Chris Harris Rants against Ferrari

And yet, 90% of times the general, non-petrolhead public sees a red sportscar, they call it a Ferrari. Even if it?s a Corvette, Porsche, Lamborghini, Pagani, Aston Martin, McLaren, Jaguar, etc etc.
 
And yet, 90% of times the general, non-petrolhead public sees a red sportscar, they call it a Ferrari. Even if it?s a Corvette, Porsche, Lamborghini, Pagani, Aston Martin, McLaren, Jaguar, etc etc.

No. Not here at least.

And I doubt it's the case in any other European country.

On the contrary. I dare saying, that many here wouldn't recognize a 458 as a Ferrari these days. The only Ferrari, that about 100 % of all people are able to recognize here, is the old 308 -- because Magnum drove it.

Absolutely everybody immediately recognizes a Porsche 911, though. No matter what colour.
 
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No. Not here at least.

And I doubt it's the case in any other European country.

On the contrary. I dare saying, that many here wouldn't recognize a 458 as a Ferrari these days. The only Ferrari, that about 100 % of all people are able to recognize here, is the old 308 -- because Magnum drove it.

Absolutely everybody immediately recognizes a Porsche 911, though. No matter what colour.


That?s an interesting discussion. I am sure different countries have different car cultures, but at least in here the general public has NO IDEA about cars, and call cars by their general shape.
Sportscar=Ferrari
Big Saloon=Mercedes
Big SUV=Jeep
And so on.
 
No. Not here at least.

And I doubt it's the case in any other European country.

On the contrary. I dare saying, that many here wouldn't recognize a 458 as a Ferrari these days. The only Ferrari, that about 100 % of all people are able to recognize here, is the old 308 -- because Magnum drove it.

Absolutely everybody immediately recognizes a Porsche 911, though. No matter what colour.
I must disagree. I can confirm due to countless occasions that when people see a red car which looks even slightly sporty, they say it is a Ferrari. Maybe it's a local thing? I've seen it happen pretty much everywhere though.
 
Where do you get the idea that Nissan used ringers? That theory has been debunked so many times...

As this proves, it would be very easy to get ringers in for testing, definitely easy to give a twin turbo car a little extra boost to make it seem a bit quicker.

Not that it was lying, but running on slicks + a running start is a cousin to cheating as well ('Ring lap time).
 
I must disagree. I can confirm due to countless occasions that when people see a red car which looks even slightly sporty, they say it is a Ferrari. Maybe it's a local thing? I've seen it happen pretty much everywhere though.

Aha! :p
But seriously, I think we are derailing this thread. Show we continue this on a specific thread?
 
I will say first that I AM a Ferrari fan. I know how old man Enzo felt about his buyers, calling them idiots for buying the road cars. I think that same philosophy quietly applies today. But that's like beautiful woman telling you you're an idiot for loving her body.

While I'm not happy about this situation, I can't say I'm going to stop loving their cars either. I'm not going to defend what they did. It's pretty sad and it's bullshit. But in all honesty, how much does it REALLY matter at the end of the day?

Before someone says "WTF DO YOU MEAN IT DOESNT MATTER?!".. and goes crazy, hear me out.

If, God willing, I'm ever able to buy a Ferrari, am I really going to care that it may be a couple of seconds slower around track X than the car tested? Nope. Even if the sales guy came up to me and said "Sorry, we said this car went around the Ring in 7min 45sec before. It actually did it in 7min 50sec." I would not care. Because I'm not going to be doing those kinds of speeds all the time anyway. I'm not trying to win some big race or get a championship. I'm just going to have some fun. This is the way 95% of all call super car consumers think.

Ferrari's, along with Lambo's, Porsche's, and every other fast car, are toys for those who can afford them. That's all. And I will be damned if I let a dealer or manufacture dictate what I can and cannot do to my car.

Is it bullshit what Ferrari is doing? You damn right it is.

Are the people who buy them going to care? Not anytime soon.
 
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It's not going to matter to anyone that can actually afford to buy an actual Ferrari however it is going to matter to all of the fanboy bench racers that love to use magazine articles and comparison tests to argue why Ferrari is the greatest car maker of all time.
 
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Not that it was lying, but running on slicks + a running start is a cousin to cheating as well ('Ring lap time).
They weren't running slicks - is that rumor still around?
 
Reminds me of the time when nVidia and ATi were accused of optimizing their video cards to score higher in 3D Mark
 
fernando_alonso_1761530b.jpg


Isn't calling Ferrari a bunch of annoying, bitching, cheating, pretentious moaners just stating the bleedin' obvious? Yet I can't help loving them, there's just something about a Ferrari that stirs my soul and no matter how much they troll the world of cars it'll always be that way. There's nothing quite like hearing the howl of a Maranello V8 echoing off the narrow streets of London or screaming around a track. It's magical.

That being said I wouldn't own one, I'd actually take a Maserati over a Ferrari any day. To me they are all the Italian loveliness with less of the bullshit. And hey, if it wasn't for Ferrari's empire of douchedom, we might not have Lamborghini.

Haters gon' hate. A world without Ferrari would be shit.
 
We're talking about cars that are complete toys here. Luxuries, gadgets, status symbols... How many of the people buying these cars really care about the performance figures? When someone buys a Ferrari it's cos they wanted a Ferrari. 99% of the times, that car won't see it's limits pushed or run at competitive levels. If he wanted an Aston Martin, he'd have gotten one, even if its 2 seconds slower to 100.

On the other hand, take a 458, and let's say Ferrari engineers tune the car to give it's maximum performance. Is it really cheating? Or is it showing what the car can do at the limit?
Maybe if they sold the cars at this limit, they wouldn't last 10,000 km so they tune them down? Who knows, or in fact who cares? Was anyone here gonna buy a Ferrari and has now changed their mind and going to get a Lambo instead?

In any case, I'm not condoning doing any of this. To me it just sounds like a lot of prick waving between these manufacturers to see who has it longer. I couldn't care less. These cars they build, they're beautiful performance machines, and the one thing they have in common is, I'll never own one :D

So yeah, it's wrong, but who cares.
 
And hey, if it wasn't for Ferrari's empire of douchedom, we might not have Lamborghini.

Or the Cobra, or the GT40 either. Enzo Ferrari's asininity is the basses of much of the high performance automotive industry. :p
 
Pretty sure - but it was Ferrari's policy for years (was also why there weren't Ferraris in Test Drive III or IV), and there was an article in one of the gaming magazines at the time wherein this was stated (I think it was EGM). Microsoft's Ferrari exclusive didn't start until 2009, IIRC.

Similar story with the new Test Drive Unlimited 2. Ferrari's are in the game, but unlike all other cars - you can't tune them and you can't put stickers on them, because those were Ferrari's demands.

Ferrari is also partially to blame for the omission of Lamborghini's in the game.
 
Similar story with the new Test Drive Unlimited 2. Ferrari's are in the game, but unlike all other cars - you can't tune them and you can't put stickers on them, because those were Ferrari's demands.

Ferrari is also partially to blame for the omission of Lamborghini's in the game.

Which is interesting, because I have a Ferrari 458 in GT5 that's flat purple with gold rims and a carbon fiber hood, tuned to ~750 HP :D

So on top of everything else they're inconsistent about their demands. Or maybe money talks?
 
Ferrari is not an exception in those silly demands for games.

iRacing now has a Williams F1 car for their competitions, but you can't custom paint it. It either has to have the Williams livery, or an all solid color. No custom paints or sponsors on it other than their own.
Money does talk.
 
I must disagree. I can confirm due to countless occasions that when people see a red car which looks even slightly sporty, they say it is a Ferrari. Maybe it's a local thing? I've seen it happen pretty much everywhere though.

The only time I witnessed that, was when I was sitting at a Burger King and a local with his red Honda NSX drove by outside, making some noise. Then some kid asked his daddy: "Was that a Ferrari?" and the father just shrugged and said: "Probably".

I don't know, if Ferrari wants that kind of non-recognition, though.

We're talking about cars that are complete toys here. Luxuries, gadgets, status symbols... How many of the people buying these cars really care about the performance figures?

The point is, that we are not talking about the cars. I think everyone here agrees, that the cars are brilliant.

What we talk about here, are the people who make and sell those cars.
 
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