Ferrari lastly unveiled its first electrical automobile, the Luce, earlier this week—and the truth that it is electrical in some way may be one of many least controversial issues about it.
Design is subjective, and whereas I’ll chorus from calling the Luce ugly (Ferrari’s outdated boss, Wall Avenue, and numerous web commenters have already executed their bits), proper now appears like the right time to reminisce and run down a few of Ferrari’s best-looking manufacturing automobiles in its 79-year historical past.
For no specific motive by any means and in no specific order, then, listed below are 10 Ferraris that merely look pretty—no “polarizing” euphemisms, no psychological gymnastics over “progress,” no “actuallys” required.
Ferrari 550 Maranello
Photograph by: Ferrari
As a baby of the Nineteen Nineties, the Ferrari 550 Maranello (and, later, the 575M Maranello) will all the time maintain a particular place in my coronary heart aesthetically. It was easy, bluntly proportioned, and an aggressively lean foil to the fried-egg 996 Porsche 911 of the period. Imprinting itself in popular culture and dodging automobiles on a Miami bridge in Unhealthy Boys II, it might simply be the one Ferrari ever to look extra right in silver than it does in crimson, which says quite a bit about its inherent design.
Its powertrain is much more right: A 5.5-liter V12 hooked as much as a six-speed handbook completely for the 550. The engine grew to five.7 liters, and a Graziano auto was added as an choice for the 575 for 2002.
Ferrari Roma
Photograph by: Ferrari
Don’t fear, it’s not nostalgia-bait all the best way down as a result of the Ferrari Roma is proof that Italy’s most well-known automaker can nonetheless pen a banger that complies with fashionable security requirements. The Amalfi not too long ago changed this automobile, however the Roma nonetheless clears because the visually superior automobile.
It’s gorgeously flow-y, has a face that appears alive even standing nonetheless, and general feels just like the Maranello artwork division’s reply to Aston Martin. A twin-turbocharged 3.9-liter V8 sits underneath its completely sculpted hood, and with seating for 4, the Roma is without doubt one of the most stunning methods for you and the household to cross a continent.
Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder
Photograph by: Ferrari
A listing of the ‘Most Stunning Ferraris With 250 In Their Title’ may very well be a complete article unto itself, however the best-looking one, to me, has received to be the 250 GT California Spyder. Sure, it’s the Ferris Bueller automobile, however its magnificence predates the film by nearly 30 years. Its look is default, traditional, timeless, and simple. It’s so simple, in actual fact, {that a} grey one bought for greater than $25 million at Monterey Automotive Week final yr. Made in long- and short-wheelbase kinds, the world’s most well-known valet joyride automobile is powered by a 3.0-liter V12 related to a four-speed handbook gearbox.
One apart that’ll undoubtedly make you are feeling historic: The 250 GT is about as outdated in FBDO because the 550 Maranello can be in a film made right this moment.
Ferrari Testarossa
Photograph by: Ferrari
As an ’80s icon, the Testarossa might be the least romantic-looking Ferrari on this listing, but it surely makes up for it with sheer presence, perspective, and extra. It’s late-season Miami Vice and served as one of many very first racing sport hero automobiles because the star of OutRun. Even Michael Jordan confirmed as much as Chicago Stadium for one more on-court massacre, “M AIR J” vainness plate and all.
A 4.9-liter, mid-mounted flat-12 despatched energy to a five-speed gated handbook. I’m not of the thoughts that every little thing was cooler previously, however I’ll be damned if that sentence proper there isn’t a reminder that some issues simply had been.
Ferrari Dino
Photograph by: Ferrari
The 206 and subsequent 246 GT automobiles had been essentially the most important fashions bought underneath the Dino model as a tribute to Enzo’s late son, Alfred “Dino” Ferrari. Cheaper and fewer highly effective than full-on Ferraris, the mid-engined Dinos used V6s earlier than turbos and hybrid techniques made V6s bona fide supercar materials.
However a lot of their legacy lies within the styling. Balanced, frog-like, and among the lowest-slung automobiles that ever did slung, its compact, mid-engined affect can nonetheless be seen in newer stuff just like the Alpine A110 and the softer strains of Ferrari’s personal 296 GTB.
Ferrari Daytona
Photograph by: Ferrari
Whereas Ferrari by no means really made a muscle automobile within the American sense, the closest it ever received spiritually and stylistically was most likely the Daytona. A protracted-hooded, front-engine, two-seat grand tourer that got here in each coupe and convertible kinds, the V-12 Daytona was made within the period of the C3 Corvette and albeit carried an identical aura.
This automobile, by the best way, is technically known as the 365 GTB/4 coupe and 365 GTS/4 convertible, and “Daytona” was really an unofficial nickname that caught on and by no means left, referencing Ferrari’s 1-2-3 end on the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1967. If a scrappy, fan-given nickname shared with a NASCAR monitor in Florida doesn’t scream muscle automobile, then its imposing styling absolutely does.
Ferrari 12Cilindri
Photograph by: Ferrari
The Daytona’s form struck such a chord, in actual fact, that Ferrari couldn’t assist however deliver it again 50 years later with the 12Cilindri, Maranello’s present flagship V12 grand tourer. It will get the traditional lengthy hood, an nearly non-existent hatchback-like deck, and a black bar in between the headlights that very a lot ideas its cap to the Daytona.
As its title implies, this automobile is a little bit of a final stand assertion automobile celebrating the V12 engine, and the 12Cilindri is certainly the one manufacturing automobile aside from Ferrari’s personal Purosangue to make use of a non-hybrid, naturally aspirated V12 in 2026. Stepping out of it, although, it’s additionally an announcement automobile that claims at the very least any individual in Ferrari’s design division nonetheless is aware of what they’re doing.
Ferrari F40
Photograph by: Ferrari
Arguably, no listing of best Ferraris by any standards is full with out the F40. As a child, that massive, body-integrated rear wing all the time jogged my memory of a purchasing cart, however Maranello’s fortieth birthday current to itself is something however pedestrian.
Because the story goes, the F40 was the ultimate manufacturing automobile Enzo personally signed off on earlier than his dying in 1988. It was essentially the most excessive road-going Ferrari ever on the time, and featured newfangled know-how corresponding to a turbocharged V8 and a physique fabricated from carbon, Kevlar, and aluminum. Regardless of this, some interval evaluations slammed it for not being almost as superior or refined because the Porsche 959—a sentiment that feels borderline loopy right this moment.
Ferrari 458 Italia
Photograph by: Ferrari
Ask a millennial automobile fanatic which Ferrari they’d most like of their storage, and there’s a good probability they’ll decide some model of the 458. Not solely does it sit in a candy spot of being the final in its lineage to make use of a naturally aspirated V8, but it surely’s additionally visually much less fussy than its successors and an entire lot prettier than the F430 that got here earlier than.
A extra track-ready 458 Speciale got here later with extra fins, stripes, a entrance hood that permit air run by way of itself, and has entered holy grail territory by way of web lore and residual values. However style-wise, a easy, Rosso Corsa 458 Italia stays a high-water mark of what a contemporary Ferrari can seem like.
Ferrari 288 GTO
Photograph by: Ferrari
By way of Ferrari’s flagship hypercars, the unique 288 GTO might not look fairly as nutty as those that got here after it, however that’s arguably what makes it so cool.
To me, it reads the least try-hard of any of the opposite automobiles right here. Easy wedge proportions, restrained vents, pop-up headlights, and a rear three-quarter view that will deliver automobile web to a standstill if it had been recreated in a brand new Ferrari right this moment—for good causes this time. Slightly than, nicely, you already know.
