Just occasionally, something's lost in translation between poison tipped Italian and well-meaning King's English. I'm standing alongside the new Ferrari in a Maranello studio. I ask Flavio Manzoni, the man who heads up the design department, if it's possible to spec the black 'mask' bisecting its nose, the black roof section and the twin black aero flaps at the back in overall body colour. Manzoni rounds on me with derision. "If you ask to have them not in black... you walk on my body." I think that's an approximation of 'over my dead body'. I'll take that as a no then.
Some ideas translate more literally than others. You thought the 812 Superfast's name was a bit obvious. Its successor the latest in a storied lineage of front-engined super tourers stretching back through F12, 599, 575 and 550 through the 365 GTB/4 and beyond into Ferrari's 1940s infancy - is named after its V12 engine. It is simply the 'Twelve Cylinder'. Whoops, the laser eyes are burrowing into my skull again. You're supposed to address it as 'Dodici Cilindri'.
Obviously Italians are the undisputed world champions of making car related nouns sound poetic. Quattroporte. Testarossa. Scuderia and Competizione. But there's something more nostalgic at play here, a sense that if Ferrari doesn't celebrate the V12 now, it's not a given it'll get another golden opportunity. Later this year we'll be presented with the first electric-only Ferrari. There are already two hybrids in the range, and downsized turbocharged engines have proliferated across the family. Meanwhile Bentley and Mercedes have abandoned their 12-cylinder engines. Nothing is sacred.
この記事は BBC Top Gear UK の July 2024 版に掲載されています。
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この記事は BBC Top Gear UK の July 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
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