Site MapThe New BR20 Will Be a GT for the Ages
And you’ll need to drive it to really know why…
What is it that makes a grand tourer great? Sure, it has to be fast enough to pin you to the back of the seat, lithe like a cheetah so that it can take those hairpin turns on the Alpine byways, and luxurious enough so that your back won’t lock-up when you get out after eight hours of driving. These are the things that make a grand tourer, but something else is needed to make it special.
The extra oomph, spice, magic dust – call it what you want – the thing that takes a grand tourer from remarkable to pure bliss is that certain je ne sais quoi. And the quoi of it all is what the Ferrari BR20 will attempt to answer.
According to Ferrari this new classic, based on the GTC4Lusso, is the result of one-years’ worth of development by their Special Projects unit. The goal was to produce a one-off model that is, “inspired by Ferraris of the 1950s and 60s.”
They did this by modifying the GTC4Lusso’s body by removing the backseats, and using the fanciest engineering techniques known to northern Italians, to make the rear overhang more aerodynamic and sleek. It is a touch of modern in the otherwise classic essenza of the overall design.
The engine is the same as the GTC4Lusso’s, the 6.3-Liter V12 heaving a whopping 760 horsepower into its drive train, going from zero to sixty mph in 3.5 seconds and getting 21 miles to the gallon on a highway. To put that into perspective a Honda Civic gets 42 miles on a highway. Something to think about.
The interior eschews the usual sports discomforts and austere trappings and in usual GT fashion is well appointed in two shades of brown leather and carbon fiber. It’s beautiful actually, and ticks the luxury box with a poise characteristic of cars of its genre.
But all this is the usual GT checklist, in meeting these standards the BR20 gets to say that it’s a grand tourer like an Aston-Martin Vantage or a BMW 550i. But can it be a capital ‘G’, capital ’T’ Grand Tourer? That is an altogether different question.
It’s a Ferrari, so it’s difficult to imagine that it will be much less than a $500,000 starting price. Which if you can afford it will definitely go some of the way to making it feel special. But above all else as we’ve talked about in other articles, and one can talk about Ferraris until they are blue in the face, to drive is an experience that needs to be felt in order to be understood. And that feeling, the understanding without needing to describe it, knowing in your bones that you’re driving a car that is truly special is what will make this car something that one can stand in front of and be in awe.
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