Despite reports and rumors to the contrary, Ferrari officials say they plan to stick with making two-door sports cars and not branch out into the ultra-lucrative SUV and somewhat-lucrative motorcycle markets. Did anyone actually think they would?
These clarifications come direct from soon-to-be-gone chairman Luca di Montezemolo and chain-smoking, espresso-swilling speed demon Sergio Marchionne.
The UK's Autocar reports that both men, speaking at the Paris Motor Show recently, ruled out SUVs and sedans for the prancing horse brand:
"Marchionne wanted to build a truck," said di Montezemolo almost certainly in jest, "but I talked him out of it." For his part Marchionne said Ferrari would continue "to make two-door sports cars not SUVs or four-door cars."
Marchionne also claimed he doesn't want to inflate Ferrari's annual production numbers to 10,000 cars a year, which is interesting because that was supposedly one of the major sticking points between him and Montezemolo. Frankly, I'm not sure whether to believe Marchionne when he says that or not. We'll see.
As for the motorcycle rumors, they come from a document published recently on the European Patent Office website that showed a V-twin motorcycle engine.
Initially, the reaction to this was that Ferrari was making a motorcycle, but Motorcycle News shot these rumors down. A Ferrari spokesman told the publication that "there is no motorcycle future for Ferrari."
Motorcycle News explains the patent was merely used to illustrate a new type of engine balancing technology Ferrari seeks to patent, that's all.
So yeah. No SUVs or motorcycles from Ferrari.