Automotive Forums  Where Car Enthusiasts Go to Discuss Cars Online

 You don’t have to be crazy to own a Ferrari Enzo, but it helps. It is simply not possible to pilot the limited edition supercar on a public road without doubling the posted limit. In less time than it takes to speed dial your lawyer, you can be delving deep into triple digits-- without a care in the world. And that’s when you’re not in a hurry. If you kick this beast in the side and really get a move on, you will immediately and viciously achieve speeds that would have private flying instructors crying out “V1! V2!” It’s the world’s fastest license loser, in every sense of the word.
 

 It’s also one of the loudest cars ever made. When the Enzo’s 6.0-liter V12 approaches its 8200rpm red line, the 660hp powerplant screams with such ferocity you half expect birds to drop out of the sky onto the pavement all around you. If they did, no sweat. The carbon fiber car is so light on its feet that a dead bird slalom would be a welcome opportunity to do that voodoo that supercars do so well-- at speeds that would cause an SUV to topple over in sympathy. Not to put too fine a point on it, the Ferrari Enzo is to “normal cars” what the Miss Budweiser hydrofoil is to a leaky row boat.  

 And don’t it just look it too. When the Enzo first appeared, its shape and detailing struck many Ferraristi as a bit too complicated: a design farrago combining an F1-nose, odd lines (especially the side windows and air intakes) and standard Ferrari cues (flying buttresses and tail lights that stand proud of the bodywork). Time has been kind to Pininfarina’s design; compared to more recent supercar efforts, the bella machina appears clean and mean. An Enzo appearing in the flesh still creates a Mexican wave of shock, lust, wonder and envy.
 

 Don’t be too envious. While Ferrari is no longer Italian for “the world’s fastest hair shirt”, owning an Enzo is not without its challenges. Like getting one. Before the first Enzo turned a wheel, the Maranello mob allocated all 399 examples to “preferred customers”-- at $670k a pop. A used Enzo now fetches over $1m-- if you can find one. And speaking of money, an oil change costs $700, a set of brake pads goes for $6k and a set of brake rotors runs $24k. A major smash-- which is not an impossibility-- would cost you more than all P Diddy’s blingery combined. And that’s just the deductible…  

 Of course, Ferrari owners and fantasists will find this discussion of the Enzo’s financial burdens pointless and mean-spirited. Both camps are advised to skip the next paragraph, as it describes the ergonomic nightmare known as the Enzo’s cockpit.  

 Once an Enzo driver scissors inside, he or she faces a bewildering assortment of controls and read-outs: shift paddles, wheel-mounted LED’s (indicating ping pong points), a choice of three computer control programs (Sport, Race and no ASR), well-hidden horn buttons and enough digital displays to keep a Trekkie happy for a week (including a gas gauge that swings to empty faster than a Corolla with a holed gas tank). Not to mention zero rear visibility and loose wires dangling under the dash. Luckily, novices can ignore everything and paddle downstream on a gigantic wave of supersmooth torque.
 

 Now… back to driving. I was lucky enough to get two bites at the Enzo cherry; once on New York’s Hutchinson Parkway and once up a hill climb in Vermont. It’s hard to say which one was more frightening. In the first case, I had a Sicilian owner demanding that I wiggle waggle around slower traffic while screaming “animale!” every time I stomped the go-pedal. In the second case, I had a good ‘ole boy quietly suggesting gear changes as I tried not to look at the sheer drop on either side of the mountain road. In both cases, I learned one important fact about the Enzo: it’s a Ferrari.  

 Like it’s lesser priced siblings, the Enzo is alive. You can feel everything she does, from gut-wrenching acceleration, to eyeball popping retardation, to the tiniest lateral movement. When you’re in the zone, man and machine meld. At that point, driving slowly becomes an insult to the glorious insanity that is the Italian way of life. You’re right foot is controlled by an insatiable desire to see what this baby can do, all the time, everywhere. To do anything less becomes… madness.
 

Uh, what's a "Mexican wave of shock"?

Who cares about the Enzo. It's dead, it's ugly, and as of this winter it will only be third-fastest behind the Bugatti Veyron and Saleen S7.
 

Oh yeah and the oil costs $60 a quart  No lie.
 

I personally rode in an enzo the other day and everything in this article is true. Pictures don't do it justice, it looks 1000x better in person..
 

when i was in my early 20's i had a job as a detailer in a body shop, it was my job to bring in the cars at the end  of the day, one such car was a testarossa, that was waiting for parts, i would drive it outside in the morning to make room for the days work, then drive it back in at the end of the day, it was on one particular day that while bringing it in that i scrapped the side of the car along side the block wall of the building trying to squeeze past another car, taking out the mirror and the air intakes...needless to say, when i got home, there was a message on my machine asking me to bring in my work uniforms in order to pick up my final check.  

my friend, bugatti is a fart in the wind when talking cars....its what christ is coming back in  in the second coming...  

i forget how many enzo's are left now that that swedish guy ripped his in half on pch?  

pictures dont work  

Thanks for the review!  

yes! If only all cars could crate a "Mexican" wave of shock!  

I forgot about that guy who totaled his Ferrari.  

yea its sad, but now the value of the enzos that are left just went up, think it went up by alot too.  

did you know that the guy that wrecked that Enzo actually owned 2 of them? but i think the government took the second one.  

If he could afford to buy 2 of them then I'm pretty sure there's not much stopping him from buying another 1.  

h3nry:
yea its sad, but now the value of the enzos that are left just went up, think it went up by alot too.  

did you know that the guy that wrecked that Enzo actually owned 2 of them? but i think the government took the second one.

If he could afford to buy 2 of them then I'm pretty sure they're not much stopping him from buying another 1.  

h3nry:
yea its sad, but now the value of the enzos that are left just went up, think it went up by alot too.  

did you know that the guy that wrecked that Enzo actually owned 2 of them? but i think the government took the second one.

jching:
If he could afford to buy 2 of them then I'm pretty sure they're not much stopping him from buying another 1.

yeah but i think there was something wierd about it, like they were reported stolen from the u.k. and his girlfriend had some mercedes that was also stolen