engine was derived not from another Ferrari road car but from the company's 3.5-liter F1 mill from 1990. An oversquare design with an 85mm bore and 69mm stroke, the 65-degree V12 displaced 4.7 liters. It used a cast iron block with aluminum, 5-valve cylinder heads. Dry sump lubrication was employed, and the engine had an 11.3:1 compression ratio. The motor was mounted longitudinally behind the cockpit, and was mated to a 6-speed manual transmission that, also mounted longitudinally, sat behind the engine.
An impressive output of 520bhp was produced at the F50's 8,500rpm redline, and 347ft-lbs of torque was realized at 6,500rpm. That power enabled a 0-60 time of about 3.6 seconds, a quarter mile time of 12.1 seconds, and a top speed in excess of 200mph.
The F50 chassis was a carbon fiber tub that incorporated the engine as a stressed member. The body panels, also carbon fiber, were unstressed. Extensive use of carbon fiber kept the curb weight below 3,000lbs, despite the car's large, powerful engine and great structural rigidity. Ferrari initially planned to offer both closed (Berlinetta) and open (Barchetta) versions of the F50, but instead only one model was offered that combined the virtues of both through the use of a removable hardtop.
The suspension and braking systems of the F50 were just as impressive as the advanced engine and body construction. Double wishbones were used at all four corners, with springs and dampers mounted inboard and actuated by pushrods to reduce unsprung weight. The dampers were electronic, and they constantly adjusted damping levels to provide driving characteristics appropriate to a multitude of different settings. Further, no rubber connections were used in the suspension, ensuring ultimate handling precision at the cost of ride comfort. Fat tires, mounted on center-lock Speedline wheels constructed of magnesium alloy, ensured that grip was tenacious enough to take advantage of the excellent suspension design.
Braking was accomplished by vented discs squeezed by four-piston calipers constructed of aluminum. To aid communication between car and driver, no anti-lock braking system was offered. Even power assist for the brakes was omitted to ensure that the F50 responded to driver input with perfect accuracy.
Clearly, the F50 did not make many concessions to driver comfort. One of the only traces of luxury came from seats and pedals that could be adjusted to place the driver in his or her optimal driving position, but even this was done to allow more thorough exploitation of the car's abilities and not to cosset the owner. The Pininfarina-styled F50 looked exotic and exciting, but not because of superfluous curves or gimmicky design flourishes. Instead, it featured a tightly wrapped skin that covered up the advanced mechanicals with a purposeful shape perfected by the wind. At top speed, the F50 could generate over 400kg of downforce, yet it maintained a reasonably low coefficient of drag of 0.372. In short, there was not a single stray line on the F50.
Despite its obvious ties to Ferrari motorsports heritage, the F50 was never raced by the factory. An F50 GT was developed with the intent of building a dedicated GT1 endurance racing car based off of the F50, but, when the BPR Global GT Series became the FIA GT Championship in 1997, Ferrari decided to abandon the project and focus its resources elsewhere. Nevertheless, three F50 GTs were produced: one prototype, and two for special customers.
The Ferrari F50 was produced from 1995 to 1997, with 349 examples built. Only offered in five colors (two of which were red), the F50 could be painted Rosso Corsa (bright red), Rosso Barchetta (dark red), Giallo Fly (yellow), Nero (black), or Argento (silver).
With its race-derived technology, purposeful appearance, and telepathic connection to the driver, the F50 was one of the most advanced and capable cars of its time. Would Enzo have warmed up to the idea of a road-going Ferrari with the heart of a Formula One racer? We'll never know what Enzo would have thought of the F50, but surely this prancing horse would have looked right at home in his stable.
Sources:
'Car Guides: Ferrari F50.' QV500.com n. pag. Web. 24 Jun 2010. http://www.qv500.com/ferrarif50p1.php.
'Ferrari F50.' CarsfromItaly.net n. pag. Web. 24 Jun 2010. http://carsfromitaly.net/ferrari/index.html.
Owen, Richard. '1995-1997 Ferrari F50.' Supercars.net n. pag. Web. 24 Jun 2010. http://www.supercars.net/cars/639.html.
Wood, Jonathan. Great Marques of Italy. London: Octopus Books Limited, 1987. 44-83. Print.
by Evan Acuña