If you grew up with video games, as I partly did, before skateboarding took up my entire waking life, you might remember the incredibly cool arcade video game Out Run? Out Run was introduced in 1986 by Sega, the video game company, and it really became a mega hit. In the game, you drive a Ferrari Testarossa convertible that you have to drive as fast as you can along a road with various things to stop you. The car is seen obliquely from above and from behind. You have a blonde sitting next to you and a little fun detail is that you can choose the radio channel you listen to while driving, playing. 

But let's move on to what this article is going to be about. Namely, an Italian forty-year-old on four wheels! 2024 is, to say the least, a special year when it comes to famous car models and a Swedish hypersports car brand that turns the same age. As you may have seen here on carscollection.com, I have published an article about the car models Volkswagen Golf and Lamborghini Countach which both turn 50 this year. Then our own Swedish hyper sports car brand turns 30 this year. But then, as I said, Ferrari Testarossa also turns forty this year. 

Below is an article about Ferrari Testarossa that was published in Cars Collection number 12 and is written by the now deceased Gunnar Elmgren who contributed with articles to Cars Collection. The pictures from Italy were taken by my father Bengt Ason Holm during one of his trips down to Ferrari where he collected material for Cars Collection and appeared in issue 29 which had a longer article about Ferrari. Then he got to follow one of Ferrari's test drivers out in a Testarossa that he took the pictures of. 

I made a photograph of an incredibly nice and well-preserved Ferrari Testarossa for this article. The Testarossa is owned by a man called Rickard Fritz who lives in the Jönköping area. Rickard's Testarossa is a Swedish-sold 88 which, after a couple of years with its first owner, was exported to Germany when he moved there for work. It has the same specification as the first Testarossa that was premiered in 1984 and it was a car with that specification that Rickard wanted. It was the same version as the one he had as a toy when he was a kid. After a couple more years abroad, the owner and the Testarossa moved back home to Sweden. It has lived a very sheltered life and has only travelled just over 3000 miles. The previous owner had the car for 19 years and drove only 122 miles! Rickard intends to use it a lot more. It was a real pleasure to see and take pictures of Rickard's Testarossa. 

Ferrari Testarossa 

By Gunnar Elmgren for Cars Collection

Testa Rossa, Testa Rossa, Testarossa ... words that become poetry for all true Ferraristi, for those who understand that a Ferrari has not only a seven-seater engine but also a great soul.Testa Rossa, or Testarossa as the name is written today, is one of many classic Ferrari names transferred from the racing cars to the street cars. A name in the same category as GTB, GTO or Mondial. Testa Rossa means red head, red cap. But testa also means top hat. The red cap became a car name when the first generation Testa Rossa with the type designation 500 TR got "testirossi", red cylinder heads or, if we are to be technically correct, red cam boxes. The traditional black shrink wrap gave way to a fiery red colour that adorned the top of the four-cylinder Lampredi-designed two-litre engine. The 500 TR was developed from the four-cylinder Grand Prix carriage with which Alberto Ascari won the World Championship in 1952 and 1953. The same four-cylinder family also included the 500 Mondial, 750 Monza and 860 Monza, to name the most famous. The final evolution of the four-cylinder Testa Rossa was the 2.0-litre 500 TRC, the last letter of which indicated that it was built according to the Ap-Pendix C of the International Motor Sport Code, which stipulated, among other things, that sports cars must have a seat cover, a luggage compartment, lighting and a windscreen of a certain height, fitted with a windscreen wiper.

Last 4th?

The famous, almost glorious Testa Rossan, arrived later that year after being damaged as a prototype in the spring at the Nürburgring. Of course it had a V12 engine, as befits a three-litre engine with 0.25 litres volume per cylinder and designated 250 TR. The engine was a very advanced construction for the time with double overhead camshafts per cylinder bank, thus what the Anglo-Saxon world calls a quad-cam. Power output was around 300 hp DIN at 7,200 rpm. Guess what colour the cam boxes were?

Wolf in sheep's clothing

The legendary Testa Rossan appeared in several guises. The engine power was increased, it soon got a de Dion rear axle and it was available both as an open racing sports car and as a somewhat more civilised two-door two-seater coupe. The latter was of course something of a wolf in sheep's clothing mostly intended for long distance road racing but perhaps also as a toy for the occasional playboy. The Testa Rossa was in the Ferrari programme until 1962. Long after the model was discontinued and replaced by new, equally exciting cars, the name lived on. In Sweden, we remember a 500 TRC that was long in the Stockholm area but now sold abroad. In Finland, there was a twelve-cylinder 250 TR owned by the great Finnish motorsport enthusiast Carl-Johan Askolin and was part of his Finnish Ferrari team where the star drivers were Curt Lincoln and Carl-Otto Brehmer.

Now the name is back!

Of course, it was not only in the Nordic
latitudes that the name Testa Rossa became motoring poetry. It lived just as powerfully all over the world, and Ferrari's contribution to nostalgia was to eventually give all the Ferraristi of the world back one of the great names. But to mark more modern times, they chose to write. Sweeping lines and beautiful shapes... like so many times before when it comes to innovation, there are of course many opinions. Some may find it difficult to reconcile themselves with Pininfarina's masterpiece. It is, after all, radically different and of course not for everyone. But the fact that the horizontal mouldings that start at the front of the door and end in the
air intakes are starting to appear in car manufacturers is a sure sign of a new trend. Other and larger manufacturers will surely follow suit as soon as they can honourably emulate Pininfarina, which has been a true pioneer many times before.

A moment to remember - the Testarossa made its debut at the fashionable Lido on the Champs Elysées in Paris. To simply present the car at the motor show would have been too mundane for both Ferrari and Pininfarina.Testarossa in a word, just as Pinin Farina once chose to change its family name to Pininfarina. The name Pininfarina has been closely linked to Ferrari for decades and it was Pininfarina who designed the new Testarossa. As early as 1968, they presented a car called the Ferrari 250 P5 Berlinetta. Like the Lamborghini LP 500 - the Bertone prototype that later became the Lamborghini Countach - the P5 was a car that seemed almost improbably advanced in the late sixties. In fact, it was so advanced that it took until 1984 for it to enter series production. This was no doubt because the Lamborghini Countach had held the Supercar title for many years and had thus penetrated Ferrari's territory.

Much left from the P5

When the Testarossa premiered in the latter half of 1984, many of the traits of Pininfarina's P5 were of course still there. The mid-engine, the extreme streamlined shape with a soft muzzle and a high, wide rear end with huge air intakes between the doors and rear wheels. But the body shape was more refined, the gull-wing doors were replaced by conventional doors which are actually something to rejoice about if you are not a photographer or a poser of extraordinary calibre and the air intakes on the sides were even more prominent. Perhaps most importantly, Ferrari's classic V12 had increasingly been replaced by the new classic, Ferrari's boxer engine that first appeared in the racing cars and then found its way to the Berlinetta Boxer. Those who remember will recall that the Boxer came in two versions, the original 365 BB and the later 512 BB.

The sound disappeared with the 12

With the V12, the symphonic sound that Ferrari had offered the motoring world for many years disappeared. The Boxer may be a more modern, more efficient engine in a more easily positioned format. But the sound sensation of the classic V12 will never be surpassed!
The heart of the Testarossa was thus the boxer engine, which now in the 459-litre version produced 390 hp DIN at 6,200 rpm and a torque pả fabulous 490 Nm at 4,500 rpm. More engine facts: bore and stroke measure 82×78 mm, compression 9.2:1, a Bosch K-Jetronic injection system feeds the giant engine with a modest two litres of premium petrol per mile in mixed driving. The engine is of course a quad-cam with toothed belt.

1 P5

48 valves! Most important of all - it is four-valved. When
Ferrari's supercar came with a total of forty-eight valves, it was not long before Maserati's old master designer Giulio Alfieri, now in charge of Lamborghini, created the Countach Quttrovalvole, a four-valve refinement of the supercar that had been undisputed for ten years. Order has thus been restored to some extent. The Lamborghini produced 455 hp DIN at 7,000 rpm and thus regained the coveted title of the world's fastest production car. Credible testers have driven the Countach a few kilometres over the three hundred. The Ferrari pours itself pả "our" side of the 300 mark, topping out at just over 290. But you have to remember that it takes a top-tuned car, a wide and uncrowded test track and a very skilful driver to reach super speeds. Acceleration is unbelievable - a magazine test of a very well-used Testarossa found 0-50 in 2.5 seconds. 0-100 in 5.6 and 0-150 in 10.9. The fact that the standing quarter mile, i.e. 400 metres with a standing start, took 13.5 seconds, suggests that a healthy specimen could have achieved even better times! To stop the Testarossa's progress, the car has ventilated 310 mm disc brakes with servos all round. The rest of the chassis: a tubular frame covered with steel, aluminium and plastic in appropriate quantities, front 240/45VR 415, rear 280/45VR 415 (Michelin TRX) connected to the frame by double wishbones, struts and anti-roll bars at the front and double wishbones with double struts and anti-roll bars at the rear. The steering is of course with rack and pinion and servo.

It's big - too!

The Testarossa is not only an incredibly fast car, it's big too. The kerb weight is just over 1.700 kg, the length 4.485 mm, the width a sensational 1.976 cm and the height 1.130 mm. The wheelbase is 2.550 mm and the front span 1.518 mm. The Testarossa is wide across the hips, the rear span is 1,660. The width across the rear is emphasised by the large air intakes, which are already hinted at on the doors and are perhaps the car's most characteristic feature. The reason is not that Pininfarina wanted to create a design for its own sake. To solve the usual supercar problem of unwelcome heat in the cabin, which plagued the Berlinetta Boxer, the radiators were placed behind the doors and in front of the rear wheels. The air for the air conditioning is taken into the front grill and through the spoiler. The air is discharged partly through a grille on top of the engine and partly at the rear. The body is entirely developed in Pininfarina's wind tunnel and has a CW pả 0.36 which is not even close to the more extreme cars. A standard car like Mercedes-Benz's new 230E, for example, has C=0.29. The frame is made up of square and round tubes with stiffening plates at strategic points to make the frame as torsionally rigid as possible.

The box under the boxer

The entire transmission is located under the engine, including the gearbox and final drive. This means that the centre of gravity is not as high as you might think - don't forget that the Boxer is a low engine - and the space savings are of course considerable. The gearbox is five-speed and the top speeds of the gears are 81, 126, 166, 218 and about 295 km/h. The speed per thousand revolutions in top gear is 43 km/hour. So the engine has to rev above 6,800 rpm to get anywhere near the 300 mark. Although the Countach beats the Testarossa in both top speed and horsepower, there is much in its favour. Among other things, the fact that it is significantly more drivable. You might not call it kinder. But the fact is that both engine and gearbox, according to unanimous data from credible independent testers, suggest that the Countach is more of a racing car in its nerves. Of course, one could also conclude that the Testarossa is slightly less stable at speeds above 250 km/h... perhaps an academic question for most but important for a discerning few. The luggage compartment should not play a major role for those who choose a Testarossa. There is always room for a large wallet and a briefcase with credit cards. However, the fact that the detailing, not least the interior, is so much more sophisticated on the Testarossa is certainly of great importance. Admittedly, it does not in any respect meet the standard that characterises Rolls Royce or Mercedes-Benz. But in the league of supercars it is in a class of its own.

Who buys Testarossa?

The question is well justified. This car costs just over three quarters of a million kronor. But you should not be poor, it helps to be a millionaire. Most buyers are probably millionaires too. But several will be enthusiasts who are well off.

Guaranteed to be unusual

For them, the Testarossa may fulfil the same function as a sailboat - a sophisticated creation that is actually quite useless but extremely pleasant to use. For those who do not have the time - or the desire - to get a sailboat, the Ferrari Testarossa is certainly very attractive. A car that better encapsulates Ferrari's tradition, engineering and charisma is hard to find. Whether it's good to look at or not may be a matter of taste. But it is certainly an unusual sculpture on four wheels. The Countach seems almost mass-produced, with just over one thousand cars made. The Testarossa is still only spoken of in hundreds. But already in the autumn of 1986 there were four Swedes who could solve the motor poetry that begins "I have a Ferrari, a Testarossa to be precise. The Testarossa is indeed a car, but not in the same way as the car you have. It has a soul that lives in the red cam boxes of the engine...

/Gunnar Elmgren

Testarossa

By Bengt Ason Holm for Cars Collection

Back in the office, the really big surprise awaited. When I had been in contact with the factory back in Sweden, I had asked for two things. Firstly, to visit the factory, and secondly to photograph a car on the test track. This was OK provided that there were no Formula 1 tests going on when I arrived. And it was also made clear to me that there could be no question of a test drive. They were very restrictive about that. And just as well, because getting behind the wheel of a car with that price tag would have felt a bit too responsible. Unfortunately, the Pista di Fiorano was busy (it would later turn out that it was our English colleague Ian Dawson who was there photographing the F40 on behalf of Road & Track magazine) but Andreoni had ordered a test driver with an attached Testarossa. Now the moment of truth was near!

200 out of Maranello

"He is at your disposal for one hour". It was too good to be true. The sun shone from a clear blue sky. In with new slower films in the cameras. Then it was off. Behind me I heard the sound of the big boxer and suddenly he downshifted and stamped on the accelerator. Your blue Fiat Uno disappeared from view in a split second and we approached the end of Via Abetone Inferiore. 170, inside Maranello! We passed a piazza where a policeman discreetly turned round so as not to see anything. He probably did hear. Out of Maranello. At the end of the long straight we had passed 200 and I felt that I was wet 1 palms. Then we turned onto a small road that led up towards the mountains and Ser-ramazzoni. I had a feeling what was coming. After passing the first hairpins with How full cord, I was drenched in sweat. How would this end? But my driver looked totally cool so I guess I had to be too. And if ever there was a time to be cool, it was now! He treated the big car as if it was a go-kart. Fully lined up in the bends. After a few minutes I was cool too (almost anyway) and started enjoying the ride. The guy who drove was absolutely superb and you realised that it was not the first time he drove here. In every curve of the serpentine road, the coating was black with rubber. It had been driven here before. And fast. Rapidissimo!

Suddenly I saw a roadworks sign a little further up the serpentines. Now he would probably have to slow down anyway. Max 20 km/h it said on the sign and full of men digging. Speed unchanged. 140, 150, 160. A quick downshift. 90. Out with the butt and foot on the accelerator. At 160 I passed the roadworks! The sight that greeted me was absolutely unforgettable. On the roadside, the old men were lined up with their arms in the air. Applauding and waving their shovels. They probably shouted Forza Ferrari too. Then they were gone.

Back to reality

Unfortunately, the hour was soon up and after a little photo session in the mountains, it was back to Maranello and Mr Andreoni who asked me how it had been. "Fantastic" was all I had to say. He looked at me a bit suspiciously and then I asked him to convey my thanks to my driver (who spoke only Italian and I did not). We parted ways and after thanking Andreoni, I walked across the street to Ristoranti Cavallino and had birra, antipasta, gnocci gorgonzola, frutta and cappucini. All for the easy price of 28,000 lire. Then I went out in the sun to my Kadett. Nice car!

/Bengt Ason Holm

Ferrari Testarossa
Engine: 5 litre V12, 390 horsepower, 480 Newton metres
Transmission: 5-speed manual gearbox, rear-wheel drive
Acceleration 0-100 km/h: 5.8 seconds
Top speed: 290 km/h
Weight: 1506
Dimensions (length/width/height): 4480/1970/1130 mm