Automobile USA – September 2019

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BY DESIGN

/^ F

ERR

A

R

I S

F^90

STR

ADAL

E

by ROBERT

CUMBERFORD

By Design

A TURNING POINT

FOR MARANELLO, PERHAPS

I DON’T KNOW how many road cars

Ferrari has made, but the first one I

saw when I was at Art Center 66 years

ago was probably one of just a few

hundred extant, each one different

from all the others—even when that

was not the intent. The idea in Italy

then was that if a door on one side

was longer than the one on the other

side, well, you can’t see both at once.

Today, Ferrari’s historical total

build must be well into six figures,

and its cars coming off the line

are rigorously identical in surfaces

and panel alignment, unlike that

touchingly asymmetrical Touring 166

coupe sitting outside Ernie McAfee’s

Hollywood Hills shop displaying

side-to-side discrepancies even an

untrained student eye could discern.

For decades, any Ferrari would have

a characteristic, simple egg-crate

grille pattern, even the notoriously

grotesque Marzotto-inspired Uovo

(“egg”) 166 coupe with its perfectly

round grille frame. That recognizable

grille pattern, shared even longer by

Cadillac as a point of identity, has

faded away. We have also seen some

models that frankly don’t have much

to do with the racing side of the firm,

like the handsome ’70s 400 GT.

Purely as a matter of personal

taste, I disliked the mid-engine F

that Ferrari unveiled for the 2005

model year, even if its double air

inlets related to the ’60s Formula 1

car Phil Hill drove to a world cham-

pionship. I thought the 21st century

California T, despite the presence of

a traditional egg-crate grille texture,

rather a disgrace. Indeed, as the

purity and classicism of Pininfarina

faded away and an in-house body

design department arose, I thought

some of the newer cars were too

technical and not romantic enough

but, of course, superior products

anyone would be pleased to own and

drive; I certainly would be.

Looking at this new SF

Stradale (see page 38 for more

details), I think it is—of all the many

post-Enzo, Fiat-funded industrial-

product Ferraris—the most desirable

model to date. I think it does need

the badges and the letters across

its tail to keep clear its identity

and legitimacy. But for me this

modern Ferrari has all the attributes

necessary—proportion, nuance,

stance, finish, surprising detail,

and tactility (you have to enjoy

hand-washing a car for it to be a

really good design)—to assure that

any teenager who sees it today will

remember it fondly two-thirds of

a century hence, as I do “my”

Touring Berlinetta.

What stands out above all is that

this Stradale seems to have potential

as an actual normal-use automobile.

Oh, of course you can make any car

a daily driver if you’re dedicated

enough: My Swiss friend Urs keeps

an ’80s Ferrari Mondial cabriolet in

Hong Kong as his only car without

benefit of a garage to keep it in, even

changing his own timing belts on

the street. But I don’t think you’d

have to go that far to be able to run

up a lot of enjoyable miles with the

SF90, and I’d surely like to try.

Who wouldn’t? AM

THE PLAN VIEW

of the front is

almost a perfect

circle, as was

the Porsche 918

Spyder in 2013, as

the world comes

around to Franco

Scaglione’s ideas

from the ’50s.

High Rear 3/ 4

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