I recently finished this book and a very good book may I say:
It's a biography about Enzo Ferrari and provides many insights about him and how the company developed. As might be known; Enzo Ferrari needed the road cars to cover the costs for his racing department. This is where his main focus and attention was. Yes, the road cars were a necessity and effectively was always of a lesser interest to him. When Fiat bought Ferrari the most important aspect to him was he remained in full control over the racing scuderia. Ever since the road cars production was merely controlled by Fiat. Albeit he likely must had some influence over it. In the book the following is mentioned:
"Regardless of the myths built up around Enzo Ferrari and his later road cars - such as the 308GTB/GTS, 328GTB/GTS, 512BB Boxes, 400i Automatic - he had almost nothing whatsoever to do with their creation. The last road car that might be legitimately be considered a true Ferrari was the 365GTB4 Daytona. Subsequent automobiles were really more like limited-production Fiats (or mass-produced Ferraris) than like the classic quasi-racing cars of core."
The book also clearly pointed out a few times that Enzo considered buyers of these road cars so called "fools". He looked at them with much disdain.
Another interesting passage in this book, which triggered me to write this blog is the following:
"While Enzo Ferrari remained detached from the passenger-car operation on a daily basis, he did not fail to respond to the accolades being heaped on Porsche 959 - a twin-turbo charged, four-wheel-drive, 200 mph road car that would easily outperform the vaunted top-of-the-line Testarossa. This prompted him to counter with the development of the twin-turbo F40 (celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the Scuderia), a winged 200-mph coupe with a gutted interior similar to that of a racing car. The automobile delighted Ferrari, and when prototypes began to run at Fiorano, he exclaimed to a friend, 'This car is so fast it'll make you shit your pants.'
There is no question that his contribution to the F40 project was significant. This semi-racing car was the basis for Ferrari's reputation as the manufacturer of the fastest road cars on the earth (an issue that could be declared by Porsche and Lamborghini loyalists, but the F40 would remain a significant contender in that exclusive league by any measrurement)."
Interestingly I do happen have in my archive this unique photo with Enzo Ferrari in his Lancia Thema 8.32 next to a Porsche 959.
If you don't know, the Lancia Thema 8.32 is a 4 door saloon with a (detuned) Ferrari engine. It was labelled 8.32 as the name Ferrari was not allowed, nor were any Ferrari logo's allowed. Only on the engine intake manifold it does state "Lancia by Ferrari". In any case, this nicely leads to the next paragraph in the book
"He made one other significant contribution, albeit a negative one, to the passenger-car side of the business. In 1987, the same year the F40 was formally introduced the Fiat management was on the verge of designing a four-door V12 Ferrari on the theme of the luxurious, automatic-transmission, V12 400i coupe. Ferrari was furious over this plan to emasculate his machinery into a tamer, four-door boulvardier. He protested so vigorously that the entire project was cancelled."
When I had read this paragraph I immediately linked it to these blogs:
https://erwin400.blogspot.com/2024/12/prototipo-prototype-prova-concept-car.html
https://erwin400.blogspot.com/2025/05/prototipo-prototype-prova-concept-car.html
Very likely this must have been the car in question. Interestingly Pininfarina tried the same in 1980 and presented the concept car "Ferrari Pinin". Back then it was also declined by Enzo himself.
