What Leonardo Fioravanti had in mind a design dedicated to Ferrari, his first and greatest love.
Hence the code-name.
The official name instead is F 100. Whereas F stands, naturally enough, for Ferrari and 100 is the number of years since the birth of Enzo Ferrari.

The colour of the full scale model (not a running yet, regretfully) is red and perfect for the name and for the sexy yet very elegant style of the relatively compact iper-sophisticated Gran Turismo which engine should be, according to Mr, Fioravanti a detuned development of the V 10 Ferrari engine currently powering the F 1 raced by Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine.

The technical layout of the car speak of the options established by the self-specified briefing as the semi-automatic gearbox and the F1-type paddle selector mounted behind the steering wheel clearly suggests. The major difference between the F 100 and a Ferrari f 1 is that the show-car aims at providing much more (the designer says "totally") relaxed driving conditions, thus allowing the driver to focus entirely on the unique pleasures of fast but safe and rewarding driving.

Great attention has been paid to the overall dimensions of the car in order to avoid the excessive dimensions usually association with powerful V12 cars. The Fioravanti F 100 is 4390 mm. long and 1910 mm. wide but only 1140 mm. It sits on rather long 2550 mm. wheelbase, with the large wheels set almost to the four corners of the car. Front and rear tracks are respectively 1600 mm and 1620 mm, front and rear.

The proportions of the car are so well balanced that you can safely call them the work of a master and the silhouette has the natural fluidity of a wave starting at the front and wrapping up the whole car, as a sheet of silk covering a beautiful body.
Into this sensual and homogenous shape Leonardo Fioravanti has carved or integrated the air intakes and other "technical" openings, designed with history in mind but shaped with love and great sense of balance and aesthetics.

The solution adopted to grant efficient supply of fresh air for the engine through intakes integrated in the roof structure is simply as brilliant as the innovative front and rear neon light-clusters. They could have been many shapes, as the front indicator lights demonstrate but Fioravanti styled them with the typical and round classic Ferrari lamp style in mind. Yet they are built to a unique, simpler and much lighter, specification.

Look at the wheels and you have another example of the subtleties of Fioravanti's design.
You will realise that the wheels are rather innovative. In fact, as for the neon lights, they were the subject of a special project too jointly developed by Fergat, a European company specialising in steel wheel design and production, and Fioravanti to match innovative design with cutting-edge technology delivering wheels that are actually lighter yet stronger than many light alloy wheels.
The are made of new steels and sophisticated design based on computer-generated simulations, and new assembly techniques, have all made it possible to conceive and engineer steel wheels of quite stunning beauty at greatly reduced weight.
Fioravanti's designers and engineers have turned the demanding forging requirements into an opportunity to create a more aerodynamic wheel.

Another area of interest to which Fioravanti has always given the outmost attention is car's dynamics and aerodynamics, which have a significant influence on the car's driveability and manoeuvrability. With the F 100 Fioravanti choose to present an essay of his research in this area too. The accent has been put on vertical load. "Extremely detailed research and experimentation have produced high downforce, with particularly interesting Cz values front and rear (-0,25 and -0,33 respectively) resulting in a notably well balanced distribution of forces." says Fioravanti.

Theoretically the optimal distribution of forces is maintained also when the car is decelerating or accelerating, explains Fioravanti because the car body is shaped so that the angle of impact of the air onto the car remains unchanged even when the transfer of weight tend to modify the setting of the F 100.

Similarly, when the upper airbrake is activated also a second one, located in the lower section of the tail and opening toward the ground, double the car's Cx values, making a considerable contribution to high speed braking. It is also meant to maintain the car's stability.

Cabin design hinges on a philosophy of relaxed driving, achieved here in particular by choice of the Ferrari F1 gear-selector and the two-pedal action - magical, gradual equilibrium.
The design of the dash develops from the two selector paddles behind the wheel and almost all the controls are located on the wheel itself.

Very interesting are, in our opinion, the supports provided by the lower part of the seats. They are supposed to maintain a relaxed muscle position all along the legs and, in the case of the driver, these supports guide the feet onto the accelerator and break pedals, almost like a F1 car.

The speed of this kind of F1 gear-selector means the driver must view and collate cockpit information faster and more immediately and so traditional-type instrumentation is no longer suitable. Breaking with his tradition of looking to the history of the brand to venture in new design and innovation when the right time comes, Fioravanti has replaced the conventional dashboard with an innovative type of digital-analogue instrumentation with simple but highly effective graphics.

It is a really a pity that the design of the F 100 is currently for the eyes only and cannot be actually tested on the road. The F 100 is a full scale model of outstanding quality but it is far from being a true automobile and we cannot speak here of any real performance, of top speed and acceleration.
At least for the time being.
In the future it is very likely that some Ferrari enthusiast, if not Ferrari themselves, will ask Fioravanti to develop his F 100 design idea into a real automobile. Than, we shall know first- hand what the Fioravanti F 100, the car might attain even with a more conventional engine.

______Leonardo Fioravanti

Leonardo Fioravanti, 60 has been one of the most distinguished personalities of car design for the past three decades even though his fame was less popular among the public at large.
The reason is simple: unlike Giorgetto Giugiaro and Marcello Gandini who established their own studio or company two or three decades ago, Fioravanti stayed with Pininfarina for 24 years.

There, as director of design he enjoyed a prominent position and played a role at the top of company sharing with Sergio Pininfarina (the man whose name is on the top of the buildings) the rare privilege of directing some of the most fascinating and intriguing projects. Many of them are still a secret other are well known around the world.

Under his design direction Pininfarina released a very long list of exciting cars, both for the motor-shows and for the production lines.

Although not all of them have been penned by Fioravanti himself, they were developed under his critical but constructive guidance.

There are some projects of which Fioravanti deserve full credit and the ones he is more keen of being credited to him are some of the most outstanding and most famous Ferrari Gran Turismo ever.

His latest design exercise unveiled to the public at this year Turin Motor Show, the Fioravanti F 100, is also a Ferrari.
Perhaps the ultimate statement of Ferrari design spirit and essence. Probably the brightest start of the 1998 Turin Motor Show.

If Giugiaro is the artist best suited to dress ups Maserati's coupé and Gandini is the Lamborghini guru, Fioravanti must be considered the best interpreter of Ferrari's body design. At least until a newcomer shows us a new, trend setting, design direction.