Like many people have been talking about this week, I recently had the privilege of spending some time with a thoroughbred Ferrari that signalled a new era for the storied Maranello sports car firm.
Like many people have been keen to highlight, this Ferrari’s design represented a clean break, a departure from all the cars wearing the same Cavallino Rampante badge that came before it. It did not come from within Ferrari, but from an outside design firm. This car’s debut was, and remains, more than a little controversial among devout Tifosi.
People initially struggled with this car, because it was too radical of a departure from what came before it. They still struggle with it, as it doesn’t really fit in with the brand’s current identity, either. It’s almost as if they wished it never happened.
But, this Ferrari needed to happen. It laid the groundwork for so much of what was to come.
I am, of course, not talking about the appallingly anonymous Ferrari Luce, but rather the Ferrari 456. Specifically this 1997 Ferrari 456 GTA; the forgotten king of cigar cars. It’s a grandiose expression of old-world luxury with (for the time) sophisticated engineering and contemporary style, to create a leisurely Ferrari - a consistent challenge for them - with very serious new performance.
It’s an immortal vibe that has been lost to time, but remains more relevant than ever, despite being so far removed from what nearly everyone thinks a Ferrari should be.
You don’t have to hate EVs to loathe the Luce
To be abundantly clear, this is not because I hate electric vehicles. I’ve touched on this topic before, but there seems to be an unfortunate confluence between “car people” and “people who hate EVs.”
Very much in the same way that it feels like you're not allowed to like guns and be politically liberal, it feels an awful lot like you can't like cars and also like electric cars. I like old cars, I like old machines, I am a neanderthal who enjoys the brain-destroying aroma of uncatalyzed combustion. While I loathe to reduce myself to a one-dimensional trait, I am most certainly a car guy.
I also enjoy cars that are impossibly slick and brutally quick, like EVs. Anyone trying to create an arbitrary divide over a means of propulsion is not to be trusted. This is a massive load of horseshit perpetuated by fools who don’t know anything about anything and, more importantly, haven’t driven anything other than their own cursed shitbox. Do not get your perspective from those who have none of their own.
The problem with the Luce is not that it is electric. However, it being electric does open the door to a lot of uncomfortable questions. There is a charm, a mechanical charisma, a sense of artisanal engineering that comes with a Ferrari V12, like the one found under the hood of this Ferrari 456.
A Ferrari is supposed to be special
You could argue that, from the same era, BMW’s V12 was smoother, Mercedes’s V12 was more powerful, Jaguar’s V12 was more, um, historic, but a Ferrari dodeci cilinidri carries a real significance, both tangible and intangible. This engine went on to power the Ferrari 550 Maranello, the car that helped put the prancing horse back in the centre of the sports-car universe. There was an argument to be made, even if it was a slightly illogical one, that this was the best engine in the world. It certainly had the most power in a luxury car if nothing else.
No such argument can be made for the Ferrari Luce. There is nothing to indicate this is in any way more impressive or sophisticated than anything Lucid was doing years ago, for about a fifth of the price. If Ferrari was doing anything better than Lucid, they would have said so. No PR or advertising person in the world would pass that up, unless they had to.
But this isn’t supposed to focus on the merits of motor windings, or battery energy density, or the merit (/lack thereof) of electric vehicles at all. The purpose of this was to highlight the importance of design in a brand’s identity, especially a brand as revered as Ferrari.
The significance of style
The 456 has not gone down in history as one of Pininfarina’s more popular designs, but I feel like this car is due for its moment in the spotlight, and it’s never been more poignant. This is how you introduce a totally new design language to a brand with a storied legacy.
The 456 was a radical departure from everything that came before it, and is very much a product of its time, the very solemn and severe early 90s, where soft lines and simple surfaces ruled the day. It is not what anyone thinks of when they think of Ferrari, but at the same time, it is unmistakably Ferrari. It is a beautiful evolution of what came before, dragging heritage into a new era, without losing anything along the way.
It’s not what you think of when you think of Ferrari, it’s almost a Bauhaus-inspired design, a nod to the inimitable influence of West Germany in the auto world from this late 80s-early 90s reformation era, but at the same time: it’s obviously a Ferrari. It’s very plain and undecorated, with subtly complex shapes and a handful of creases doing all the visual heavy lifting, but it works as a new Ferrari for a new era that’s still unmistakably Ferrari.
...Specifically, automotive style
I admire good industrial design. An Olivetti typewriter is a lovely thing to behold. A KitchenAid mixer is simple, elegant, and instantly recognizable, but I don’t know that I would trust KitchenAid to sketch a compelling car. The team that was hired to pen the Ferrari Luce has an unquestionably strong background in industrial design; in case you’ve been living under a rock, the Ferrari Luce looks an awful lot like an Apple product because it was designed in part by the same man who helped design the iPhone.
The iPhone was and is a brilliant product, but no part of it makes for an interesting car. It should be no surprise that the iPhone firm’s car looks like an iPhone, and it really is beyond baffling that Ferrari is (at least pretending to be) surprised that it isn’t being well received. Sure, you could cynically say that the entire world is being consumed by phones, by these squircular rectangles of existential dread, and that all design is moving towards making everything look and feel like the pocketable windows into warped worlds we’ve gotten so addicted to.
A lot of cars have been moving in this minimalist direction, and the advent of electric vehicles only accelerated this, with silly painted-on grilles as an homage to design elements we’re used to seeing, but no longer need. It’s a sick confluence of misguided modern minimalism meeting cost-cutting, washed with conformity, all passed off as avant-garde, even when we all know it’s just trash.
In a roundabout way, I am happy the Luce worked out the way it did. I am happy that they took all the modern trends of automotive design that I can’t stand, and advanced them to their (ill)logical conclusion, skipping a few steps along the smartphone-inspired way and bolting straight for the ugly truth. I hope this sparks a renewed appreciation for the highly specialized skill that is automotive design. I hope this finally convinces Ferrari to retreat back to the careful eye of Pininfarina to manage their legendary portfolio.
It didn't have to be like this
Funnily enough, Pininfarina, the design firm that famously designed most of Ferrari's greats, already made their own electric vehicle that, to no one’s surprise, looks exactly what you’d expect a new Ferrari for a new era to look like. Regardless of how you feel about electric sports cars, the Pininfarina Battista is a stunner; the good kind of stunner, to be clear. Not like the stunningly stupid product proposed by Ferrari themselves.
I struggle to imagine how a company with the resources of Ferrari can blunder so badly. How anyone allowed this to pass muster is inconceivable, to a point where I’m willing to entertain hare-brained conspiracies about deliberately tanking public opinion of EVs for lobbying purposes. The level of detachment from reality being exhibited by Ferrari would almost be scary, if it wasn’t so sad.
It can, and has, been done well
Ferrari has done this before. With guidance from Pininfarina, they brought the prancing horse into a new era, with a daring new design language that didn’t resonate with everyone. This isn’t their first time breaking with their own traditions. But this is their first time breaking with heritage; almost deliberately ignoring everyone’s expectations, and instead subverting them with bizarro mediocrity. A lot of companies and their cars were moving in this direction, and I can only hope the profound negative reaction of this causes everyone else to think twice about messing with what works.
Whether or not the 456 is your favourite Ferrari, it is a successful design; it’s a classically-inspired, quite contemporary, elegant machine that is instantly recognizable as a Ferrari by anyone with even the faintest eye for aesthetics. It’s very timely that I got to drive the 456 this week, because it served to highlight all the more just how mismanaged the Luce is.
There will be more detailed coverage of this 1997 Ferrari 456 GTA, like you’re used to seeing, but I felt it was important to get these thoughts out now.
