Ferrari has announced that it is seriously thinking about putting its cars on a testosterone diet as they debate whether to swap V8 engines for V6s.
It’s not that often that we’re graced by the presence of a Ferrari here in Ireland. Just seeing one gracefully drive by generally brightens up any petrol-head’s day. They look mean, they sound mean and they can certainly take off if they want to, which is mainly thanks to their V8s. So why would Ferrari want to downsize their engines?
We can only assume with the super car market slowly dying off and Ferrari is just trying to cope with costs. Whatever is going on in the stables of the prancing horse one thing is for sure, they’re certainly thinking hard about the swap.
Ferrari boss Amedeo Felisa confirmed earlier this week that the successor to the 458 Italia might drop from a V8 to a V6. The Irish Times suggests that Ferrari might use the excuse that even F1 cars are downgrading from V8s to V6s and this will be a key factor in making customers accept this change.
The swap is still only in the discussion stages so nothing has been set in stone just yet. The massive Ferrari V12 has thankfully been saved for the top-of-the-range cars like the stunning F12 Berlinette (pictured above).
You can’t help feel that making the Ferrari engines that bit smaller takes some of the fun out of the cars. Obviously, none of us have the money for one in the first place, but if you’re going to spend that much anyway would you not want the bigger engine?
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