Tabla de contenidos para February 2016 en Evo

BOUGHT A NEW DIESEL Volkswagen recently? with UK sales down a fifth yearon-year in november, an affirmative answer may not be as forthcoming as it once was. we’re yet to see the full extent of Volkswagen’s ‘dieselgate’ scandal, but the company’s statements in a recent Vw group strategy talk suggest future Volkswagen will be a humbler, more honest, more sustainable company than it is today. A company devoid of interest for fans of performance cars? don’t count on it. with Bugatti Chiron development in the advanced stages, the Vw group’s flagship was never likely to be cancelled for reasons other than symbolism, but the scandal may yet even prove beneficial for the group’s more exciting cars. The reason is restructuring. according to one product specialist, the group’s prestige brands –…

Test location: Grendon, northamptonshire GPS: 52.22277, -0.70544 Photography: Aston parrott CLIMB INTO THE PLUSH interior of the Alpina D3 biturbo touring and you’ll immediately notice a high-definition digital display where one of the centre-facing vents should be. it glows readily with the stunningly evocative Alpina logo. This small screen can display all sorts of information unbecoming of a diesel estate. G-force readings, 0-60mph info, performance data and the like – things that remind you that this is no ordinary diesel estate. so you do the only sensible thing. You zero the meter, find a decent stretch of road – and go for it. On a damp road, in sport mode, without launch-control assistance and using auto-upshift, we record an unscientific 5.1sec (and 0.7G) for the 0-60mph sprint. in perfect conditions,…

AS SOMEONE WHO HAS SPENT MORE time than is sensible or healthy charting a tangential course through the side window of countless cars, you might expect me to be a staunch supporter of the cornering shot, but I’m sad to say my love of the lockstops is on the wane. Not because sliding a car has ceased to be fun, but because the once noble pursuit of informative and evocative dynamic imagery has been hijacked by hoonery. In short, the world has overdosed on oversteer. In the dim and distant days before the Internet and its exponential obsession with a fortysomething merchandise salesman, the sight of a sliding road-car really was something to savour. Without an endless stream of online videos on which to gorge, photographs and video footage (VHS,…

IN THE PREVIOUS INSTALMENT WE joined Mark Reeves as he got to grips with his M3 and its newly upgraded Öhlins Road & Track suspension on the sensational roads of the evo Triangle in north Wales. Now, in the final stage of his test, Reeves heads to Anglesey Circuit, home of evo’s ‘Leaderboard’ track tests. Anglesey is a spectacular venue and a thrilling place to drive a car like his E92 BMW M3, but it’s also a challenge, especially when you’re experiencing the place for the first time. Driving a powerful rear-wheel-drive car on an unfamiliar circuit places maximum emphasis on confidence, feel and consistent handling. Having arrived at a setup he’s happy with on the road, it’s logical for Mark to keep his Öhlins Road & Track suspension in…

From the forums: community.evo.co.uk/forums It was definitely a brave purchase! I’m not overly surprised by the size of the bills from what I’ve heard about them. But just look at it – It’s gorgeous! To have something else that looks and sounds as awesome as that you’d have to spend a lot more in the first place and still probably have the big bills anyway. So chin up, old bean. duncs500 Ultimately, if you get to the point where what you’re spending on the car greatly outweighs the enjoyment, then it’s time to sell. I know they’re expensive to run, but £7k in a year is… excessive? When I looked at them my major concern was a Speed Six rebuild. Still bloody love them, though. MattyB_ Spending £10k or 25…

THERE’S AN ARGUMENT TO BE MADE for Carlo Abarth as the founding father of the hot hatch. While he first came to public attention as sporting director of the Cisitalia racing team in the late 1940s, it was his work on the original Fiat 500 of the 1950s and ’60s that really made his name. Doubling the horsepower, flaring the wheelarches, revising the suspension, propping the engine covers open for added cooling… Abarth transformed the cute but toothless Fiat 500 into a unlikely winner on the race track and a cult hero on the road. With the exception of the 695 Biposto, modern Abarths have generally fallen short of recapturing the magic of Carlo’s early creations, lagging behind rivals when it comes to dynamics and performance, and lacking the bespoke…

WHO HASN’T FOUND THEIR right foot twitching when presented with a big gravel car park? As soon as I sense the coefficient of friction between rubber and planet Earth brought down a few notches, I admit that it is generally too much for me to resist. I adore the feeling of floating along on a loose surface, the car constantly light on its tyres and so easily unsettled. For me it is the most fun you can have behind the wheel. And after the launch of a certain car at the beginning of 2015, it seemed the perfect time for the first evo gravel group test. When the Ariel Nomad was unveiled I think even the chaps from Somerset were surprised by the rampant enthusiasm with which it was received.…

THE GOLDEN GT-R HADN'T arrived and I needed to be at the Nurburgring. The 911 needed a run, I reasoned, and where better to take it? Preparation was light, confidence heightened by my ADAC membership and the fact that the 996 had never, ever let me down. Just recently though, its always slightly lazy starting pattern had started to worry me. It always fired but churned over scarily slowly at times, and when it was hot it sometimes took three goes before the flat-six fired. I took a battery booster and crossed my fingers. Some 994 miles and a few days later, the booster remained undisturbed and the 996 rolled back onto my driveway filthy, missing some exterior trim but triumphant. It'd been a helluva weekend for me (racing the…

IT WAS NOT WITHOUT apprehension that I climbed back into the Range Rover after a day in Bentley's Bentayga (Driven, evo 217). Would the Bentley, with an absurd 600bhp and an interior to rival a luxury yacht's, render the Sport - though admittedly half the price - a little bit crap? Yes and no is the answer. Firstly, the Sport's more utilitarian interior doesn't wow like the Bentley's, but on the other hand it's got a considered, natural style that isn't too showy and doesn't clash with the exterior. I like it. In dynamic terms, the Bentayga would murder the Sport on any given road. It's faster in a straight line and handles with more precision - if not outright grip. They both weigh around 2.3 tons, but the Bentayga's…

I HAD JUST ABOUT THE worst introduction to our long-term Focus ST as is possible. two weeks in a Vw Golf r will ruin your enthusiasm to jump into pretty much anything else. I love that car. It’s so perfect in so many ways… But I’m getting sidetracked. The Focus st felt a million miles away from the Golf r. In fact I was on a bit of a downer on my first drive home in it. It didn’t seem very quick, it handled nothing like the Golf and it felt like it was bigger than my old Amarok pickup (see right). The infotainment system, although massively improved on the one in the last Focus ST, was still dangerously annoying, and even though the ridiculous button count had reduced, I…

I Found Myself Sitting opposite a chap called Karsten Schebsdat over dinner recently. Karsten is a vehicle dynamics engineer with a varied and glittering Cv – the Mk1 Ford Focus, Porsche 997 gt2, Porsche 997 gt3 3.8 and Mk7 Vw golf r were all his. as a body of work that really does take some beating. I met Karsten during the launch of the vW golf gti Clubsport (see page 32) in Portugal. Since I’m running a golf r as my everyday car, I took the opportunity to quiz him on his preferred specification for the car. turns out he reckons it’s best on 19-inch wheels with dynamic Chassis Control. My car is on 18s with no DCC. Ah. He says the car rides better on the bigger wheels in…

FERRARI'S LATE-'90s V12 GT WAS UNTIL recently a relative bargain. Often described as a modern-day Daytona, it started the trend for user-friendly Ferraris, coming after the mid-engined flat-12 era. However, 550s have shot up in price recently: a very low-mileage right-hand-drive car can now command £200,000. 'The market has certainly changed,' says Mike Wheeler at Rardley Motors (rardleymotors.com). '550s and 575s tended to be bought new by people who were actually going to drive them. It s one of the few Ferraris where I ll see one with over 100,000 miles on it. Nevertheless, as with all the cars from Modena, mileage does play a significant part in valuing the car. Mike puts a tidy 50,000-mile, right-hand-drive 550 at 'at least £125,000, while Matthew Honeysett at Simon Furlonger (see 'Expert…

What is the point of the 911 Turbo? You know, the proper Turbo Turbo? The one that’s been in continuous production since 1974 and which in that time has seen its turbo count double (along with the number of driven axles) and its peak power climb by as much as 313bhp. Today its underling, the once naturally aspirated Carrera, now features a turbocharger on each of its banks of cylinders, and, judging by this month’s cover story, it doesn’t hold back in how it uses them, either. And then there are the GT cars: the GT3 and its unhinged RS offspring. The 911 line-up has always been tightly packed, but now, more so than ever, is there a risk that perhaps the most famous 911 of them all could be…

WE ARE ENTERING A very exciting time for personal mobility. Autonomous cars are creeping out of the realms of futuristic fantasy and are now tangible things thanks to the boffins at companies such as Google, Bosch and Tesla. Within just a few years they could be available to the general public. But when they’ve finished marvelling at their car’s autopilot abilities, what exactly will occupants be doing with their newfound free time? Mercedes has some suggestions, which it is previewing in its F015 research vehicle. The car debuted at the CES electronics show in Las Vegas in January 2015 and we recently got up close with it in its latest form. The F015 is intended to be seen as not just as a personal mobility device but more of a…

If you’ve ever fitted trackday tyres to your road car and ventured out onto a dry circuit, you’ll have experienced the increased grip levels such focused rubber can generate. Braking, traction, turn-in, high-speed stability – they all benefit from a tyre that’s been designed specifically for high-speed track driving. But while many track-tyre users will have seen corner speeds increase, few will truly understand how to maximise their rubber over the course of its lifetime. To discover a few tricks of the trade, we caught up with reigning BTCC drivers’ champion Gordon Sheddon and Honda Yuasa Racing technical director Barry Plowman at Dunlop’s pre-season tyre test. WARM UP Build your pace gradually over one or two laps to avoid overheating the tyre. Sheddon explains: ‘In an ideal world you would…

Test location: Portimão, Portugal GPS: 37.22892, -8.63162 IN 2016 THE GOLF GTI will celebrate the big four-oh. To mark the occasion, Volkswagen has developed the Clubsport, which is the fastest and most focused Golf GTI variant to date. With up to 286bhp – more of which in a moment – a revised chassis setup and the option of super-sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, the Clubsport is compelling evidence that life really does begin at 40. The ‘Clubsport’ moniker conjures up images of door roundels and harnesses, of Perspex side windows and a latticework of roll-cage. This car, it’s fair to say, is a less ambitious interpretation of the theme. Volkswagen isn’t targeting the hardcore Renaultsport Mégane 275 Trophy-R – a true trackday machine – with this model. Instead,…

Test location: Igualada, spain GPS: 41.62635, 1.60847 HOT HATCHES COME and go, but the seat Ibiza cupra is part of the furniture. It’s been around since 1999 – this is now the fifth iteration – but to this day it still feels like a slightly left-field choice in the company of the equivalent Ford or Renault. this latest version is a facelift rather than an all-new model, although the changes beneath the skin are more significant than the slight styling tweaks might suggest. The previous version’s 1.4-litre tsI engine has been replaced by a more potent 1.8-litre turbocharged four-cylinder. Power is up by 11bhp to 189bhp and torque has risen to a very strong 236lb ft from 184lb ft. With peak torque now available between 1450 and 4200rpm, the cupra…

NO OTHER SPORTS CAR ENGENDERS the same protective instinct among car enthusiasts as the Porsche 911. Perhaps it’s because so many of us own one now, have done so in the past or aspire to in the future. Maybe it’s because the 911 has been around in one form or another for more than five decades. Whatever it is, the mournful cry of the purist in response to yet another raft of irreversible changes – be it the switch from air- to water-cooling, from hydraulic to electric power steering or, most recently, the turbocharging of all mainstream models – has become almost a part of the car’s fabric. The facelifted 991-generation Carrera models now use twin-turbocharged, 3-litre flat-sixes, which brings to an end 53 years of robustly guarded tradition. Whether…

‘Canyou hear the changein noise?’ We all lean a little closer. ‘Listen,’ says the engineer as he plugs in and unplugs a cable in the engine bay, ‘to the note of the turbo.’ There are some seriously furrowed brows around the oxymoronically huge Mini ALL4 Dakar car, with its Union flag livery splashed down the side. Dakar debutant Harry Hunt looks across from the other side of the group and we both shrug our shoulders because neither of us can hear any discernable change in the sounds coming from the 3-litre diesel race engine. It doesn’t really matter for me, standing here in a spotlessly clean, dry workshop on an industrial estate outside Frankfurt. But right about now (depending when you’re reading this in January) Hunt could be knee-deep in…

Cursed telemetry. After what feels like days of waiting, looking nervously at the flat grey sky and the glistening racetrack, and hearing drivers disappearing into the gloom with throttles wide open, it’s my turn. And I just want to be alone. To relax into the car, learn to trust what it’s doing and feel how the traction control activates. Just to drive with no pressure and a bit of freedom. Of course, there’s no such thing, not with telemetry. Not with Jim Glickenhaus in the pits with a watchful eye on the monitors. Not with this particular car’s owner, Christopher Ruud, at his shoulder. It actually feels almost oppressive. I disappear into the gloom. Lifting just a bit. They’ll know. THIS WHOLE SLIGHTLY ABSURD ADVENTURE started on September 15 at…

DAILY-DRIVING THE MX-5 has left me questioning exactly what it is I want from a car. I don't have any kids to transport about, so really two seats, four wheels and a motor should be ample for me in terms of pure functionality. But the MX-5 is just so restricted in terms of space that a few things have started to niggle. For one, there really is absolutely no storage in the cabin a side from a small cubby between the seats. It can hold an instruction manual and a few cables, and that's about it. It's also blocked by two cupholders, which means you can't really get into it if you've brought a coffee with you. I also repeatedly find myself knocking drinks out of the shallow holders with…

RPM TECHNIK HAVE NOW stripped down the SC’S engine, uncovering the cause of its power-loss problem: six bent exhaust valves, the likely result of an over-rev. I’m pretty sure I did it too, during a missed downshift on a trackday. Dammit. RPM has given me a three-page list of parts required for the rebuild. You might be thinking that I should just replace the valves and have the engine put back together, but RPM aren't bodgers and the opportunity to give the engine a full rebuild with refreshed parts can't be missed. That way, unless I fluff another shift, I can expect to get at least another 100,000 miles from it. Naturally, it's tempting to tweak the motor during the rebuild. There's an extraordinary amount you can do to the…

OUR ALOR BLUE LEON IS back from being repaired following a kerbing incident (for which I wasn’t at the wheel) and is looking as good as ever, even after six months of hard graft and over 15,000 miles covered. Shortly after its return the SEAT performed amazingly as a camera car on our 2015 Car of the Year test, providing comfortable seating for the 1600-mile round trip, brilliant handling on the tighter Applecross roads and ample spare space for the antlers that art director Rob Gould found and wanted to bring home. It’s hard to not love this car with such an array of positives to its name. Only knocking the undertray loose while parking off-road (thanks, Rob!) spoiled things slightly, but that’s not really the car’s fault. After a…

THREE BRITISH PERFORMANCE cars, each 10-15 years old and all available for £20,000-26,000. That’s where the similarities end, though, because the mid-engined V8 Lotus, the front-engined straight-six-powered TVR and the unique recipe of the lightweight Caterham Seven have very little else in common. However, all three are virtually guaranteed to paste a massive grin on your face. The Esprit still reeks of supercar presence, and in V8 form its performance commands respect even today (there’s magic in the way it steers, too). The Cerbera looks, feels and sounds like nothing else. It’s a thug of a car, albeit a surprisingly practical one. Finally, there’s the eternal appeal of a mentalist Caterham. We could have picked any number of models, but the manic personality yet useability of a K-series R400 is…

Aston Martin V8 Vantage JUST STEPPING INTO YOUR GARAGE each morning should give you enough impetus to keep your Aston Martin V8 Vantage – a decade on the road has done nothing to dull the appeal of this car’s lines. That considerable length of time has, however, seen rivals far surpass the V8’s performance, so if you’re craving more urgency, there are a few avenues down which you can turn. A good first stop is Bamford Rose, whose sports exhaust system is a hit with owners for its glorious sound and power gains of up to 40bhp over the restrictive standard system. The full kit costs £5998.98 (including VAT and fitting) and saves 18kg over the standard setup. With the extra performance, extra braking power would also be welcome –…

BEFORE THE VERY first McLaren 675Lt coupe was delivered, every one of the 500 that were to be built had been sold. Which was good news for McLaren, not so good for those who wanted an example of the very best super series model the company had produced. the £285,450 675Lt spider was never going to be that far behind in the production launch strategy, and this is our first glance at the car and its headline specs. As with the 675Lt coupe, the spider utilises carbonfibre throughout the body to reduce weight (front bumper, larger splitter and end-plates, front underbody, side skirts, side intakes, lower side intakes, lower rear body, wings and bumpers, rear deck and diffuser and the long-tail airbrake). the 666bhp 3.8-litre twin-turbo v8 is carried over,…

ADVANCES IN IN-CAR infotainment have made our driving lives immeasurably easier over the last few decades. We now have a greater choice of radio stations and internet streaming services. The car recognises our phone as we get in, enabling handsfree calling or playing our favourite music. satnavs are more accurate than ever, directing us around traffic snarl-ups without any input. and if we really feel the need, we can complain about the glacially slow Honda Jazz in front of us directly to Twitter. But what if we want in-car technology to serve a higher purpose – making us better, faster drivers, recording our trackday antics or our car’s performance? For taking accurate data for our track testing at evo, nothing other than a vBOX will do, but manufacturers such as…

Test location: B671, cambridgeshire, UK GPS: 52.52596, -0.39534 Photography: Aston Parrott ACCELERATING HARD, THE Mercedes-AMG gle63 S catapults itself towards the horizon. On the Autobahn you scream past the speed-restriction signs, then, suddenly, the squash of immense acceleration drops. What’s happened? You look in the mirror – no smoke. the temperature dials – all fine. then you look at the speedo… it’s reading 160mph – an unruffled, rock-solid 160mph – and you realise there’s nothing wrong. All that’s happened is that this 577bhp super-SUV has sprinted to the speed limiter (actual speed 155mph) faster than expected. Way faster. it’s not pretty, it’s not lithe and it’s not the car in which to arrive at a Friends of the earth reception, but the gle63 S is fast. the now-familiar 5.5-litre twin-turbo…

Test location: B1053,Wethersfield GPS: 51.951186, -0.490280 Photography: Aston Parrott FORD’S LATEST FIESTA ST has been an evo favourite since its arrival in 2013, and in that time it has rarely found itself off the top step of the podium in any head-to-head it has entered into. In the spring of 2015 it did come up – and lose – against its toughest competitor in the shape of Peugeot’s return-to-form 208 GTi 30th Anniversary. But it was a close-run thing, and when we pitched the pair into a larger group test in the summer, the sT was the winner once again. However, it did take Mountune’s MP215 aftermarket kit for the Blue oval to claim the number-one spot once more. Fast Fords, and modified fast Fords, are compelling things, and a…

Test location: Centro Dinamico Pegaso, Mexico GPS: 19.36592, -99.55680 FOR A CAR THAT NEVER made it into production, the Jaguar C-X75 has had quite a shelf life. Since the original concept was launched at the Paris motor show back in 2010, complete with those terrifically complicated gas turbine generators for its electric powertrain, Jaguar has built two alternative versions. The first of those was a prototype with a more conventional petrol-electric hybrid powertrain that was due to become the production model until the project was canned in 2012. The second is the one you can see here, and it's a very different sort of beast™ The producers of the latest James Bond film, Spectre, cast the C-X75 as the villain car. For Jaguar, still peddling the 'Good to be Bad'…

YOU’RE WELCOME TO DISAGREE with me on this one – in fact I absolutely insist on it if you think you can do better – but I reckon I’ve a pretty good contender for the perfect evo day. And the perfect evo drive, too. Both are moments from this year when I’ve thanked a higher power that I’m a petrolhead (and I know I’m not the only one who does this). First, the day. It started with a chat and ended with a drive. The subject of the former was Gordon Murray, a hero of mine whom I was interviewing for Goodwood, while the latter was a certain F1 GTR chassis no. 06R. The Harrods McLaren. Yeah, a proper pinch-yourself moment. And quite apart from driving a machine that led…

Without a doubt, the Fiat. I think the current MX-5 is irredeemably ugly, but the 124 Spider looks like a mini-Maserati. Plus, unlike the painfully inefficient naturally aspirated 2-litre MX-5 engine that can only wheeze its way to 158bhp, the 500 Abarthsourced 1.4-litre turbo unit in the Spider is just a remap (and maybe an exhaust) away from 190bhp. David_Yu The Mazda. It’s the real deal: less weight, no lag, a true drivers’ car. You could also give it the BBR treatment if it’s more power you’re after. Jamie Kingaby The Fiat. Purely for the perceived joie de vivre. _Tim_ I want to want the Fiat, but I’m not sure about its looks; it’s too ‘American’. I hope the modifications to the damping give the 124 the edge in terms…

YOU CAN ALMOST imagine the 911 standing in the middle of some illicit boxing ring, panting slightly but still remarkably light on its feet as the readership, I mean crowd, cheers and boos in equal measure. The Porsche surveys the carnage around it, having seen off the best of its rivals in its own division (I reckon Super Middleweight). For a brief moment, it allows the euphoria of victory to sweep over it, but then the announcer gets on the tannoy. Down the aisles, out of the shadows, come three more challengers. Not any old protagonists either, but a couple of Light Heavyweights and one you’d have to mark down as a Cruiserweight given its 319bhp per ton. None of them quite in the first flush of youth, but still…

WE’RE IN A SMALL, DARKENED room listening to a presentation about the new Huracán LP580-2. Well, I say ‘listening’. I get the impression most are already daydreaming about the neat row of red, white, grey and green Huracáns parked just outside on the unblemished pitlane of the Losail International Circuit in Qatar. For all we care, the presentation could consist of one slide: a black background with a simple message screaming out in big, bold white lettering, ‘IT’S A REAR-DRIVE HURACÁN! ENJOY IT.’ Instead we hear about the car’s positioning, the company’s recent remarkable success and how the upcoming Urus SUV will mark a vast expansion of the Lamborghini operation and the sales it achieves. The underlying message should gift Lambo a brash confidence, the sort of confidence that gave…

AS I WRITE THIS REPORT, the 275 trophy is still in I my possession, but by, the time you read it, the Renault I bogeyman will have taken my | beloved Megane away. Just in case he arrives a little earlier than I'm expecting, I've taken HK64VKH on a farewell thrash. Now you might expect me to say I've headed for some fabulous far- flung tarmac, but in keeping with I the Megane's everyday-hero status, I decided the roads in question would be some of my local favourites. That's because I when I think back on the Megane in years to come I'm almost certain what I'll remember will be its ability to serve up truly special moments on demanding, but entirely typical real-world A-and B-roads. There’s no ceremony or…

IT BEING OVER A YEAR since I acquired the 16M, it was recently time for its first service under my ownership. I like to have all my cars serviced at least once a year, so despite the meagre mileage covered by the 16M during the last 12 months, off it went to the local Ferrari dealer. As this was the first time the car had been serviced at this dealer, the first step was to get the service history and understand exactly what work had been done immediately prior to the car’s delivery last year. With this to hand we could properly decide what work was due. We soon learnt that the predelivery service was limited to a rather light changing of the fluids, so this time around we would…

AS THE ADVERTS POINT out, the current JCW is the most powerful Mini ever. Production Mini, anyway. Its turbocharged 2-litre engine puts out 228bhp – Performance Pack Golf GTI power, in other words, but in a smaller, lighter package. The JCW’s engine really is a highlight of the car. The turn of pace it can provide feels spot on for this sub-GP Mini, making for rapid progress and easy overtaking, while falling short of overwhelming the car’s lively chassis. It also sounds the business, being nicely burbly at idle and suitably fruity on the move, especially when you engage Sport mode, which adds an extra layer of bass as you chase the red line, plus some amusing pops from the exhaust on the overrun and under braking. (Pity it also…

WHEN THE MP4-12C WAS LAUNCHED in early 2011, expectations weren’t just high, they were vertiginous. And, at first sight, the 12C met them all. Its core was a carbonfibre tub, or ‘MonoCell’, vastly strong but weighing just 75kg, which helped keep the kerb weight to a trim 1434kg. Power came from a 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-plane-crank V8, delivering a fierce 592bhp at 7000rpm and a tidal 442lb ft of torque from 3000 to 7000rpm. It drove the rear wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox with ‘Pre-Cog’, and the combination was electrifying. When evo attached a VBOX, we found it hit 60mph from standstill in 3sec dead and 100mph in a scarcely credible 6.4. It simply trounced its rivals, 458 Italia included. It was smarter, too. The ‘ProActive’ chassis had no anti-roll…

THE BEAT OF LUCA Dl MONTEZEMOLO'S brogued Oxfords pauses. Ferrari's disarmingly debonair chairman has been circling a scale model of a proposal for the company's new-for-2006 GT supercar and has detected a not-so-subtle buttress cascading from the roofline. Also in the room are Jason Castriota and Lorenzo Ramaciotti of Pininfarina. The former is apprehensive because as exterior designer he penned that buttress, rather likes it, and doesn't want it scrapped. The latter is more relaxed. He's been in the business since 1972, before young Castriota was born, and as Pininfarina's design director has every Ferrari since the 456 GT under his belt. Eventually di Montezemolo asks the inescapable question: 'What is it, and does it work?' The two designers have prepared for this moment. Several months earlier the buttresses started…