Take a deep breath. This one is special. The Ferrari Enzo Ferrari is, in my mind, the coolest road car Ferrari has ever made. It’s the car that took an already obsessive love for cars and somehow managed to make it exponentially more intense. It’s the first car I fell in love with as an individual model and not just because it belonged to a certain brand or category as a whole.
Hell, this is the car that made me become a lifelong subscriber to Car and Driver magazine! I can see the headlines now: “Irreverent magazine sees massive ROI thanks to advertising from small car company.”
And while it would make no difference in any respect if the production numbers were higher, Ferrari made only 399 Enzos (or so they claim)… and then made one for the pope. That’s one hell of a popemobile, and it’s a shame we never had a chance to see John Paul II driving around in an Enzo!
Ferrari Enzo Ferrari: What’s in a name?
The name, while easy to remember, is incredibly respectful and perfectly appropriate given its design and capabilities, did pose a few problems when it came to black and white systems like databases, through no fault of Ferrari’s. The official name of this masterpiece is Enzo Ferrari. However, to a computer, the brand would register as “Enzo” with the model name being “Ferrari.” Both of those are, of course, inaccurate. So you ran into a curious situation where models from Hot Wheels and the like had to sometimes market the car as the Ferrari Enzo Ferrari or the Ferrari Enzo, the latter of which is how I have always referred to the car for the sake of simplicity.
Of course, naming quirks aside, this car was and still is a Ferrari through and through. Every bit of F1 knowledge and skill Ferrari had gained from their F1 dominance is so neatly integrated into the Enzo that you could just as easily have called it the “F2002 Stradale.” From the paddle shifters, to the carbon chassis, to the layout of the mid-engine powertrain, it screams (literally and figuratively) Formula 1.
Keep in mind, this was during one of the most dominant (and coolest – see F2004) eras in F1 history, with Michael Schumacher, et al., making the other teams look like they were in GT3. So naturally, this was the best time to make a car bearing the name of il Commendatore. After all, who better to help develop your crown jewel than Michael himself? Molto bene!
Ferrari Enzo Ferrari Spawns the XX Program
Because of this $1000/horsepower beauty, Ferrari also began the XX program. As a refresher, that’s the program wherein owners don’t really own their car, but they can borrow it for a few hours a few times a year when Ferrari gives them permission to drive it on a track. Snarky comments aside, the program has allowed Ferrari to learn more about their cars and continue to create some of the wildest cars the world has seen.
To this day, I have yet to come across a more unhinged car than the FXX Evoluzione. It was so unhinged, in fact, that Ferrari only trusted Michael to drive the FXX (base, not Evo) for the Top Gear Power Lap. Car enthusiasts would be better served with more programs like this that are free from the constraints of regulations.
As time has passed, so too have modern cars surpassed the Ferrari Enzo Ferrari’s performance. In fact, just a few years later, another Schumacher special, the 430 Scuderia, beat the Enzo’s lap time around Fiorano, seemingly the only racetrack in the world where a Ferrari doesn’t feel like scoffing.
The Legacy of the Ferrari Enzo Ferrari
While it is hard to listen to, “They don’t make ‘em like they used to,” while standing next to an SVJ at Cars and Coffee without walking away to talk to someone with an advanced mind instead, the Enzo has stood the test of time in many respects. Yes, the cars that are now faster than the Ferrari Enzo Ferrari do it with plenty of style and heritage, and it makes way more sense to buy something like a Senna, which provides superior performance, oodles of cool factor, and modern-day engineering. Still, in what world is a sub-11-second quarter-mile, 218-mph top speed, 651 bhp evocative V12, and F1 engineering not fast?
It becomes a game of relativism, one in which everyone seeks the newest and greatest thing, yet no one actually enjoys the cool work of art that’s already in front of them. And those that do acquire these unicorns usually never do the one thing they should – drive them! Remember, kids – there’s always a bigger fish. Has your favorite supercar met the standards for being perpetually cool and fast in a vacuum with a soul that demands to be driven? If so, enjoy it, bond with it, and love it.
Enzo gave a lot to the car world. So, it should be easy to remember it, especially given how eternally badass the photos are, thanks to both the Ferrari Enzo Ferrari and the era itself.
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