The 2002 Ferrari Enzo

Over the years Ferrari has produced a lot of outstanding cars; however one of the best may well be the 2002 Enzo. This is a car that was produced in very limited numbers and with a very large price tag. Despite costing well over half a million dollars there was huge competition to get one. This should come as no surprise since it is one of the best cars to ever venture onto the road in terms of performance.

The 2002 Ferrari Enzo is one of the limited edition cars that the company brings out from time to time. In almost all cases these cars are extremely high performance and the Enzo is no exception to this. More than any other company Ferrari has a history of transferring the technology of their race cars to their road cars and since the only form of racing that the do with any seriousness is formula one that means some pretty high tech stuff. The result is a car that is basically a street legal racing car.

The heart of the Enzo is the engine which is a six liter V12. The engine is based on its formula one engine although obviously it is much reduced in power. Nevertheless it still provides 660 horse power which is more than enough to the get the car moving. While the engine is impressive it is probably transmission that is most amazing. It is the first semi-automatic transmission to be used on a road car. The result is incredibly fast shifts that really help the car when accelerating. Of course formula one style paddle shifters are used with lights to indicate when a gear change is necessary.

The other big similarity that the Enzo has with a formula one car is that it is made from a carbon fiber honeycomb. Not only does this make the car incredibly light but it also makes it incredibly strong. This is actually one of the secrets of why the Enzo performs so well, the very rigid frame handles much better than those of most other cars. Of course at that light weight and with the huge engine the car accelerates very quickly which you would expect out of any super car.

There is all kinds of other technology that comes off their racing cars incorporated into the Enzo and in many ways these may be the most important part of the car. The active suspension allows the car to offer a hard ride when necessary to get around corners quickly or a soft ride when comfort is important. The ceramic brakes offer incredible stopping power. The electronics however are the biggest difference with other Ferraris; these are much more sophisticated than in the past. There are some people who think this takes some of the fun out driving the car but it can't be argued that the electronics do improve performance.