MrClean

British 'Ferrari FXX' Supercar



"Arash is expected to charge around £325,000 for the AF10. The super-dramatic supercar will initially be driven to its mighty top speed by a 550bhp version of the Corvette 7.0-litre V8. But rumours suggest this could soon be joined by a supercharged version, producing over 1,000bhp. Which, suggest sources, mean a top speed of over 250mph!"

I've never heard of this till now.

If it was April 1, I'd say we were being fooled.

rockville

Nice to see a Euro car maker seeing the value of a compact, light weight engine vs using a larger Mercedes or other brand engine of similar power. Not sure I'm in love with the looks.

Lice Locket

That's around 490k... For "only" 550 hp that can't compete unless that's the price of the 1000 hp version

NuncoStr8

compete with what? Is the market now flooded with 550 hp half-million dollar supercars with production runs counted on fingers and toes?

There was a day when exclusivity meant something :sniff:

rockville

Lice, that's not very sound logic. The McLaren F1 is only 600 hp and even as a used car over a decade old it goes for over $1M.

mxt_77

Holy front overhang, batman.

rockville

When you have the engine and the rest of the goodies in the back the nose becomes light. You can either add weight to the nose or move the tires back to get the desired front to rear weight distribution. I think if you look at a number of RWD cars of similar design you will see the same thing. Heck, even the Cayman has that look.

Station

The schnoz is about a foot too long.

mxt_77

I'm guessing it's more of an aero thing than a weight thing. I'm guessing it's mid-engine so most of the engine/trans weight should be between the axles, and they shouldn't need "counter-weight" in front of the front axles.

rockville

I don't think it's just an aero thing. You have so much that you need to pack into the front of the car including radiators, foot box etc. To some degree you can move the location of the front axle. That movement does come with a trade off in wheel base, weight distribution etc. With a car such as this you tend to push the front wheels really far back towards the passenger compartment to keep weight on them. I suspect this car is going to be quite rear heavy. Rear weight distribution is generally a good thing but not too much. Moving the wheels back helps.

Note that the McLaren also has a rather long front vs rear overhang:
http://www.fast-cars.org/img/mclarenf1.jpg

I will certainly grant that this car has a long nose but it does seem to be in line with that of the Enzo:
http://www.seriouswheels.com/def/Ferrari-E...n-1600x1200.htm
Note that in the case of the Ferrari the steering wheel is all but lined up with the back of the tires. That means the driver's feet are likely lined up with the front of the tires. The car's crush zone needs to be in front of all that. I suspect the new car has a similar layout.

Anyway, I suspect the primary issue is weight distribution with respect to things like the foot box and front mechanical bits. Aero is likely not the primary issue but I suspect you are right in thinking it wasn't ignored as part of this design choice.