Ferrari P6 Berlinetta Speciale
Ferrari P6 Berlinetta Speciale
Despite his company’s image, Enzo Ferrari was a cautious, conservative thinker. So much so that, even when Lamborghini made a success of the mid-engined V12 Miura, Enzo persisted with the front-engined Daytona in response, despite having already built mid-engined V12 sports-racers and, with the Dino, V6 road cars.
Keen to hit back at Bertone’s Miura while strengthening its relationship with Ferrari, Pininfarina repeatedly waved mid-engined V12 road-car proposals, based on rebodied Ferrari sports-racers, under Enzo’s nose. The 1966 three-seater 365P was followed a year later by the 250 P5, both cars drawing heavily on Aldo Brovarone’s Dino for inspiration. Enzo repeatedly turned down the offer of a production version. A mid-engined V12 road car, he reasoned, was too much for a non-racing driver to handle.
The surprise decision of Alfa Romeo CEO Giuseppe Luraghi to get Pininfarina to rework the 250 P5 as the production-ready 33 Coupé Speciale may have changed Ferrari’s mind about the third
Fiat 130 Coupé
By 1971, Fiat had become seriously successful. Having launched a modern range of front-engined, front-drive small cars, its 127 was the biggest-selling car in Europe, and it enjoyed the prestige of owning Ferrari and Lancia. However, owner Gianni Agnelli fancied a presence in the high-volume luxury market dominated by Mercedes-benz. The big Gian Paolo Boano-styled V6-engined 130 saloon resulted in 1969, but its bluff lines failed to make much impact against the Germans. What was needed, Pininfarina reasoned, was a sleek coupé variant. An Italian equivalent of a BMW 3.0CS. It would be the perfect opportunity for the 28-year-old Paolo Martin, Pininfarina’s new chief stylist, to make his mark.
Martin’s Fiat 130 Coupé, a ground-up redesign, was unveiled at Turin in 1971. He pioneered fibreoptic backlighting on the dashboard’s aircraft-inspired instruments, and consulted ergonomics expert Giovanni Gottini before redesigning the front seats. Unusual touches for the time included seat height adjustment and the use of carpeting on the lower half of the door cards.
But it was Martin’s masterful use of proportions and simplicity in the external aspects that makes his 130 Coupé a design landmark. He shunned period fads like chromed rubbing strips and flashy grilles. Instead, there’s a mathematical precision to the relationship between side glass and metal flanks; of the proportions of headlamp size to radiator grille. Not one aspect of it could be improved by Pininfarina proposal, the 1968 P6 Berlinetta Speciale. However, the change really came when Fiat bought a controlling 50 percent stake in Ferrari in 1969, which took control of the road-car operation out of Enzo’s hands. It may have been serendipity, but when Fiat-controlled Ferrari was prepared to consider a mid-engined 12-cylinder road car, Leonardo Fioravanti’s P6 Berlinetta Speciale was the proposal on the table. It develops both Daytona nasal and Dino profile themes, masterfully maintaining Pininfarina’s trademark curves in an era of downforce-dicatated wedges.
While Fioravanti’s 365GT/4 Berlinetta Boxer draws most heavily on this design, it’s clear that the influence of the P6 on Ferrari was extremely long-lasting. Fioravanti revisited it to shape the 308GTB too, reinstating the Dino-style side-scoop. At the rear, its grilled tail-lights would later appear on Diego Ottina’s 1984 Testarossa. For the best part of 20 years, every mid-engined Ferrari owed something to Fioravanti’s P6. As did everything that copied them, from the Honda NSX (which Fioravanti consulted on) to assorted Eighties bodykit manufacturers. exaggeration; it’s sublime rather than showy. The way that the crease that runs the length of the car runs straight into the stainless steel dividing line in the rear light clusters. The way it also runs parallel with the chamfered tumble-home that wraps all the way around the car, delicately squaring off over the bootlid and actually creating the subtlest of wedges at the nose.
Sadly, the price heavily limited its appeal. Martin would recycle his styling ideas on the Rolls-royce Camargue and Peugeot 604, but both upset the 130 Coupé’s perfect proportions. Arguably, no big coupé has looked this elegant since.