Ferrari F50

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The Ferrari F50 was designed to commemorate Ferrari's 50th anniversary in 1996. It was introduced in 1995 and the last F50 left the Ferrari's factory in Maranello near Modeno in northern Italy in July of 1997. Only 349 F50s were made. Why 349? The official answer from the factory is that their marketing research estimated that they could sell 350.

"Our studies showed a market for 350 cars like this," says spokesman Antonio Ghini. "But Ferraris are something cultural, a monument. They must be hard to find, so we will produce one less car than the market." F50 Test Drive

Half the cars had been reserved before the car was introduced. Fifty F50s each were sold in the United States, Germany and Italy, Ferrari's biggest markets. Most of the others were sold in Asia and elsewhere in Europe. It has been said that Mike Tyson was the first person to receive an F50 as an owner in the United States at a purchase price of $850,000.

"We have in 50 years of racing won every kind of victory: Formula One, Le Mans, Dayton, Sebring," President Luca di Montezemolo said in an interview. "In this car we put 50 years of know-how."

But he said the F50 is the first and last car Ferrari will build based on a Formula One engine because of tougher emission standards going into effect in the next few years in the United States and elsewhere.

"It will be impossible to do it again," he said.

The history of the F50 began In 1990, when Ferrari almost experienced the F1 World Championship with Alain Prost driving. It was at this time, Piero Ferrari fathered his plan to take one Ferrari Formula One car and birth a new road supercar ...thus becoming the F50 project.

Driven by customers asking why the company could not build something close to a Formula One car that could be driven on the road, the engineers at Ferrari began looking into the areas of their Grand Prix machine which made it just that. The power in their road engines, they decided, was enough, but it was concluded that it would be possible to bring across much of the technology of Formula One onto a road car.

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On the road, the F50 is very stable, accurate in handling at any speed, and the huge tires and down force generated by the big rear spoiler enable high speed cornering stability. It runs faster than the F40 on race tracks, thanks to a better chassis, but slower at mid-range acceleration than the 425 ft-lb predecessor. Because the F50's engine is so highly tuned, it enables less room for improvement compare with the turbocharged F40. Ferrari used the F40 as their GT racer. But in real world, without modifications, the F50 is far faster than the F40.

The Ferrari F40 (the car's predecessor) had looked as though it was a carbon fibre chassis, but this was not the case. It was simply a tubular frame chassis with carbon parts. Ferrari decided they could do better and set about designing a full carbon fibre monocoque that would give a stiffer chassis. The whole chassis and suspensions are bolted on the engine / transmission like Formula One cars, thus producing an ultra-rigid and simultaneously light structure. Cars twist under load, and a structural designer's job was to create a chassis that will deform to a minimal amount under normal accelerative and cornering loadings. Through using Carbon Fibre, the Ferrari engineers were able to achieve a stiff chassis which is also very light. It therefore handles better, without having the penalty of the extra weight usually required for structure stiffness, and importantly, this was a key innovation brought from Formula One.

The second important area is the F50's much acclaimed 'Formula One derived' engine. This is based on the 3.5 litre V12 unit which powered Prost and Nigel Mansell in the 1990 season, but it's relations are loose. The road going powerplant took the F1's 65-degree vee, used the same 5-valve per cylinder design, and retained the block length. Everything else, however, is different. It had to be - although the F50 is a remarkable car, the requirement to replace an engine every 200 or so miles as in an F1 car would be ridiculous! Some of the exotic materials have made it onto the road engine, however, with titanium playing a part in the internals. The capacity was increased to 4.7 litres, and the engine hits the rev limiter at 8,700 rpm, quite some way short of the 14,000 attainable with the F1 engine - pneumatic valve springs made such revs possible, but these were too unreliable to be used due to air leakages (which have been often seen to cause problems in Grands Prix), and were replaced with steel springs for the road engine.

The engine is mounted directly to the carbon fibre monocoque, and this caused problems as carbon fibre is a great transmitter of vibrations and sound. An F1 driver is alright wearing a helmet and earplugs, but Ferrari felt it couldn't demand this of the road car driver! Some modifications were achieved, but the engine remains loud - so Ferrari used its raw, unrefined qualities as a selling point!
Aerodynamics was a key area in the F50's design, and is also partially derived from F1. Pininfarina designed the body to provide lots of downforce on both the front and rear at high speeds, using in-the-nose ducting and a rear wing mounted on pedestals. The road car design team actually used the F1 team's wind tunnel for development - a situation which would never be seen now, with teams never having a spare minute in their tunnels. The time spent was worth it, as the car can actually produce correctly balanced downforce at the front and rear, using an apparently F1-derived wing at the rear, which assists in making the handling exceptional.

Part of this handling equation is the suspension, which is a unique innovation to have come across from Formula One. It uses independant double wishbone suspension, with pushrods connecting to inboard springs and dampers, just as Prost and Mansell's F1 car did. However, in standard road car design, rubber bushes are used to act as cushions at suspension mounting points, and reduce the transmission of road noise. These are to the detriment of handling, and for that reason, they do not exist in F1. There, the suspension is mounted directly to the chassis or gearbox with rigid ball joints (somewhat like a hip joint). Ferrari went with this method for the F50, deciding that as this is an F1 car for the road, handling could not be compromised - besides how could the extra road noise add anything to the sound of that beast of an engine sitting behind the driver! To the surprise of the industry, the suspension was a success, and the ride was not as harsh as expected, but despite this, we have not yet seen any other road cars use this technology.

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The only compromises on this car were road legailties and driver limitations, and Ferrari see the F50 as truly an F1 car for the road. But, because this is "a race car for the street," there is no carpet or upholstery -- except for the lightweight seats and the leather-covered steering wheel. Even the gearshift knob is composite.

The special disc brakes, rack-and-pinion steering and trick suspension are all just one step from the racetrack. Antilock brakes are noticeably missing, as are power steering and power brakes. The only concession to comfort is standard air conditioning. There is a rudimentary fabric top that goes on over the twin rollbars on the Barchetta version and roll-up windows in the doors.

The technology brought from Formula One into the F50 is now ten years old - and how F1 develops in ten years! There is no semi-automatic gearbox on the road car, a technology which was not even reliable on the race cars in 1990, and the brakes, although F1-derived, are steel and not carbon as the temperatures developed in even a road car such as this were, and still are, not high enough to allow the material to function well enough.

The supercar era is (unofficially) over, and now manufacturers are using F1 developments in more limited fashion. Ferrari's future, in the F360 Modena, shows that even in their 'non-exclusive' range, the F1 involvement comes through. The new car uses traction control, and drive-by-wire technology, as well as the (now mandatory on all sports cars) F1 style semi-automatic paddle gear change. Its performance, although road car bred, has benefited from the thoughts of the racing engine designers.

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