Capel Dewi Cars

Ferrari is a name which is luxuriously steeped in car history. Enzo Ferrari started building and selling automobiles rather reluctantly in 1947 with the "125 S" typically as a way to fund Scuderia Ferrari, his racing team which was mainly comprised of Alfa Romeo vehicles. With a long racing heritage and pretty fluid designs, these production autos shortly caught on fire with racing fans and brought the marque the repute of a distinguished automaker. In 1970, Fiat became Ferrari's first stockholder after inner chaos in the company forced Enzo to go searching for other stockholders. Today, Ferrari continues to set the benchmark for automobile styling, engineering and dynamics. A Ferrari is commonly referred to as a work of art, a symbol of rank, and a bit of racing history. Few, if none, of the automakers today may be able to transmit the soul of a vehicle so obviously to the driver better than Ferrari.





Ferrari engines are evolved for racing thru and thru. Scuderia Ferrari, literally translating to "Ferrari Stable", was made by Enzo Ferrari in 1928 solely as a technique to sponsor amateur drivers and to further his own racing career. Essentially racing changed Alfa Romeo automobiles, Ferrari was noticed by Alfa's top brass and at last employed to head their motor racing department. Ferrari then branched out on his own in 1947 with the 125 S, the first Ferrari road vehicle. Today, Ferrari continues to produce engines that keep their storied racing custom at the forefront. The present 458 Italia is powered by a 4.5L V8 which produces 562hp and 398lb/ft tq at an astonishing 9,000 Rpm. Featuring direct fuel injection, it is the most modern engine produced for a road-going mid-engine Ferrari to date.







Air conditioning was long considered a silly luxury to Enzo Ferrari. Simply wanting his autos to be the best, fastest and most pretty autos on the road, he paid little notice to little creature comforts that had nothing to do with performance. It was not until 1967 that Ferrari even offered aircon as a choice on one of their vehicles, the bug-eyed 365 GT. Conformity shortly trumped Enzo's lust for performance and Ferrari slid in line, offering air conditioning on nearly all of their models. Without this easy change, Ferrari may not have been as successful as they currently are, since most Ferrari owners want to have the very best of BOTH worlds "performance AND comfort "not just one to pick from. The issue arose of the proper way to implement both wishes of Ferrari owners into their new automobiles. In true Ferrari fashion, their cars coped with the new addition of "irrelevant" parts and weight, and implemented new paths to keep Ferrari forging new trails into the future.







When the conversation of a Ferrari's transmission comes up, just one thing should pop into a person's mind. One should conjure up pictures of the classic metal gated shifter crowned with a steel ball, and imagine the "click-clack" sound of upshifting and downshifting while at speed. The gated stick-shift transmission screams "Ferrari" and is one of their many classic designs that will be remembered for many years. Today, the gated manual is now a rare thing, moving closer to the cutting blocl with each advancing new model. The 458 Italia goes as far as to not even supply a manual option, opting instead for a Getrag dual-clutch 7 speed automated transmission, which sees hard duty in the Ferrari California. Upshifting in fragments of a second, this gearbox is able to outperform any normal manual transmission in every category. Some critics, including yours really, feel it is a sin to not include a full manual optional transmission in a Ferrari "sort of a profanity. Hopefully the mythical gated manual makes a return to lineup at Ferrari in the future.







With all the power that Ferrari vehicles put out, it is essential that just as much performance goes into the brakes when it is time to slow down. Ferrari has never been one to scrimp on any part of a vehicle, and the brakes are no exception. For example, in the new 458 Italia, 15 inch front discs and 14 inch rear discs, made of a carbon-ceramic composite, are grabbed by massive 6 pot calipers in front and 4 pot calipers in the rear. The braking system obtained from Brembo and modified by Ferrari is actually capable of astonishing stopping times, coming to a halt from 60 mph in only 107 feet. The carbon-ceramic composite. Material was selected for the discs due to their power to resist extreme heat and heavy use. So much so that carbon-ceramic brakes are still fully functional under temperatures that would make standard steel discs totally adaptable. Ferrari will most definitely stay at the forefront of braking performance as we move into the future, and it's going to be exciting to see what advances come next.







Ferrari engines are known to run hot with redlines above 8,000 and 9,000 Rpm, their high displacement engines can put off some heavy heat while under load. Even though it may appear like impending trouble, the engineers at Ferrari have poured countless hours into cooling systems that may keep up with their high-performance engine's output. By employing enormous radiators, high temp coolant and bodywork scoops that force air into necessary areas, the cooling system can satisfactorily draw heat from the engine block to keep it at a normal operating temperature, even under the most extreme loads. As only Ferrari can, they also implemented all of these prerequisites in a way that's still very pleasing to the eye, and has the most important accent on performance. To this day, the engineers at Ferrari continue to galvanize, producing considerate solutions for Problems that other lesser automobiles may not even have to consider.







Ferrari has moved forward in big leaps when it comes to the electronics in their vehicles. Beginning with nothing less than a few wires to run the speedometer, tachometer, instruments and lights, Ferraris of today now bristle with technological advances that place them a peg above the rest. With electronic traction control, suspension monitoring systems and electronic engine timing, Ferrari has revealed that electronic parts are much more trustworthy and perform better than their mechanical opposite numbers. Recently, Ferrari showcased its first ever hybrid concept, the 599 HY KERS at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show. Using a passive composite system, this Ferrari uses the electronic motor to raise the performance of the normal engine, adding an additional 100 hp on top of the already extraordinary 612 horses available on the conventional 599. It is promptly clear that Ferrari is planning to stick to its guns in the electronics department to keep making improvements to the performance of their vehicles into the future.