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Why all of this year's F1 noses are so ugly [w/video]

If you're a serious fan of Formula One, you already know all about The Great Nosecone Conundrum of 2014. Those given to parsing each year's F1 regulations predicted the strong possibility of the so-called "anteater" noses as far back as early December 2013. Highly suggestive visual evidence first came after Caterham's crash test in early January, with further proof coming as soon as Williams showed a rendering of the FW36 challenger for this year's championship. That car earned a name that wasn't nearly so kind as "anteater."
Casual followers of the sport - or anyone who gets the feed from this site - probably don't know what's happening, except to wonder why the current year's F1 cars are led by appendages that would make Cyrano de Bergerac feel a whole lot better about himself.
The short answer to the question of ugsome F1 noses is "FIA regulations and safety." The reason there are various kinds of ugsome noses is simpler: engineers. The same boffins who have given us advances including carbon fiber monocoques, six-wheeled cars, double diffusers and Drag Reduction Systems are bred to do everything in their power to exploit every possible freedom in the regulations to make the cars they're building go faster - the caveat being that those advances have to work within the overall philosophy of the whole car.

Ferrari planning sleeker FF coupe?

There are a lot of things you could call the Ferrari FF. Innovative, advanced, pioneering, ponderous... beautiful may not be one of them, though. Because while it does pack Ferrari's first all-wheel drive system, it doesn't pack it into a very pretty shape, alternately described as a chopped shooting brake or stretched hatchback. Word has it, though, that Ferrari is working on a solution.
That solution, according to Car and Driver, would be to chop it down into an FF coupe. Apparently separate from the SP FFX project that ultimately emerged as a one-off, this rebody could potentially solve the FF's stylistic shortcomings and attract more buyers, while retaining the 6.3-liter V12 engine that drives 651 prancing horses to all four wheels. But here's where it gets tricky: if Ferrari simply sloped the roofline and got rid of the rear seats, the finished product would end up precariously close to the F12 Berlinetta, albeit with an extra set of driven wheels.
We'd sooner guess that Maranello would lengthen the form slightly to keep the rear seats, add a trunk and give it a more graceful profile, though the elongated form of the preceding 612 Scaglietti strikes us as what Ferrari was trying to get away from with the FF in the first place. And guessing is as good as we've got at this point, as our attempts to get more from Ferrari PR resulted in a sad (if predictable) "no comment."

Drive covers the ups and downs of the Ferrari Testarossa

We don't know how we got here, but it's apparently Ferrari Testarossa season. Not even 90 days ago, Evo bossman Harry Metcalfe preached an ode to the eightiest Eighties exotic there ever was ("exotic," as opposed to supercars like the Ferrari F40 or Porsche 959). Only weeks ago, one of the white Testarossas from Miami Vice hit eBay for the outrageous Buy It Now price of $1.75M. Now we have Drive offering a five-minute video of John Pogson, an Englishman who's been restoring Ferraris for decades, discussing the ups and downs of a car that perhaps had the best shoulder pads of that whole decade. Pogson went to Italy to retrieve one of the first two Testarossas to reach to England, and promptly got in trouble with the factory for taking prospective customers to Silverstone for hot laps. Unlike other paeans, Pogson says it took him time to overcome misgivings about the red-headed classic, like how it wasn't very fast and would "run out of brakes" on the track, but he's come around to it. The video above is just a teaser for a longer Drive video behind a pay wall, so don't expect fireworks, but do expect some mighty exhaust noises. And since we're here celebrating, below we've included a MotorWeek Retro Review of the Testarossa from 1998, and another of Chris Harris driving a 1992 512TR. Harris likes it so much he says five words in the whole vid. And the coupe really does look better when you wear a white suit, even a horribly wrinkled one. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. News Source: Drive via YouTube Ferrari Coupe Luxury Performance Classics Videos chris harris drive ferrari testarossa