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(Tue 15 Jan 08) If you can drag your eyes away from the 430 Scuderia and 599 GTB Fiorano, the most interesting car on Ferrari's stand at the Detroit Show is perhaps the apparently standard F430 Spider.
That's because this Spider is in fact a prototype which has been tuned to run on E85 (85% ethanol, 15% petrol) and therefore requires far less fossil fuel than any other F430, though it can also run on 100% petrol if that's what is available. On E85, the Spider Biofuel produces 10% more power and 4% more torque than standard, but its CO2 emissions are 5% lower. This project is part of a larger development programme - announced at a Ferrari conference in June last year - whose aim is a 40% cut in CO2 emissions by 2012. Ferrari is already quite used to dealing with ethanol. All of its production cars can already run on E10, and use of that fuel is mandatory in the FIA GT and American Le Mans race series, both of which Ferrari competes in. E10 will also be compulsory in the next A1 GP Championship, for which Ferrari will be supplying engines, and there's even a requirement that fuel must have a 5.75% biomass-derived content in the Formula 1 World Championship, in which Ferrari has been known to take an occasional interest. Ferrari Gallery Previous: Recovering Energy Next: Chevrolet Estate Automatic |
