Are Ferraris Losing Their Good Looks

Gavin Green of Car magazine in Britain raised an issue I’ve thought about quite a bit lately: that Ferraris “aren’t gorgeous anymore.”

Mr. Green took issue with the fat rear end of the new California model, but didn’t stop there. “The 612 is fussy and ill-proportioned,” he said. “The Enzo is more bug than bird. Even the F430 lacks the visual grace and profile poetry of the old F355, the last lovely Ferrari.”

Mr. Green points to its recent Formula One drivers, Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, both staid individuals, and asks: Has Ferrari lost that innate Italian coolness?

More likely, it has to do with aerodynamics. And Mr. Green recounts a recent conversation with Luca di Montezemolo, president of Ferrari. “He said the styling was dictated by aerodynamics and the need to keep a Ferrari glued to the road at 180-plus,” Mr. Green writes. “That’s why the Enzo is all wedge and scoops and slats and chunky lines. That big fat rump of the California — more bustle bum than bikini bottom — helps aero performance, or so Luca says.”

It hasn’t helped that a whole slew of beautiful vintage Ferraris were on the auction block this year, including Steve McQueen’s 1963 250 GT/L Berlinetta Lusso and this 1961 250 California Spyder once owned by James Coburn: