Ferrari's Fabulous Few

I love Ferrari. They make my second favorite car of all time, the Ferrari 458 Italia. You may think that every car they make is great. You may think that they are the best looking and running cars anywhere. You would be wrong, because all though they have made some great cars, that number is rather small.

Ferrari was found in 1929 by Enzo Ferrari, an italian race car driver and entrepreneur. His first car was the Auto Avio Costruzioni 815. This car was not made under the Ferrari name. It entered the 1940 Brescia Grand Prix, which it didn't finish, because of engine problems. The car got the 815 in it's name from it's eight cylinder 1.5L engine. It had a four-speed Fiat transmission. The car weighted 1,380lb and had a top speed of about 110mph.

The 815's successor is the 125 S, the first car made under the Ferrari name. This was the first road car Ferrari made. It had a V12 engine which produced 118bhp. Enough of this history lesson. Its time to talk about Ferrari's short list of great cars.

Out of the six supercars that Ferrari has made, seven if you include the 2012 model, only four are any good. The 250 GTO was the first supercar Ferrari made from 1962 to 1964. 36 were made in '62 and '63. In '64 the car had a different look and they only made 39. It cost $18,000, had a 3.0L V12 engine. In 2004, Sports Car International put the car eighth in their Top Sports Cars of the 1960s. Motor Trend Classic put the car first in their list of the Greatest Ferraris of all time.

The other three cars were the 288 GTO which was made from 1984 to 1986. It had a 2.8L V8 engine. In 2004, Sports Car International named it second on their list of Top Sports Cars of the 1980s. The next was the F40, in my opinion one of the best supercars ever made. It cost $400,000, 1,315 were made. It was the first road legal production car to break 200mph. It had a 2.9L twin-turbocharged V8 engine, which produced 471bhp. The last great Ferrari supercar was the Enzo, named after Ferrari's founder. It had a 6.0L V12 engine that produced 651bhp. It could get to 100mph in 6.6 seconds and had a top speed of 220mph.

For Ferrari's mid-engine V6/V8 models, in my mind there are only three great cars of the seven models. Of course there are different variations of these models. Anyway the first of my three is the 485 Italia. The 458 in my favorite of all Ferrari's models and my second favorite car of all time. It came out in 2009 with a 4.5L V8 engine producing 562bhp. It can do 0-60mph in 3.4 seconds with a top speed of 205mph. The car's exterior is designed for aerodynamic efficiency. The front grille had deformable winglets that drop at high speeds, giving less drag. The car is beautiful, one of Ferrari's best looking cars and there are not many. There are only three things about this car I don't like. First they put all the driver controls on the front of the steering wheel. The lights, windshield wiper, starter motor, suspension settings, traction control settings, and more are all on the front of the steering wheel, which seems like a bit much. Second the car can be a bit too technical, too exact when it comes to driving it. Finally, Ferrari had to recall 1,248 458s, because the adhesive used in the wheel-arch assemblies could overheat and even catch fire. Ferrari has fixed the problem and anybody who had one of the 458s would be replaced with a new car.

The second car in Ferrari's mid-engine models is the F430, the 458's predecessor. It has a 4.3L V8 engine with 483bhp. It has a top speed of 200mph and can go 0-60mph in 4 seconds. I believe that this is when Ferrari's cars started to really evolve into really well made cars. This car had the first manettino steering wheel-mounted control knob. This gives the driver a way to select five different drive settings. Its similar to Land Rover's "Terrain Response" system.

The final car is the 308 GTS. This came out in 1975. This is my other favorite Ferrari second to the 458. There were different variations of this car and can get confusing. An interesting fact about the car was that it's bodywork was made of glass-reinforced plastic. It had a V8 engine, European versions produced 255bhp, American versions had 240bhp thanks to emissions control devices. About 12,004 cars made from 1975 to 1985. Only 712 were made with fiberglass.

Ferrari is one of my favorite car makers. The thing about them is that a lot of their cars are not that good, good to drive and good to look at. In my opinion, the cars you just read about are the best they have come up with. What I love about Ferrari, is that their cars have a something that I look for in a car, soul and passion. Ferrari delivers these in spades, their cars have a passion you don't get from other cars, a lot of other cars. To sum them up, they are fast, good looking, high tech., expensive, and what I really love about them, the really great sound coming out the back. Ferrari is absolutely brilliant!