We are not exactly sure why Ferrari is testing out turbocharged California prototypes, but they are real and undergoing testing at the Fiorano test track. Marchettino spotted one such vehicle about one year ago, and now a new and louder one has made its appearance in Italy.
Listening to it, we notice that its noise is a huge departure from the sounds the normally-aspirated 4.3-liter V8 makes. It is much deeper, with a lot more bass, but nowhere near as much drama as we’ve come to expect from a modern Ferrari engine, as their latest offerings are rev-hungry and scream near the red line.
When it comes to speculating what sort of engine it is exactly, we are faced with the widely accepted theory that says that it is basically the same twin-turbo V8 unit used in the new Maserati Quattroporte, with special tuning done by Ferrari to tailor it to the car.
The Italian manufacturer will be one of the automakers most affected by the move to turbocharged engines. The entire Ferrari experience was centered around the power plant, and its specific characteristics (responsiveness, noise), so once you make it sounds like a regular car, the proposition is less enticing. It doesn’t sound bad by normal car standards, but if you were to compare it to any other model in their history, it wouldn’t stand a chance.
It’s funny how they managed to make a turbocharged V8 car sound good in the late 1980s, the F40, but now they seem to be struggling. Perhaps they will adjust the exhaust note if/when the turbocharged engine actually makes it into the present-day California’s replacement.
By Andrei Nedelea
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