When some privateer teams decided to take Ferrari’s 550 Maranello grand tourer to the race track in the GT1 category, everyone was a bit skeptical of the move. The car was a return to front-engine V12s for the brand after 23 years dedicated to a mid-engine model, but Luca Cordero di Montezemolo was determined to see the front-engine car make a return to the Ferrari stable. Without any support from Ferrari, it was up to the privateers to prove its might in the crucible of motorsport competition. It was mildly competitive, but hot damn did it sound great!
As it came from the factory showroom floor, the nearly 4,000-pound car was hardly capable of a direct fight against the lighter and more powerful Porsche GT2 and Dodge Viper competition. David Richards’ Prodrive racing engineering managed to dig out over 1,200 pounds in the process of converting the car to a racing machine, in addition to bumping the 5.5-liter V12 up to a gentleman’s six liters. The naturally-aspirated V12 yawp that results stands in direct contrast to the company’s current V6-powered hybrid hypercar, which, as you know, sounds like poopy doodoo.
There is no reason to listen to anything else again for the rest of my entire life. The trill of a dozen pistons hammering away a few thousand times per minute simply cannot be beat. You should put this video on repeat in your house. Hell, it should be put on repeat in every art museum in the world, because these sounds crafted by some of the great engine builders of the world, rival the best paints that ever met canvas. Nothing, and I mean nothing, could ever beat the sounds coming out of the back end of this admittedly frumpy-looking Ferrari.