Frank Stephenson is the American chief of design for Ferrari and Maserati. Before going to Ferrari, he worked at BMW where he famously designed the new Mini Cooper. The F430 is the first complete car to emerge from Ferrari during his tenure. Dan Neil spoke to Stephenson at the Ferrari factory in Maranello, Italy.
Neil: There are lots of shiny new office buildings at Maranello, as well as a giant wind tunnel used by the Formula 1 team. Does the high-tech character of the factory reflect a fundamental change in the cars?
Stephenson: Yes, the cars are more technical and more electronic - look at the E-Diff and the manettino (dynamics control). Formula 1 is not cheap - we have to get some advantage out of it. Anything we can do to push our cars in the Formula 1 direction, to adapt or adopt that technology, that's an advantage for us - it's costly but it's quite a bit more costly for anybody else. Literally, if we could put a licence plate on a Formula 1 car, well that would be the ultimate Ferrari.
Neil: You have a new computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling program for aerodynamic studies. Could this be the end of the road for the wind tunnel?
Stephenson: It's state-of-the-art, as far as we've ever been able to achieve. At the same time, I don't think tests in the wind tunnel will ever be replaced. Aerodynamics is a black art - you don't know what you'll get.
Neil: Have technical demands unduly influenced styling?
Stephenson: True design is more than just styling. The challenge is to make something that works better, looks better, but we have to sell them - they are road cars - and they have to look like Ferraris. We have to make the car technically correct, and add that artistic element that it's beautiful sculpture.
Neil: Tell me about the "shark nose" styling on the front of the F430. It's met with mixed reviews.
Stephenson: In 1961 Phil Hill won the F1 championship in this car. It has such a distinctive face. It's such a distinctive car, you either like it or hate it - that face is such an atypical face. To be able to use that face for a road car is just cool. It performs much better than our last bumper aerodynamically, and you immediately recognise our DNA.
Neil: And the public?
Stephenson: It has resonated with the people who know what a Ferrari is all about. It doesn't resonate with people who don't really know Ferrari - or who are not really racing aficionados.
Neil: So it's a litmus test? Is it retro?
Stephenson: Retro doesn't go forward, it goes back. We've taken something . . . like your grandfather's eyes that have evolved into your eyes. And in that way you see the link. It's not that you're going back, you're going forward. ...