Ferrari FX prototype to be revealed in Tokyo
Apr 17, 2002 - The design prototype of Ferrari’s fastest road car ever, the Ferrari FX will debut in Tokyo at ‘Artedinamica: Ferrari and Maserati at the Contemporary Art Museum of Tokyo’ on April 26th, and from April 27th to July 14th the exhibition will be open to the public.
With this surprise move, Ferrari has decided that the new Ferrari FX will be seen by its enthusiastic Japanese buyers and the public at large several months before the Paris Motor Show in late September. After all, the ultimate Ferrari has been designed by a Japanese talent: Ken Okuyama who worked for Pininfarina until last year and who also designed the 2000 Pininfarina Ferrari ‘Rossa’ concept.
To Europeans the decision to reveal the car in Japan first might sound as an offence, but business is business and Japan is positively a fantastic market for Ferrari, not just for cars but for merchandising as well.
So here we have the first official picture of what Ferrari still call by the project code FX, while some members of the press say it will be called F60 (as it carries on the tradition of the GTO, F40 and F50), and others say it will be called ‘Enzo’.
The front end uses design elements from the Ferrari Formula 1 cars, with an elongated nose sprouting vertical blades that integrate with the large air intakes. The bodyside features boldly defined air intakes above an F1-style base plate. The rear end features four taillamps raised above the body form, similar to the design shown on the Rossa concept. The elements of the design are strongly defined, with the fender forms encapsulating the central cabin, and seemingly linked to it only by floating wings or base plates, further strengthening the links to the Ferrari race cars.
The all-carbon fibre Ferrari FX is powered by a V12 engine said to deliver between 560 and 600 HP and good enough for a top speed of 340 kph. However the official performance is expected to remain confidential until the Ferrari FX, according to the company ‘is officially presented at the Paris Auto Show on September 26th’, where it is going to ‘represent the ultimate expression of technological transfer from F1 to Ferrari’s road-going GTs, the conception of which has always benefited from racing experience at the highest level’.
According to reports published in Italy the price is expected to range between 800,000 and 1 million Euro.
Concept sketches by Pininfarina show the strongly defined theme that separates the central passenger ‘pod’ from the fender forms.
Intake and exhaust vents are used to reinforce the theme of separation of the cabin and fender forms.
