Why The Ferrari F50 Is The World's Ugliest Car

There are many ugly cars and they are ugly for their own reasons. They can be ugly because looks are an unnecessary accessory - like Antony's G-Wiz. They can be ugly by design - encompassing Ollie's Orochi and Darren's Mini Coupe. They can be ugly for a purpose - hence Tom's Murano Cross Concept. It's rare to encounter a car that manages all three, but the world's most famed performance car producer managed just that - a sin made all the bigger by virtue of the rest of their designs.

Let's take ourselves back in time to 1986. Ferrari had just finished its 288 GTO ready for Group B when the deaths of spectators in Portugal and Henri Toivanen and Sergio Cresto in Corsica forced the FIA to ban the class. Ferrari was left with 272 road cars and five heavily modified versions without a race pedigree.

288 GTO Evoluzione (Image: Classicdriver.com)

So Enzo Ferrari himself chose to develop the 288 GTO Evoluzione into a world-beating production supercar. He signed off on the F40, celebrating the 40^th anniversary of his company in 1987, living just long enough to see the first production 200mph road car become a reality.

The F40 was one of the most beautiful cars ever made. Though not especially subtle in places, the design worked as a whole and did Enzo justice - it was his last car and his legacy.

Ferrari F40 (Image: Classicdriver.com)

This placed a burden on Ferrari a decade later when the 50^th Anniversary rolled round to exceed the F40's numbers. In this respect they succeeded - the larger, non-turbo, F1-sourced V12 gave more power than the F40's V8 and did away with the savage turbo lag of the earlier car - but wrapped around that engine was a total munter.

Ferrari F50 (Image: Classicdriver.com)

Increasing the wheelbase compared to the length - and the length compared to the width - gave the F50 a very odd stance in comparison to the F40. Reducing the front and rear overhangs made the car look quite stubby and, particularly at the front, gave the bodywork peculiar angles.

The Barchetta design gave the illusion of a very steep windscreen (though the reality is it was barely any different) and removed some of the curves behind the driver. Gone was the beautiful, louvred rear screen showing off the entire engine of the F40, replaced with a flat viewing window through which you could see a small portion of black plastic with a silver prancing horse on it.

Before and after (F40 Image: Ferraris-online.com; F50 Image: Flickr user gogogaspedal)

At the back, Ferrari ditched the central exhausts and offset plate for the F40 and went with a pair of dual exit exhausts either side and a more humdrum centre plate - a look carried over to the dowdy 360 Modena.

Though both cars are guilty of a large expanse of black mesh, the F40's allowed you glimpses of the big exhaust silencer and hints of engine from any angle whereas the finer mesh on the F50 revealed nothing to stir the emotions - a bit of suspension maybe in the right light.

Arse like a smacked face (Image: Seriouswheels.com)

It didn't get any better round the sides either. The F40's NACA-style side ducts were not quite the subtlest design features ever - though understated amongst its stablemates - but for the F50 these were turned into giant, yawning chasms.

Where the earlier car's spoiler pylons were simple affairs, the new F had massive, elongated buttresses - and with the ridges behind the seats dropping in the opposite direction, the profile was very awkward indeed.

The recessed doors and little step were history too as the F50 got mundane, flush units, each wearing hideous Shrek-ear mirrors.

Beauty and the Beast (Images: Ferraris-online.com)

The real travesty happened at the front. The light units were appalling all by themselves, with beady little projectors hiding behind randomly shaped glass and the separate indicator units making an amber gash on the already fussy leading edge. But they were nothing - nothing - compared with the godawful troll nostrils on the bonnet.

Eye bleach comes as standard (Image: sports-cars.org)

While much of the F50 is all about accommodating that huge V12 and a decade's advancement over the F40 in keeping it on the road at 200mph and getting it round bends, there's no escaping it - it looks like a permanently baffled cod. Except the F50 GT which looks like a Hungry Hungry Hippo.

There's a measure of it having to look that way as form follows function, a measure of being made to look distinct and a dollop of them just not bothering with aesthetics because it'd sell out to car collectors for the name alone. But measured up against its predecessor - and even against the gorgeous 456 and handsome 550 Ferrari was selling at the time - the abomination becomes just that bit more inexcusable.

520bhp still can't outrun ugly.