Located in Modena Province in the north of Italy, there is a "car shrine", which is Ferrari Maranello factory.
This modern chemical plant, which was built in 1970, covers an area of more than 100000 square meters and is the largest R&D and manufacturing base of Ferrari. Except for customized and limited models, all mass produced Ferraris are produced here. The simple and clean red facade, coupled with the perspective effect of the glass curtain wall, coincides with the Ferrari sports car with excellent genes.
Like many car companies, Ferrari does not allow brands other than Ferrari to appear in its own factory unless people from its parent company, Strantis, drive to "visit".
If you have the time and energy to squat at the factory gate for a day like a YouTube, you may be able to gather all the mass production models on sale, and take photos of various engineering vehicles dressed in camouflage and starting to test.
YouTube Varryx is very keen on shooting such videos. If you browse his home page, you will find that he often squats at the entrance of Maranello factory to shoot the shuttle horse models, including LaFerrari released this year and 812's "successor".
But that day, he took a different car——
A Tesla Model S Plaid drove out of the Maranello factory. Tesla's pearl white was out of place in the red factory. Ferrari employees in overalls in the distance also looked at this "rare" model.
Learn from Tesla without disgrace
Tesla has always been the research object of many automobile enterprises, especially Model S, which leads the investment in the electric era, and is often analyzed and tested, including Porsche, Volvo, Ford and other old brand automobile enterprises.
We bought a Model S, took it apart, and studied its motor, battery system and other technologies.
In 2019, Li Shufu, Chairman of Volvo Cars, publicly said that Volvo had purchased a Model S P90D as early as 2016 to disassemble and study its core components such as motors and battery packs, which promoted the development of its subsequent hybrid models.
▲ Model S P90D, picture from: Top Gear
When developing its first pure electric model, the Taycan, Porsche has repeatedly compared it with the Model S to simulate its steering, acceleration and other performance indicators, so that the Taycan has a nickname of "Porsche Model S" since its birth.
Ford also bought a Model S in 2019. At that time, Ford's engineers also focused on the battery layout and structure of Model S, including the setting of cooling pipes. At the same time, it also includes the control system and underlying software, which are the best and most advanced technologies of Tesla.
For car companies that have never set foot in the pure electric field, it is undoubtedly meaningful to try to learn from Tesla before making efforts to build their first electric vehicle.
Ferrari is one of the few well-known car companies that have not yet launched pure electric vehicles.
Although Ferrari launched the cross generation hybrid supercar LaFerrari 10 years ago, Ferrari has always maintained a reserved attitude towards pure electric vehicles. The significance of internal combustion engine seems to be particularly important to the leapfrog Malay.
▲ LaFerrari, picture from Ferrari
Different from ordinary car companies, Ferrari, a supercar manufacturer, often has a 10-year gap between the birth of two flagship models. Therefore, each of their flagship sports cars needs to be forward-looking enough to ensure that this national treasure car company can continue to lead the era in the next decade.
Looking back, LaFerrari, which was born ten years ago, has successfully completed its mission. As Ferrari's first hybrid supercar, it marks Ferrari's transformation and breakthrough into the new energy era.
Like the previous Ferrari flagship, LaFerrari also has a V12 engine in the cabin, with a displacement of 6.3 liters. This engine and the motor together form a hybrid system with a total output of 950 horsepower and a peak torque of 900 Nm, which enables LaFerrari to achieve zero hundred acceleration in 2.9 seconds, and an extreme speed of 350 km/h.
▲ LaFerrari, picture from: Car and Driver
In a word, LaFerrari not only inherits Ferrari's pure blood and beautiful lines, but also opens a new stage of hybrid supercar, and promotes more ultra luxury car companies to enter a new era of electrification, which can be called a model of today's automobile industry.
However, this hybrid pioneer did not meet everyone's expectations. In fact, LaFerrari does not support driving in pure electric mode. Its motor can only be used as a part of the hybrid system to output power together with the gasoline engine to release additional auxiliary torque during starting or acceleration.
▲ Picture from Ferrari
In essence, LaFerrari paid more attention to the balance of performance. For Ferrari at that time, the V12 engine was the absolute core, while the motor only occupied an auxiliary position.
But now, V12 is coming to an end - at least in Maranello factory.
Model S Play is not the only harvest of Varryx at the gate of Maranello factory. His lens also captures the successor of LaFerrari.
Please do not doubt the performance of this low profile sports car in disguise on the track. All the flagship supercars of Ferrari in the past are the best in performance in those years. This Italian supercar manufacturer has the ability to explore the ultimate acceleration, braking and cornering performance on the basis of any power form. What's different is that Ferrari has cut off the number of cylinders under camouflage this time, and it is six in a row——
The next decade is the era of V6.
▲ Imagination of Ferrari's new generation model, from Instagram @ kolesaru
Yuema will appear in the form of pure electricity
Ferrari has worked hard for many years to cut down those six cylinders. Its first strategic goal is Change cylinder 12 into cylinder 8 。
In 2019, on the 90th anniversary of Ferrari's birth, Ferrari released the SF90 Stradale with three MGU-Ks, of which two motors are located on the front axle of the vehicle, and the third is placed between the V8 engine and the gearbox. The total maximum power of the entire powertrain exceeded that of LaFerrari, reaching 1000 horsepower.
▲ SF90 Stradale, picture from Ferrari
MGU-K (Motor Generator Unit – Kinetic) was first used in F1 racing in 2014 to recover braking energy and assist acceleration. It is connected to the crankshaft through the half shaft and works as a generator when the vehicle brakes, converting kinetic energy into electric energy and storing it in the battery. This process is similar to the kinetic energy recovery system on electric vehicles today; When the vehicle accelerates, it can release electric energy to provide instant torque supplement.
▲ Picture from Ferrari
In addition, the two motors of the front axle of the SF90 Stradale have RAC-e electronic steering adjuster, which can vector control the torque of the left and right wheels according to the driving situation to improve the bending performance. In pure electric mode, two front motors can take the vehicle to 135km/h, and the battery with a capacity of 7.9kWh can provide 25km of endurance.
▲ Picture from Ferrari
Yes, the SF90 Stradale is the first Ferrari model capable of pure electric driving.
Two years later, in 2021, Ferrari has completed their second strategic goal - cutting two more cylinders 。
▲ 296 GTB, picture from Torque
As Ferrari's third electrified model, the 296 GTB uses a newly designed 2.9T twin turbocharged V6 engine. This V6 engine, whose cylinder angle reaches 120 °, is also Ferrari's first engine to install a turbocharger inside a V-shaped structure, which is very compact. With the motor, the total power of the whole system is 830 horsepower and the peak torque is 740 Nm.
Although the 296 GTB is inferior to the SF90 Stradale in terms of data, don't forget that the former is just a "entry-level" product of Ferrari. The official guide price is "only" 2.988 million yuan. In addition, the 296 GTB has the same performance as LaFerrari in terms of zero hundred acceleration, which is 2.9 seconds.
From this point of view, the 296 GTB undoubtedly realizes Ferrari's strategic goal and technical accumulation of moving from V12 to a more compact and efficient V6 power unit over the years.
Now Ferrari is moving towards their third strategic goal.
Benedetto Vigna, CEO of Ferrari, has previously made it clear that Ferrari's first pure electric model will be launched in 2025.
The first pure electric Ferrari will be rooted in our racing tradition, draw on a wider range of technical reserves, and retain all authenticity and consistency.
The development of F1 hybrid technology has enabled Ferrari to reserve more technologies, and provided a new interpretation method for mid rear drive sports cars. However, if the vaulting horse appears in the form of pure electricity, it may really need to study how others do it.
You see, even if it is stronger than Ferrari, it cannot reverse the tide of the times.
