| Technical Briefing | Maranello, Italy | Ferrari's Future Technology |
It was with a straight face that Ferrari President Luca Di Montezemolo said, while unveiling the Ferrari 612 Sessanta, that he looked forward to greeting us again at Maranello in another 60 years time. Given (by his own admission) that he is the same age of the company he's President of, that's highly unlikely, though Ferrari fully expects to still be around. What's certain is that it'll be unrecognisable from the company known and loved around the world today - eclipsing even the chasm between Ferrari's earliest cars and those available today.
What is clear though is that Ferrari has to adapt. Concerns over the environment will not allow Ferrari, or any other car manufacturer for that matter, to continue along the same path as they have been. Cars need to be lighter and far more efficient if they're going to survive. Not just because of environmental concerns, but to better utilise our finite oil reserves. So Ferrari admits, in its 60th year that it's undergoing something of a paradigm shift. Out goes the race for ever-increasing power outputs, in comes the quest for light weight and efficiency.
Don't fret though, as Amedeo Felisa, General Director Ferrari SpA states; "we're not interested in having the most power in the market, but instead the best specific output." He adds, "Every Ferrari will continue to provide better performance than the previous one, but we need to do it within new parameters." And Ferrari was being remarkably frank at a technical conference we attended in Maranello about what those new parameters are to be.
Understandably, weight reduction is the key to Ferrari's economy drive. And more than any other manufacturer Ferrari has experience of paring weight while maximising performance thanks to its successful Formula One experience. Indeed, gains achieved from F1 and racing are crucial to Ferrari's weight reduction plans. Unsurprisingly, given the talk of motorsport, carbon fibre is mentioned. It'll play an even bigger role in Ferrari's road cars, the lightweight and strong material being utilised even more in crash structures and suspension parts.
Thanks in part to the more compact crash structures, Ferrari envisages a future where its cars will be smaller - significantly so. This idea, demonstrated by the rather lashed-up looking Mille Chili 1,000kg concept, underlines how a lightweight Enzo might look if all of Ferrari's future technologies were implemented at once. It's markedly smaller, partly because of the fixing of the seating position. Instead of the usual route of moving people to and from the instrumentation and controls, the controls will move to the driver. A steering wheel, containing all the crucial functions will move, as will the pedals.
Those pedals will eventually work utilise brake-by-wire, pushing higher friction, lighter discs that scavenge power to be utilised in a mild hybrid. That electric power will not only boost performance, but smooth gearshifts with the F1 transmission by filling the troughs in torque when shifting. Smaller brakes are lighter, which in turn allows smaller, lighter wheels, the weight-reduction process a cyclic principle - up to a point.
Faster transmissions, quicker, lighter electronics (controlling a lot more functions) will also help as, obviously, will engine developments. Ferrari aims to make gains in efficiency simply by reducing internal friction in its engines, while direct-injection is also being developed and has been running in prototype form - it was used in a Ferrari F1 car until it was banned. Ferrari will also use an aerospace-developed material in future models that sandwiches carbon fibre and aluminium to differing degrees to achieve the required balance between weight and rigidity.
Such new materials are not the only 'blue-sky' thinking technology. Perhaps the most radical is regarding aerodynamics. Given the company's access to wind tunnels, it's not surprising that Ferrari manages to build high downforce, low drag cars. Yet it aims to improve this even further with what they're calling "Synthetic Jets". Simplistically put, these are diaphragms that pulse to create jets of air that are injected out of 0.5mm holes in the bodywork. The technology, which is being developed with the Imperial College London, significantly reduces drag, and, Ferrari's engineers claim could eventually be used to brake the car. A prototype running a development system will be on the road in the next two years.
With low rolling resistance tyres, humped underbody aerodynamics, Synthetic Jets, direct-injection hybrid powertrains mated to faster, lighter transmissions, higher friction brakes, quicker electronics and smaller, leaner cars Ferrari's future should be fascinating to watch. But that's some way off; Ferrari's lightweight future starts sooner than you might think with the hotly anticipated lightened F430. It's not been named yet (that's a few weeks away), but Ferrari's engineers couldn't help but let slip a few tantalising details, including a transmission that shifts 40milliseconds quicker than the F599 GTB Fiorano's 100ms. If it represents the start of Ferrari's economical, future lightweight direction then bring it on...
Nick Maher - 29 Jun 2007
