Baby Ferrari F149 set for Paris 08 Motor Show debut?

The internet has been alive with rumours that Ferrari may be working on a spiritual successor to the Dino for quite some time now. As Ferrari builds ever faster and more expensive models, the business case for a less expensive, smaller, more fuel efficient Ferrari no-doubt becomes more attractive.

Ferrari have never wavered from denying all such allegations, stating that a smaller, cheaper Ferrari would push the Maranello based manufacturer beyond the limited production volumes that they are comfortable with, currently around 6,000 cars per annum. However, the world’s press has remained relentless, despite these denials and now Autoweek are reporting that they even know the internal codename for the alleged baby Fezza and are referring to it as the F149.

Should the existence of a baby Ferrari be true, it would sit below the current F430 in the Ferrari family hierarchy. It is speculated that the F149 would share the F430’s 4.3-litre V8’s block but feature direct injection. This doesn’t quite ring true as a direct-injection version of the F430’s V8 would logically be more powerful than the current F430’s engine and when placed in a smaller lighter body , well - you do the maths. Ferrari would be foolish to produce a new, smaller, cheaper car that outperforms their existing premium models – unless of course there are plans to power-up the F430.

It is also claimed that the F149 will be based on Maserati’s GranTurismo architecture and that development is far enough along to possibly allow for a Paris Motor Show preview in September this year. We won’t be holding our breath in the meantime.

[Source: Autoweek via Autoblog]