Strength of steel and macchina,i
Whose iron is ruled by light,
Rocket of intemporal pride,
Love that’s envy grown slight—
Death and eclipse and comet,
Thunder and child that rend:
When Mountain came to Maranello;ii
Because it was the end.iii
Computer vision severed,iv
Power ‘neath beauty divined;v
Visibility of carabinieri,vi
Cheering from the line—
Two-nine-six Tovvii / Aluviii
Two hundred kay soon toasted,ix
Hybrid emotion coastingx
Federico approved.xi
Armsxii / heart swelling
Beauty-interest foundationxiii
Imagination molto benexiv
Race mode replacement.
Afford or afford not, there is no try,xv
For the world and yourself,
One rosso butterfly.
- I must’ve heard “Che belle macchina!” 100x from young and old, male and female alike. ↩
- The roads south of Maranello are the best in the world? Certainly the SP30 between Renna and Casine is the finest work of infrastructural art I’ve ever driven, with SP26-27-44 between San Pellegrino and Oneta through Passo di Zambla a close second, but I’m also just a bumpkin from the arrow-straight hinterlands. Though driving through these effortlessly rolling hills and getting lost in the sumptuous switchbacks, you can finally and completely understand Ferrari’s light-and-fast steering weight bias, firm-but-fair suspension compliance, and the inherent mid-engined balance of the twin-turbo hybrid-monster 296. The package is so at home. In spite of all the genericisation of automobiles today, some still beat with the hearts of their nation! ↩
- With apologies to GK Chesterson’s The March of the Black Mountain 1913. ↩
- In spite of what the rationalist materialist retards will tell you, light doesn’t just come into your eye when you “see”. If this were merely so, how would admiring a pretty girl in the piazza elicit the knowing turnaround it does?
QED by our very mundane lived experiences, we know full well that vision is BILATERAL not unilateral, which is also of course the tragedy of vicarious algorithmically-mediated basis of “life” currently “lived” by so many
peoplecattle. But this does seem to be the lowest-cost option for sheering sheep, according to at least a few well-placed bets, Meta Ray-Bans included? - I’ll also add that the fuss about the 296’s touch-screen interior interfaces is massively exaggerated. Like grow the fuck up already. CarPlay is gay-coded anyways. No one cares about that. The rest of it works just fine. ↩
- It wasn’t just that the popo (caca?) gave me zero flack for skidding around an over-powered supercar through their quaint farms and villages – past tractors and children – but that they encouraged the shenanigans! They truly have pride in their hometown heroes, as well they should, and as do the locals, with one 80-year-old wheelchair-bound man sitting by the side of the road outside his little farmhouse in the middle of nowhere raising his arm to cheer me on! Where else in the world?? Only Catholic / Mediterranean countries… or maybe only in Italy? ↩
- In Mispar Katan (reduced gematria), 2+9+6 = 17, which corresponds to טוב (tov), “good.” This links 296 back to the biblical motif of creation where “God saw that it was good.” ↩
- For “Alu” the numerical / symbolic reading is:
עֲלוּ = 296 = 8 × 37.
Which translates to “ascent” framed numerically as transcendence (8) applied to the primal creative order (37).
Digit sum = 17 = טוב (“good”) → ascent reveals hidden goodness. ↩
- That works out to a modest 32 L / 100 km (7.2 mpg). Not sure my R35 even drank that hard on track, but hey 819 horsies march on thirsty tummies! ↩
- I drove in “Qualifying” for e-Manettino and “Race” for Manettino the whole time, as suggested by the very lovely rental company handler from Europe Luxury Services (worst SEO name, best service and product). You really don’t want the battery draining down on these things. The stories are true. This combo was absolute perfection on these tight, technical, often-broken-surfaces roads. Finally a Ferrari that “clicked” for me… and how!
Mind-meltingly fast, riotously fun in a way you’d swear no longer existed, utterly composed, with lunging turn-in, index-finger-and-thumb steering input that seems too light everywhere but picture-perfect Italian strada, oversteer slip a toe-tap away but always nursed back to thuggish grip in a joyous instant, seamless regen braking, hybrid versatility, generous visibility all-around, an all-ages crowd-pleasing design (and spec), and blessed with “piccolo” V6 acoustic symphony throughout the entire rev range, with the net result being a belle macchina that’s truly more than the sum of its stats. It’s even a relative used car bargain, basically positioned in the market today as a cut-price Porsche GT2. Stupid sellers…
All of which just affirms in my mind Enzo’s timeless maxim: The Best Ferrari Ever Built Is The Next One
Which is why you’re all a bunch of grumpy old men for sleeping on the F80. I won’t be buying one, it must be said, but Good Lord do I respect anyone who does; even just as sculpture it’s magnificent… the details are sublime
- I had the good fortune of chatting with Federico, who has to be one of Ferrari’s youngest road car development drivers, at a café at the end of my mountain test loop south of Maranello. We chatted Ferrari vs. Porsche (he used to work for Stuttgart as a driver), economies in Europe vs. North America, road taxes on Italian supercars, and how the 296 was also his favourite F-car, and he’s driven quite a few as you can imagine. He even treated me to an espresso and croissant. What a gentleman, clearly living his dream. You love to see it!
- Lub-dub-lub…
- To quote zan:
> borders still exist on maps
> but people moving like water
> visa system collapsed with the nation states
> you pay in bitcoin or bullets or beauty
> mostly beauty
> because the drones respond to memes
> and nothing’s more powerful than being interesting - To quote philosopher Ernst Schertel via Dr. Krug’s article “Nietzschean Wizards and Hitler’s Demonic World” (archived):
This parthenogenesis of the god in us, this primeval creation of a sense out of the senseless, is the darkest secret of existence, and is the actual “principium individuationis,” the actual “act of creation” and withstands every thinking dissection and every potential imagination that it itself might be the origin and foundation of every thought and every imagination.
And to expand the point by quoting Krug directly [emphasis added]:
Under such a scheme, imagination becomes the fundamental principle of reality, and one’s ability to “project” forces into the universe can change the universe itself. He tells us that “The man with the greatest force of imagination is commanding of the world and creates realities according to his will, instead of being the slave of an unsubstantial, bodiless empiricism. Empiricism fulfils the laws of “probability,” but imagination makes the impossible happen.”
- To quote yung macro on the subject of pair-bonding but also cars because really it’s the same thing:
“why can’t I afford a Ferrari?”
“oh, that’s probably because you haven’t looked hard enough, found that one tucked away dealership that will hand it over at the steep discount you’re looking for.
keep searching anon, keep searching, it’s all about numbers and serendipity”