What Engine Is In This Ferrari Enzo And Why Is It So Amazing?

Before the 2006 Formula One season, there was a Ferrari Enzo spotted running around the streets near the Ferrari factory. An Enzo with a NACA duct in the nose and a huge exhaust. So what was it? An F1 testbed or an FXX Prototype?

Just last week, we saw video of the LaFerrari running Ferrari's Fiorano Circuit, but the sound was far different, and that's because the noise wasn't V12 fury, it was a turbo whine. Next year, Formula One is switching to tiny V6 turbo engines, and while there is no confirmation that the LaFerrari was running a new F1 engine, it sure seems like the case.


In 2006, Formula One switched to 2.4 liter V8 engines after years of 3.0 liter V10 power. Like every year, the manufacturers needed to test out the new engines. And it was assumed that Ferrari, being Ferrari, did not put it in an F1 car. No. They put it in an Enzo.

Because of course they did.

In our story on the definitely turbocharged LaFerrari, the story of an Enzo with the 248 F1 engine popped up in our comments, along with an image of the rear. We got excited. An Enzo with an F1 engine? That's almost as cool as the Renault Espace F1.


Ferrari is notoriously secretive about any sort of prototype or anything, so they weren't going to be forthcoming with what this car was. Most of the information you find online is just people saying that this is definitely an F1 engined Enzo, but they have precisely zero facts or sources to back that up. Yes, I know, if it's on the internet it's almost definitely true, but I decided to try and find some data.

Around the same time that Ferrari was developing the V8 for F1, they were also developing the ultimate Enzo, the FXX, a V12 monster that sounds a lot like a high pitched F1 car to discerning and non-discerning ears alike.

Like the FXX, this Enzo has a NACA duct in the nose, a different exhaust, and different aero. Much like the Enzo's prototype, which was based on a loose conglomeration of random parts in a Frankenstein 348 shell, this prototype seems like it was testing a powertrain, not all the aero bits that went into an FXX. This website corroborates my thinking that it's an FXX, not an F1-powered Enzo, but you never know. I've been scouring the web for more photos or videos, and that is the most extensive set that I could find.

The idea of an F1-powered Enzo is so romantic, so perfect, that I just don't want to let it die. Any other photos, videos, theories or lies out there that keep the hope alive?