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Wailing down Florano’s front straight at over 8000 rpm in third gear, you can sense them: the living ethereal presence of great Ferrari. Firorano is Ferrari’s very private test track, located next to the factory, in the tiny village of Maranello, Italy. Ferrari’s current F1 hotshots. Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine, work out here constantly, looking for the edge they hope will take one of them to the Prancing Horse’s first. Excepting the basic architecture of the engine and transaxle, the 360 Modena is as new as new can get. Its design man date was simple reduced weight, increased performance, better handling, stiffer structure, more interior room and comfort, and only, Ferrari world-class team of designers, engineers, and suppliers delivered it all. |
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The key word to achieving the above is aluminum; the 360 Modena is just made of the stuff. A partnership with Alcoa means a structure composed of several shapes and diameters of alloy tubing plus numerous extrusions, stampings and casting. Countless hours in the wind tunnel were invested into the Modena’s design. Though it’s clearly a Ferrari, the new car banks less on tradition and more on technology than did previous models. Dimensionally, the Modena is 9 inches longer than the last model and rides on a 5.8 inch longer wheelbase. It’s 0.8 inch wider overall and 1.1 inches taller, though, interestingly, the front track increases by a full 6.1 inches. This opens up the footbox area substantially, in keeping with the goal of increase interior room. In spite of being larger its overall weight, as promised, decreases by about 200 pounds. |
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| By adding approximately a half-foot to both wheelbase and front track gave
Ferrari’s designers a large more useable space to deal with. There’s more room
in every critical dimension, and the front seat move forward exposing a luggage area large
enough for a glofbag, the front trunk serves as the main storage area. Ferrari claims the 360Modena will squirt to 62mph in 4.5 seconds; based on our experiences with the last model. It also blows through the quarter mile in 12.6 seconds and should top out around 185mph. Ferrari 360 Modena represents a V8 powered high watermark in the company’s production history. The drive-friendly interior and highest-ever quality levels mean this is one Ferrari that would function beautifully as your everyday transport. So go ahead: Drive it to work. Or on a cross-country vacation. Or, maybe for a few dozen hot laps around Fiorano. Introduction
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