Some of the greatest car designs ever – the Citroen DS, the Mini, the Lamborghini Miura, even the first Ford Focus – were so radical when new, they were scoffed at. Only years later did they get judged as genius.
But we now live in a world of instant responses and polarised opinion. Love or hate. Thumbs up or down. A fire emoji, or a poo. Car designs and the internet’s thirst for controversy are a potent mix.
So the new Ferrari Luce EV is… going to take some getting used to. Okay, a lot. Even more than other recent marmalade-droppers, the Jaguar Type 00 and the Bentley EXP 15. And that Mercedes-AMG GT 4dr thing with too many rear lights.
A good time then, to reflect on other unloved designs from Ferrari’s storied past. For every qualified success like the perfect 458 Italia, dainty F355 or gorgeous 275 GTS, there’s often another Ferrari disparaged for looking like a horse’s breakfast, not a prancing stallion.
We’ve rounded up the most controversial Ferrari designs of all time (in no particular order). Are some ageing better than others - and is the Luce destined to be the most hated of all time?
The facelifted SF90 uses an angular wedge theme to go with the historic Testarossa name, but it's decidedly not retro.
Those twin-tail rear aero ramps are inspired by endurance racers of the late 1960s and 1970s. But the blacked-out ‘pillar’ in the creased-up side and the black eye-mask up front sit uneasily on the rest of the car. Oh, and what’s with those sharp cheek implants on the nose? Very spec-sensitive, this one. But don't forget, the 1980s Testarossa wasn't initially adored. Now it's the most iconic thing with slats besides a Venetian blind.
Is time finally being kind to the much-maligned Ferrari 400 saloon? It, and the 365 GT4 that came before, plus the 412 it was developed into, have been roundly slated for unimaginative business-barge looks, not to mention the infamous (American) three-speed automatic gearbox.
But what was once dull styling now seems crisp and unfussy. And if the 400 can look cool five decades too late, then maybe the Luce will be a stunner… in 2076.
Usually top of the charts in lists of ‘awful Ferraris’, the Mondial was a bold attempt to make a cost-effective grand tourer with four seats in the middle. The only problem was that ‘the middle’ was already home to a V8 engine.
It started as a 2.9-litre, and was later enlarged all the way up to a 3.4, but never amassed more than 300 horsepower. Meanwhile, the proportions were off thanks to that confused mid-engined 2+2 brief. The side intake looked like accident damage and the whole thing now looks like some sort of luxury Toyota MR2.
Even pop-up headlights can’t save this one. Speaking of which…
The 512M doesn’t have pop-up headlights. Reason? It was a facelifted Testarossa – a car from way back in the mists of 1984, still trying to mix it with the supercar elite in late 1994. And like the de-aging tech used on Robert De Niro in that gangster movie... you could tell.
The peekaboo headlamps were binned for gormless flush items, there was a dodgy attempt to graft on a F355’s chin, and the quad rear lights were round pegs in the Testarossa’s square hole rear.
Add in the split-rim throwing-star wheels – surely Ferrari’s worst rim design until the aero-rims of the Luce – and you’ve got a car that simply lived too long, into an era it no longer suited.
Thankfully a one-off, this was once an innocent 328 GTS. A German designer decided he would turn it into a roofless lightweight speedster and stunned the 1993 German motor show with this cross-eyed roller skate.
It was auctioned in 2018 and only made around £100,000 which is a lot of money for an old Italian car with literally no spare body panels on Earth, but peanuts for a unique Ferrari.
Whether or not Zagato has ever actually improved a car is a hotly debated internet topic. One of the cases for the prosecution is this inflated take on the 575 Maranello, which was fitted to a bouncy castle pump in 2006.
Six were built in total, but Ferrari didn’t borrow any themes from this car for the 599 which came along in the same year. Wonder why?
There’s no argument: the 288 GTO is one of the most perfectly proportioned supercars ever made. And the fact it was ‘omologato’ to go racing (before Group B was cancelled) makes it even cooler.
So at least the Evoluzione version – effectively the racecar that never was – has a pedigree reason for looking so brutal. Only six were ever made, so despite the piggy front lights and front grille made out of some allotment fencing, it’s one of the most valuable 1980s Prancing Horses.
Of course we had to mention Zagato again. They’re just so wilfully… weird.
The FZ93 was, like the Consisco, another 1990s one-off, this time based on the pretty 512TR. There’s a touch of early Enzo about it, which is cool, but also a whiff of Triumph TR7, which definitely isn’t.
It turns out quite a few of the oddest looking Ferraris ever made weren’t really the work of Ferrari at all.
Take this chrome-smothered, fin-infested Cadillac wannabe. It was the work of Ghia, and again, a one-off proposal for American market Ferraris which thankfully never went mainstream. Then again, it’s so outrageous and form over function that it kinda comes full circle and looks awesome. Help. Our eyes might have stopped talking to our brain.
(Image: Petersen Automotive Museum / Robert M. Lee Trust)
It’s not a shooting brake (like the FF), more a sort of elongated fin-clad pick-up truck without the tailgate. The 330GT 2+2 Navarro was a unique commission by F1 racer-turned coachbuilder Piero Drogo for the head honcho of an Italian nightclub called Norbert. The owner, not the club.
With its 4.0-litre, 300bhp V12 it talked the Ferrari talk, but looked about as far away from late Sixties Maranello elegance as you could get.
(Image: Gooding Christie’s)
Since we’ll be banned from ever entering the Italian nation again after this, might as well go for broke.
Last on our line-up of the strangest looking Ferraris ever, it’s this one-off created by legendary pensmith Giorgetto Giugiaro to mark 50 years of his car designing career. The chassis and powertrain of the already slightly awkward looking 612 Scaglietti were roped in to form the basis for a coupe with headlights that are too slim, a backside that’s too tall, a toothy grille and what appear to be Nissan GT-R tail lamps.
It’s not GG’s finest work in our humble opinion – but is it more elegant and futureproof than the Luce?
