Dino Eisele Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé in the driving report
07/22/2011
The fear must stay with the dealer in the hall. Of course, you are briefly tormented by the dicey thought of what might happen if a malicious fate on the test drive from one of the few still very original F errari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé makes a crumpled up origami puzzle. But the anticipation of a special kind of driving experience numbs all concerns.
340 hp V12 under the long bonnet
A classic sports car worth of 1.35 million euros like this Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé also requires species-appropriate handling in the wild. So thanks to the 340 hp at 7,000 revolutions per minute of the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé, we will treat ourselves to a little tire whistling, chassis number 3621 SA and me. The driver's door opens far enough to make entry easy. Contemporary press reports, in which American colleagues in particular complained about the contortions it took to dive into a Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé, are incomprehensible to the copy presented here.
The seats in the Ferrari are still completely original 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé. Dark blue Connolly leather in the old Ferrari style, voluminous and sufficiently tightly padded, does not promise much lateral support, adjustable in length, but not in the backrest. Headrests are still another dream of ergonomics.
Ferrari alà Porsche: The ignition lock sits far to the left
This is how you sit in the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé - an automobile that in 1962 cost roughly as much as four Jaguar-E-Coupés , and enjoy the view. Lots of window space because of the narrow roof pillars: the surrounding nature can optically get in, almost like in a convertible. The driver habitually looks for the workstation for the filigree ignition key to the right of the steering column, but he feels into itEmpty. The ignition lock in the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé is on the far left on the instrument panel, even further to the left than in any Porsche. How well his second owner got along with it?
In 1963 a certain Barry Batagol from Melbourne in Australia bought the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé from the first owner, Ferrari's sporting director Ugo Colombo, for his wife Cheryl. He had taken over 3621 SA on July 16, 1962. Down under, the steering in the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé moved from the left to the right after it was sold to Batagol, from where it was not upgraded until 2005. Except for the small Talbot exterior mirror. He ekes out his existence shyly on the sheet metal of the passenger door, and the driver of the now original left-hand drive Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé has to be satisfied with the inside mirror.
The exhaust system comes from Abarth
Wonderful muzzle noise emanates from four chrome-plated tailpipes of the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé. The three Weber twin carburettors slurp the intake air largely undamped, and it is precisely this combination of slurping at the front and babbling at the back creates ecstatic anticipation for the big roar when the nine liters of engine oil of the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé engine are sufficiently heated and the engine speed goes up.
Torque from idle - the Superamerica is also relaxed to drive
The four-liter in the Ferrari 400 Superamerica can warm up for a few seconds Treat yourself to the Aerodinamico Coupé, then it starts moving unspectacularly and very well-mannered at around 2,000 revolutions per minute. The V12 develops enough torque on the first floor of the speed range. And if a small salute is fired in between from the downdraft trio from time to time, it means nothing more than a sneeze with a dense pollen count. Warming up the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé is pretty big.
Enzo Ferrari himself was known not to have too much love for aerodynamics. He thought the science of air resistance was a strange aberration of those engineers who were never able to develop a decent racing engine: 'Aerodynamics is only for people who can't build engines.' HisStreet sports cars and their customers were primarily used to fund the races that Ferrari was most interested in. And when it came to offering the super-rich at the beginning of the 1960s a super sports car, Ferrari purposefully reached into the shelf with the racing engines.
The engine comes from the legendary Colombo V12
The tried and tested 60-degree V12 from Gioacchino Colombo, with the one-and-a-half liter of which the Ferrari saga began in 1947, offered more development potential than the Lampredi V12 produced later. Recourse to proven Testa Rossa racing technology based on the Colombo engine led to the V12 in four-liter form in 1959, bore by stroke 77 by 71 millimeters, installed in the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé chassis. The silhouette of the prototype of the new Superamerica was reminiscent of the first 250 GT Coupé from Pininfarina with a huge radiator, built for Fiat boss Giovanni Agnelli. In 1963, a unit from the 400 V12 family won the front-engine Ferrari era for the Le Mans 24-hour race.
Olivier Gendebien and Phil Hill kept the 330 LM Although racing cars could be moderately improved - 'inharmonious, jarring clutch, fragile gearbox, miserable brakes and road holding like a 2 CV' - they only said good things about the engine. Sharper camshafts and six double carburettors instead of three provided almost 400 hp instead of just 340. If the 330 LM still shows the individual cylinder contents as a key figure, as was customary up to then, the 400 in the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé already indicates the total volume.
On request there was an overdrive
Fall back into the present. The power delivery of the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé, driven by Motor Klassik, makes the design and adjustment of the twelve-cylinder engine a certificate of maturity of the highest quality. Even from idle speed, the engine accelerates the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé, which weighs only 1,280 kilograms, with the casual power of a titan who has just eaten a 'rare' fried steak, two power bars and three cups of isotonic power drink for breakfast.
This is about a bungee jumper who has just passed the lowest point of his sentence and who is now being pulled back into the blue of the sky by an infinite force. This thrust seems to want to stop at nothing, through all gears up to fourth gear, which could be extended by an overdrive at the request of the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé customers. The Ferrari engine with the code number 163 makes it possible to experience what V12 fans understand by optimal torque curve: tightly timed power impulses, smooth as velvet and silk.
In the 1960s the fastest production car in the world
How fast a Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupéwas real in its time depends on which source you trust. The 300 km /h of the speedometer top the 270 on the speedometer of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, but was not quite reached. The American trade magazine 'Road & Track' reached 290 km /h in a Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé of the Series I, but drove a V12, the 420, which Bill Rudd had enlarged to 4.5 liters in the car of the gambling tycoon Bill Harrah PS gave. The production versions of the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé are likely to have reached between 270 and 280 km /h, depending on the gear ratio - which at the beginning of the Swinging Sixties was easily enough for the title 'Fastest production car in the world'.
We show consideration on the finely braided nerves of Mario Bernardi, who owns this Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé and who would like to enjoy the slim silverfish for a while. For full throttle on the autobahn, it would probably be advisable first to put on new tires with the appropriate high-speed qualification, which means: Zenit 200. The Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé is surprisingly quiet and can be controlled very precisely. The airflow mixes with the gentle lisp in the symphony of the engine. However, one of the super attributes of the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé is not only the engine, but also its shape. Pininfarina already optimized the line of the coupé with the rounded nose and the tail ending in a long wave in the wind tunnel, aerodynamically even.
Various body variations
Presented in 1960 at the Turin Salon as Superfast II, this study is still today one of the most harmonious and well-proportioned designs of the Turin studio under Battista Pinin Farina. The Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé also had body variations that were very experimental. They were available with covered headlights, with lenses standing vertically in the airstream, and there were folding and double headlights. From 1962, the second series of the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé had a wheelbase that was 2.60 meters longer and 18 centimeters longer. And all the variants, from the door handles to the many possibilities in the design of the interior, condense into the impression that probably no two Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupés once saw each other.
All Ferrari 400 Superamerica versions together In the production list prepared by Ferrari chronicler Antoine Prunet, for example, add up to 25 copies of the first series and 22 of the second. In addition to the streamlined coupés, there were also convertibles, Spider, a 2 + 2-seater variant by Scaglietti, and everything was available with either a steel skin or an aluminum body. The Series I of the two-seater comprised 15 Aerodinamico copies, eight with headlamp covers and seven without. Among the 22 Ferrari400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé of the Series II makes up the source study four convertibles and a total of 18 Aerodinamico coupés. 14 of them wore headlight covers.
Enzo Ferraris 400 SA caused confusion
Enzo Ferrari's personal Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé, which had the chassis number 3097 SA, but was later renamed 4031 SA, causes a slight confusion and suddenly appears in the Series II list, for example at Prunet. However, since nothing is said to have changed in the short wheelbase of the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé, both chassis numbers can be assigned to a single series I model. Nevertheless, it remains complicated: the history of the Super-V12 is covered with ground fog in places. We are already curious to see what figures friend and reader Marcel Massini will tell us. The Italian nose for Ferrari history is considered to be the front man of the source situation - alongside experts such as Keith Bluemel, Björn Schmidt and Andreas Birner.
Back to the cockpit of the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé. The engine characteristics of the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé make it the ideal companion on remote, less frequented country roads. The gear stick grows out of the four-speed transmission like a light metal spherical flower, and its leather sleeve instead of a milled backdrop as in the transaxle models reveals the installation position of the transmission: at the front. The clutch of the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé requires less force than expected, and the Porsche synchronization of the gears ensures smooth, scratch-free transitions. The steering responds precisely, its restoring forces remain manageable, and turning the front wheels requires well-trained biceps only when the vehicle is stationary. The worm and roller are almost the same as a rack and pinion steering system. The disc brakes of the Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé work reliably; just when decelerating boldly in front of a bend that was approached with cheerful arrogance, the rear axle sometimes seems to overbrake a little.
Of course, the normally understeering Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé would also be a wonderful device for drifting. Curve, soulful throttle, the rear pushes outwards, precise counter-steering, not too excited ... But old cultural skills such as enjoyable transverse driving have no place in today's traffic. Therefore, dear readers, please only drift your Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé on a racetrack with enough space to run. Because as an origami puzzle, even a Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamico Coupé isn't even half the fun.
