The Ferrari Enzo is the fifth Ferrari Supercar to be produced. The Ferrari brand is often misunderstood as producing only supercars, which is not entirely true. Ferrari produces a number of Grand Touring (GT) and Luxury sports cars. Cars that most would call exotics and some would call supercars although the two classifications shouldn’t be used interchangeably. In Ferrari’s case, the five supercars that they’ve made since the 1960s are: the 250 LM, 288 GTO, F40, F50 and the Enzo. All most commonly known supercars, the F40 and F50 dominated the supercar scene in the late 80s and throughout the 90s, while the Enzo is known for being Ferrari’s supercar of the 2000s.
Unlike the F40 though, the Enzo was only produced for two years, from 2002 to 2004, yielding only 400 units. The F40 was produced for five years, yielding 1,315 units, is still one of the rarest and most sought after Ferrari’s today. The F50 wasn’t produced for as long as the F40 and like the Enzo, under 400 units were made. The F50 was produced from 1995 to 1997 and exactly 349 units were produced.
There was no supercar development by Ferrari for nearly five years, until 2002, when Ferrari announced the Enzo at the Paris Motor Show. The new supercar was named the Enzo after the founder of Ferrari and in celebration of Ferrari’s first Formula 1 title of the new millennium. The car was designed by Ken Okuyama, former Pininfarina head designer and looks just as timeless as the F40 and F50. The design is aggressively presented and extremely menacing with sharper than usual edges and panels unlike the smoother styles of the 360 and 575 Maranello.
Like the F40 and F50, a very limited number of Enzos would be produced. The original production amount was set at 349 units and was offered first to current Ferrari owners at a mild price tag of $659,330. All 349 were sold before production on the Enzo even began and after additional requests, Ferrari decided to build an additional 50 Enzos, bringing the total production count to 399. There are also a few cars that were created as a variant or based off of the Enzo: The Ferrari FXX, P4/5, and Maserati MC12.
The Ferrari Enzo has a 6.0 liter V12 engine that sits in the mid-rear of the Enzo’s Formula 1-based carbon-fiber body. The engine was redesigned by Ferrari for the Enzo and is based off of a similar engine design found in the Maserati Quattroporte’s V8. This new engine architecture replaces the Dine designed engines of the past with new Ferrari V8 and V12 designs. It sits at an unconventional 60 degrees unlike the normally designed 90 degree engines. The F430 in 2005 would be the second Ferrari to receive the new engine design. The naturally aspirated V12 displaces 5998 cc and produces 651 horsepower at 7800 rpm and 485 lb-ft of torque at 5500 rpm, with a redline of 8000 rpm. The outgoing F50 model featured a 4.7 liter Dino designed V12 that displaced 4698 cc and produced 513 horsepower at 8000 rpm and 347 lb-ft of torque at 6500 rpm. That gives the Enzo a 27% horsepower and 40% torque improvement over the F50 with only a 27% increase in engine displacement. As a result of the high performance figures, the Enzo can do 0 to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds, the quarter mile in 11.0 seconds at 136 mph and reach a top speed of 220 mph.
Since the design was influenced by Formula 1, the downforce on the Enzo is incredible. The Enzo also features active aerodynamics that cause the rear wing to adjust automatically depending on the car’s speed and downforce requirements. The Enzo features one of the early F1 gearboxes that allows the driver to shift via a semi-automatic transmission without a clutch. A similar gearbox was first introduced in the Ferrari 360 and later improved in the F430. The Enzo transmission is known to shift as quickly as 150 milliseconds, 4 times faster than the eye can blink but due to its new design has been known to shift abruptly. Stopping the Enzo is no problem; it features 15 inch Brembo Carbon Fiber Silicon Carbide disc brakes wrapped around 19-inch wheels.
The Ferrari Enzo is truly an icon of Ferrari’s ability to transform Formula 1 performance into a street car. With a beautifully tuned 6.0 V12 Engine that can get to 60 mph in sub-zero times and light-weight carbon fiber chassis technology, there’s no doubt that this will continue to be one of the best Ferrari supercars built. That is, until Ferrari announces the Enzo’s replacement in 2012. Until then, you can look to find a used Enzo for at least $1 million USD. Good luck.
