Chris Harris rants against Ferrari - very funny

[BTM]

Originally Posted by manicm

What all of you miss is that he acknowledges that Ferrari makes great cars - he just justifiably hates their politics.

Well put. Remember that this is a longer article...probably pushing the limits of people's attention spans. He admits that the standard versions of their cars are great, which makes their control freak mentality when it comes to testing seem insecure, domineering

Originally Posted by footie

And you think Ferrari are the only one sending ringers to comparisons? Need to look closer to home.

No one is disputing that press cars are quite often tweaked a bit (Porsche has been accused of this, as has Audi and yes, BMW). There is a however difference between handing over the keys to a GT2 running a little higher boost pressure than bringing 2 cars to a predetermined location and have engineers hovering around it and tweaking it to maximize it given the conditions.

This is actually where my skepticism radar went off in the article...saying where you want the car dropped off and them running a few tests and swapping the tires before hand is dishonest, but not uncommon. Blatantly tuning the cars, on sight, in comparison tests against the cars biggest competition...well you'd think we'd have heard something regarding the extremity of it by now...rival manufacturers would have every reason to protest the results

[TonyMeister]

Originally Posted by manicm

What all of you miss is that he acknowledges that Ferrari makes great cars - he just justifiably hates their politics.

To call the 458 and 599 duff cars is completely foolish, because the fact is they're not. And to ask why people buy Ferraris, well why do people buy Rolls-Royces or why do people smoke Cuban cigars?

+2

[JayML]

It doesn't matter how much bad press Ferrari encounters at any time, People will still Gawk and go nuts over anything Ferrari.

Truth is this article will do NOTHING to hurt there reputation, regardless of how true it is. Most Ferrari owners couldn't give a crap about anything that is written in Chris's article. They don't track, or drive fast or push the car to a point where "sticky tires" makes a difference to them. If they BELIEVE there car is the fastest, thats all that matters and Ferrari knows this and thats why they do it. They will never really test it for themselves to find out if it pulls 1.02g on the skid-pad. The owners just want to know it can be done, however it may get done. And its all so they can brag to there friends at the country club before they pick up there wives to go see the opera. Most Ferrari owners, just like most car owners are stupid. They don't understand or want to understand what all this stuff about fixing the test cars , 2 cars at a time, certain drivers etc. They want to drive to work knowing that everyone that sees them thinks they are 10 feet tall. and Ferrari is perfect at acheiving this

[footie]

Originally Posted by shift@red

No one is saying no one else does it, but at the same time...sending an M3 with a tune, or a GT2 with a little more boost is much different than sending two different cars, on two different sets of rubber and having them set up specifically for the venue they are competing at just shows how insecure they are in their own products.

That's is the problem with having such a big ego and reputation to uphold.

[hks786]

Originally Posted by Nikkahtropolis

Since I consider Chris Harris the closest thing to god in the world of automotive journalism, I pretty much believe whatever he says.

Opinion of Ferrari just dropped a hell of a lot.

+1 His reviews are very good

Originally Posted by TK-421

I honestly don't care about politics. I love the cars and that's about it.

+1 I wouldn't stop myself buying a Ferrari because of stuff like that BUT if I was a journalist I can see how it annoying it must be not being able to drive owners cars etc because of Ferrari rules WTF? It also shows dishonesty and Ferrari's lack of confidence in their own products.

[ponch_ki]

There are rumors recently going about that Ferrari has locked down its entire press fleet to prevent possible comparisons to a certain car from another F1 manufacturer.

Also, Evo magazine is sourcing its Ferraris from private owners. After a COTY issue a few years ago where the 997 GT3 (or maybe it was a GT2, not sure) won against the 430 Scud, Ferrari wrote a terse letter saying they are 'dissapointed' with the verdict, and apparently hasn't been keen on giving Evo access to press cars afterwards.

[epbrown]

Originally Posted by footie

And you think Ferrari are the only one sending ringers to comparisons? Need to look closer to home.

That isn't the issue he's raising. It's one thing for a manufacturer to put their best foot forward by sending the most optimized version of a model to a test - it's another to 1) show up with full team and insist on being allowed to swap tires, tweak ECUs, swap cars and otherwise modify the cars on-site until it wins the group test you've agreed to, something Autocar wrote about last year during a group test. Or banning a tv show host after mildly negative comments, even when he's clearly a fan of the marque, as they did to Tiff Needell for a few years. Or, in the case that set Harris off, contacting a customer who has volunteered his personal car for a group test and bullying him into pulling his car (which clearly indicates they think the production version won't fare well against its competition). This is the 2nd time they've done this to Evo, btw - they wouldn't provide a 599GTO for the COTY test and when they discovered an owner was going to loan them his, contacted him and urged him to reconsider.

And actually, I'm okay with Ferrari pulling this crap, as long as they're okay with seeing such shenanigans publicized. Several writers mentioned that BMW refused to loan anyone an M3 to test against the 1M during its launch, and they didn't squawk about it or ban anyone.