Howstuffworks "How the Enzo Ferrari Works"
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How the Enzo Ferrari Works
by Edward Grabianowski
The name Ferrari brings many images to mind: a Formula One racer darting through the turns at
Monte Carlo; vice cops chasing drug smugglers through the streets of Miami; ultra-rich drivers
cruising winding roads in their six-figure trophy cars; the prancing stallion on a yellow background.
The company itself is all about heritage and prestige. The Ferrari company has been involved with
racing for more than 50 years, and has been producing road cars almost as long.
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Howstuffworks "How the Enzo Ferrari Works"
Photo courtesy Ferrari SpA
The Enzo Ferrari
Every few years, the two facets of Ferrari combine, taking the high-tech, high-performance designs of
Formula One (F1) and putting them into the ultimate dream car. The results have always been exotic,
incredibly fast, and incredibly expensive. The latest Ferrari supercar is the Enzo Ferrari, named after
the company's late founder.
Photo courtesy Ferrari SpA
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Howstuffworks "How the Enzo Ferrari Works"
Enzo on display at the Frankfurt Motor Show
Enzo Ferrari built the company after splitting from Alfa Romeo in 1940, and the car that bears his
name is focused purely on performance. Just being rich isn't enough to get yourself behind the wheel
of the Enzo: Fewer than 400 were made, and prospective owners had to apply to Ferrari for the
privilege of buying one. Oh, and don't say the name wrong: It's Enzo first, Ferrari second.
In this article, we'll learn how the Enzo was designed to emulate a Formula One car, what powers it,
how fast it goes, and why it's so difficult to get one.
Let's start with the engine.
Power and Glory
The Enzo Ferrari has the engine in a compartment behind the driver -- the mid-engine design that is
almost universal among high-performance supercars.
Photo courtesy Ferrari SpA
The Enzo features a mid-engine design.
The engine itself, which was designed specifically for this car, is a 366-cubic-inch (6.0 liter),
aluminum-block V-12, with four valves per cylinder. It cranks out 660 horsepower at 7,800 RPM, and
goes from zero to 100 mph (161 kph) in 6.6 seconds. The top speed is estimated at 217 mph, a
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speed few owners will ever reach. With a compression ratio of 11.2:1, the Enzo needs some highoctane fuel to run properly -- just another symptom of its F1 heritage. A dry-sump lubrication system
keeps everything running smoothly.
Photo courtesy Ferrari SpA
The Enzo features a 6.0-liter, V-12 engine
Despite stripping away many of the comforts associated with luxury cars (the Enzo has no radio), the
Enzo is not the lightest car in the world. Its curb weight of 3,009 pounds (1,365 kg) gives it a powerto-weight ratio of 4.56 pounds per horsepower (or .219 horsepower per pound). Here are the powerto-weight ratios* of some of the top supercars so you can see where the Enzo fits in:
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Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - .295 hp/lb
McLaren F1 - .251 hp/lb
Bugatti 16/4 Veyron - .230 hp/lb
Ferrari Enzo - .219 hp/lb
1965 Ford GT40 Mk1 - .213 hp/lb
Ferrari Koenig 360 Modena - .174 hp/lb
Lamborghini Countach - .139 hp/lb
Dodge Viper RT/10 - .131 hp/lb
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Chevrolet Corvette Z06 - .123 hp/lb
Porsche 911 Turbo - .119 hp/lb
Ford Mustang Cobra R - .107 hp/lb
Ferrari Testarossa - .104 hp/lb
*Stats calculated from info at http://www.supercarstats.com
The six-speed transmission is manual-only. Almost all of the controls are on the F1-style steering
wheel, including the shifting paddles. A series of LEDs on the wheel lets the driver know when the
RPMs are high enough to shift, which can be done without removing a hand from the wheel. Other
buttons control the selection of gear modes (Sport or Race mode) and a traction control system
that can be deactivated.
Photo courtesy Ferrari SpA
All that power gets the Enzo from point A to point B very quickly, but European supercars aren't built
to go in a straight line. Next, we'll look at how the Enzo handles.
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Ferrari Heritage
Much of what Ferrari does is based on
tradition. Here are the stories behind a
few of those traditions.
The prancing stallion - Ferrari's
famous emblem of a prancing stallion
on a yellow background comes from
Enzo Ferrari himself. He explains:
The horse was painted on the
fuselage of the fighter plane
flown by Francesco Baracca, a
heroic Italian pilot who died on
Mount Montello: the Italian ace
of aces of the First World War.
In 1923 ... I met Count Enrico
Baracca, the pilot's father, and
subsequently his mother,
Countess Paolina. One day she
Photo courtesy Ferrari SpA
said to me, "Ferrari, why don't
you put my son's prancing horse on your cars; it would bring you
luck." ... The horse was black and has remained so; I added the
canary yellow background because it is the colour of Modena.
Ferrari red - Ferrari's Formula One cars have traditionally been red. This
stems from the early days of international racing in Europe. The sport's
governing body assigned a color to each nation, and Italy was given red.
Today, even road Ferraris seem to come mainly in red, but Ferrari reports
that this is a modern phenomenon. In the '60s and '70s, other colors were
quite common.
Scuderia Ferrari - This is the name of Ferrari's racing division, and was the
name of the original racing club Enzo Ferrari formed in 1929. "Scuderia"
comes from scudo, which means shield. In Italy's past, armored knights
would fight in competitions, represented by a shield (or coat of arms) from a
certain region or town. These regional teams came to be known as
scuderia.
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Turning Point
By all accounts, the Enzo is stable when cornering, though it is so powerful that it can be difficult to
control. The car does have rack-and-pinion power steering, a small nod to driver comfort. The coilshock units are pushrod actuated, and the shock absorbers can be electronically adjusted from the
cockpit into two different positions. The four-wheel independent suspension is further stabilized by
front and rear anti-roll bars.
Photo courtesy Ferrari SpA
The Enzo meets the road on four Bridgestone Scuderia tires, specially designed and tuned for this
car. The front features 245/35ZR-19s, and there are 345/35ZR-19s on the rear, mounted on forged
aluminum, single-nut wheels.
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Photo courtesy Ferrari SpA
Even the brakes are beastly on the Enzo. The Brembo-produced, 15-inch discs slow the car down
remarkably quickly. Almost all the drivers who tested the Enzo reported a few embarrassing laps,
creeping through the turns after mashing on the brakes to stem the Enzo's mighty horsepower. It
turns out a lighter touch is needed. An anti-lock braking system helps control those steep descents
in speed.
Now we'll see how Ferrari's engineers translated the pure racing power of an F1 car into a street
machine.
One for the Road
The design of the Enzo, from the engine to the body, was intended to create something close to a
street-legal Formula One car. That sets the Enzo apart from earlier Ferrari supercars.
The chassis is a lightweight, carbon-fiber tub with aluminum honeycomb units to help it pass safety
laws. The interior is spartan -- even the dashboard is made of carbon-fiber -- and the pedals are
close together like a race car's.
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Photos courtesy Ferrari SpA
Only a few concessions to luxury were made, such as air conditioning and leather upholstery on the
carbon-fiber seats. If you're sensing a theme, it's because the designers intentionally strove for a
purity of "man-machine interface." Hence all the carbon-fiber. Air bags for both the driver and
passenger were included, and have been needed. Several Enzos have reportedly already met their
maker, reducing the worldwide population to about 395. The air bags helped keep the drivers from
meeting a similar fate.
The body, designed by long-time Ferrari partner Pininfarina, was
made to echo the form of the F1 racers. The tapered nose and front
air inlets are very reminiscent of an F1's shape. Some have
complained that the Enzo is not as "beautiful" as some Ferraris,
while others see a different kind of beauty in its purity. "It's like a jet
fighter," wrote one enthusiast.
In many ways, it is like a jet fighter. Imagine the shape of an
Photo courtesy Ferrari SpA
airplane's wing -- it creates lower pressure on the top surface of the
wing, helping to produce lift. The body of the Enzo is like an upside-down wing. The shape of the car,
from the spoilers to the undercarriage, acts to create downforce, literally sucking the car down onto
the road. A Formula One car does the same thing, but in that case, pit crews can adjust the car for
each track: Lots of downforce is needed for tracks with tight turns, while too much downforce would
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cut down on top speeds at a more wide-open course. The Enzo has to do it all with just one
configuration. Ferrari's engineers worked hard at this, using active control spoilers that adjust their
positions -- and therefore the amount of downforce created -- depending on the speed of the car. At
135 mph, almost a half-ton of downforce is pressing down on the Enzo.
Photo courtesy Ferrari SpA
The Enzo is 185.1 inches (470.1 cm) long, 80.1 inches (203.5 cm) wide, and just 45.2 inches (114.8
cm) high. The doors and part of the roof swing up and forward to make it easier to get in and out.
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Photos courtesy Ferrari SpA
The car only sits 3.9 inches (9.9 cm) off the ground, but another steering-wheel-mounted button
lifts the front suspension a few inches more, so you can avoid scraping the car's chin on lumpy
pavement or steep parking lot entrances.
Now, let's examine what it takes to get your hands on one of these limited-edition supercars.
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Victory for Ferrari
The creation of the Enzo Ferrari coincides with the end of a drought
in Formula One championships for the legendary marque. Michael
Schumacher has won the Drivers World Championship for Ferrari
four times in a row, in 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003. Schumacher
was heavily involved in the testing of the Enzo, helping to maintain
its connection to those title-winning F1 cars.
In an interview with AutoWeek, Schumacher said of the Enzo, "It is
hardly possible to compare a road car to a Formula One car, but it
is as close as I have got [to a Formula One car] on the road."
Exclusive and Limited
Although the price tag on the Enzo Ferrari puts it out of reach of all
but the super rich (or the super obsessed), you'd still think Ferrari
would be able to sell more than the 399 that rolled out of the factory
at Maranello, Italy. Why did they sell so few? Because that's how
many they made -- and that's how many they will ever make. When
the Ferrari people call something a "limited edition," they're not
kidding.
Part of maintaining Ferrari's prestigious heritage is making sure that
not everyone can have one. Only a privileged few can buy a
Ferrari, and only the most elite owners and collectors in the world
will drive one of these limited-edition production cars. That helps
explain why the company can charge a lot for their machines.
And just how much is "a lot"? In the Enzo's case, $652,000.
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Photo courtesy Ferrari SpA
Howstuffworks "How the Enzo Ferrari Works"
Photo courtesy Ferrari SpA
The money doesn't stop flowing once the Enzo is in your garage, either. According to a 2003 Car and
Driver article, replacing the brake pads costs $6,000, and the carbon-ceramic brake rotors go for
$24,000. A special oil must be used (or else Ferrari will consider the warranty void) -- the oil costs
$60 a quart.
A stack of cash alone will not get you an Enzo -- Ferrari has traditionally made potential buyers apply
to buy one of their limited-edition cars, placing various restrictions on what may and may not be done
with the car. They enforce these restrictions by threatening to withdraw perks like factory tours and
the chance to buy future Ferraris -- a serious threat to the exotic car collectors of the world.
Previous Ferraris were even harder to get than the Enzo. For example, the Ferrari F50 wasn't sold, it
was only leased. Ferrari could yank the lease at any time, and one of the stranger restrictions was
that journalists were not allowed to use the car for performance testing (Car and Driver, Aug. 2003).
The Enzo is far easier to get into by comparison. All approved Enzo buyers had the option of
traveling to Italy to have the seat and pedals custom fitted.
For more information on the Enzo Ferrari and other supercars, check out the links on the next page.
Lots More Information
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More Great Links
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Ferrari
Formula One
Serious Wheels: Ferrari Enzo - great set of Enzo photos and wallpapers, plus the text of the
official Ferrari press release
Formula One: Understanding the Sport: Aerodynamics
Ferrari Forum - a popular forum for Ferrari owners and those who wish they were Ferrari
owners.
Sources
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Robinson, Aaron. "Road Test: Ferrari Enzo." Car and Driver. August 2003 (36-41).
Walton, Chris. "First Test 2003: Ferrari Enzo." Motor Trend. August 2003 (46-49, 138).
Wilson, Kevin A. "The Enzo Ferrari: F1 made user-friendly." Autoweek. August 12, 2002 (13-19).
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