Saturday, November 22, 2008
Ferrari Abandons Beauty
If Ferraris aren't beautiful then the world makes a little less sense and, as Gavin Green points out, Ferraris have been getting progressively uglier of late. The climax of this process is the new California which looks as though it came from the same Stevie von Wonder school of automotive design that produced the BMW X6 or Flying Turd. It's all done, say Ferrari, in the name of aerodynamics. In other words, efficiency has trumped beauty. Anybody can let that happen, Ferrari isn't supposed to and, once it does, the justification for the company becomes as dubious as the rationale for the BBC.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Ferrari are merely reflecting the tastes of their current customer base, a sad moneyed bunch with zero spacial awareness.
ReplyDeletePicture if you will the scene..a bright autumn day on the Nordscleife, the group of like minded enthusiasts have gathered together to enjoy two days of unpoliced driving, the track leased for the occasion as it was, along with Spa and Hockenhiem, every year.
The organization had in recent times relaxed its strict membership conditions and allowed in people who possessed the machinery but not the requisite skills to use it.
A bright red, just out of the wrapping, 340 drove into the paddock, out stepped sonny jim,
bedecked in full Nomex, laptop at the ready, hoping to record his awesome lap times, the ultimate tee shirt.
He spent fifteen minutes lecturing anyone within earshot on the art of driving at the limit, bear in mind the listeners were capable of lap times in a Fiat Multipla that others struggled to achieve in their latest toys.
Off he went, little tail waggling like a duck, aghast as he realised he was an eighteen carat prick and out of his depth.
After one lap he totaled the Ferrari and returned to the paddock in an ambulance, the track was shut for two hours.
His membership was not renewed. The story is not uncommon, nearly always the car is a Ferrari, the owner a brain dead city herbert. Their mantra, I have money therefore I am invincible.
I am rapidly coming round to Brit's vew that there is something very special about you, Malty.
ReplyDeleteThe evolution of aerodynamic science, and computational fluid dynamics in particular, has emasculated the aesthetic imagaintion of the automobile stylist.
ReplyDeleteTsk tsk. I can't possibly be seen in a car with a "fat arse". Oh well, I've have to cancel my order and go back to using the bus, then.
ReplyDeleteActually "efficiency has trumped beauty" is true of most things, I'd guess. Bikes have gone the same way imho, with the difference that if you tried the Malty experience on a test track you'd be brought back to the paddock in a bin liner. A great way of disposing of bankers now one comes to think of it: head for the nearest Ducati showroom, lads, then hit a test track and let her rip.
Myabe we should all go back to horses. No one says they're not beautiful though, curiously, they do have pretty big arses.
For me Jeremy Clarkson has more chance of doing beauty than any car with an internal combustion engine, so I find things make a little more sense now. This honest design trend that produces flying turds and disconnected toilets should be welcomed, imho.
ReplyDelete