FerrariFXX

Ferrari FXX
The legendary Italian manufacturer reveals its ultimate production car.
by Justin Kaehler
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June 17, 2005 - Many car enthusiasts feel that the Ferrari Enzo is the ultimate sports car. It follows every rule in the exotic car rulebook to a "T". First off: it's hand-built, and only 399 of them were ever made. The Enzo is a road-ready race car, too. As it is stuffed full of Ferrari's race-winning technology, the Enzo can hit the race track and take home a trophy or two in stock trim. Oh yeah, like all supercars, the Enzo is also a ridiculously expensive and unpractical car. In other words: it's the ultimate supercar.Well, apparently the folks at Ferrari thought that the Enzo wasn't "all that". Sure, the Enzo is good, but it could be better. It could be more expensive, more rare, and even more of a race car. So, Ferrari did what any sane supercar builder would do: it took its Enzo, tweaked it beyond recognition and came up with the FXX.Yeah, the FXX looks like a modified Enzo, but it isn't. Ferrari has officially ceased production of the Enzo, so no new ones will ever be made again. According to Ferrari, this FXX is a totally separate beast from the Enzo, that's why the word "Enzo" is nowhere to be found in the name "FXX".So how is the FXX different from the Enzo, exactly? Well, it's easiest if we start off by talking about the engine. Apparently the 660 horsepower that the Enzo produces isn't enough for Ferrari, so the 6.2 liter V12 in the FXX puts out over 800 horses. The gearbox has also been modified, with gearshift times taking under 100 milliseconds - that's comparable to the gearshift time of F1 cars. That's not too shabby, if you ask us. Looking at the outside of the FXX, it's easy to see that the body of the car is pretty different of that of the standard Enzo. Ferrari's own press material says that this aerodynamic shape results in "40% higher downforce than ever achieved before." If the company is referring to a 40 percent increase over the Enzo or something else, we don't know. The prancing horse doesn't seem to want to talk to lowly internet journalists. Oh well...Some other tech goodies include the made-for-the-FXX 19-inch Bridgestone racing slicks, some FXX-exclusive Brembo brake cooling and pad system and its sophisticated telemetry system.Wait... "sophisticated telemetry system"? Oh yeah... "officially", these FXX Ferraris are test cars designed to help with Ferrari's R&D department. These cars will be closely monitored, and the acquired data will be sent to Maranello to be analyzed and scrutinized by Ferrari's highly-trained engineers