IEEE Spectrum April, 2012 - 4

back story
EditoriAl
Susan hassler, s.hassler@ieee.org

Editor in chiEf

ExEcutivE Editor

The Car
Made of
Unobtainium

ManaGinG Editor

Jean Kumagai, j.kumagai@ieee.org; Samuel K.
Moore (news), s.k.moore@ieee.org; tekla S. Perry, t.perry@
ieee.org; Philip E. ross, p.ross@ieee.org; david Schneider,
d.a.schneider@ieee.org

SEnior aSSociatE EditorS Steven cherry (resources),
s.cherry@ieee.org; Erico Guizzo, e.guizzo@ieee.org

rachel courtland, r.courtland@ieee.org;
Joshua J. romero (online), j.j.romero@ieee.org; Eliza Strickland,
e.strickland@ieee.org

aSSociatE EditorS

coPy Editor

Joseph n. levine, j.levine@ieee.org

Michele Kogon, m.kogon@ieee.org

Editorial rESEarchEr

alan Gardner, a.gardner@ieee.org

ExEcutivE ProducEr, SPEctruM radio

Sharon Basco

aSSiStant ProducEr, SPEctruM radio

francesco ferorelli,

f.ferorelli@ieee.org
adMiniStrativE aSSiStantS ramona foster, r.foster@ieee.org;
nancy t. hantman, n.hantman@ieee.org
contriButinG EditorS Mark anderson, John Blau, robert n.
charette, Peter fairley, david Kushner, robert W. lucky,
Paul Mcfedries, Prachi Patel, Seema Singh, richard Stevenson,
William Sweet, lawrence ulrich, Paul Wallich

Art & productioN
SEnior art dirEctor

Mark Montgomery

aSSociatE art dirEctor

Brandon Palacio

Photo & MultiMEdia Editor
Photo intErn

randi Silberman Klett

Marietta leung

dirEctor, PEriodicalS Production SErvicES
Editorial & WEB Production ManaGEr
SEnior ElEctronic layout SPEcialiSt
WEB Production coordinator

Peter tuohy

roy carubia
Bonnie nani

Jacqueline l. Parker

MultiMEdia Production SPEcialiSt

Michael Spector

EditoriAl AdviSory BoArd
Susan hassler, Chair; Gerard a. alphonse, Marc t. apter,
francine d. Berman, Jan Brown, raffaello d'andrea, J. roberto B.
de Marca, Kenneth y. Goldberg, Susan hackwood, Bin he, Erik
heijne, charles h. house, christopher J. James, ruby B. lee, John
P. lewis, tak Ming Mak, carmen S. Menoni, david a. Mindell,
c. Mohan, fritz Morgan, andrew M. odlyzko, larry l. Smarr, harry
l. tredennick iii, Sergio verdú, Jeffrey M. voas, William Weihl,
Kazuo yano

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Lawrence ULrich

they often showcase technologies
that will show up in production
cars in another decade or so.
Of course, some things-
like the gas-guzzling 485-kilowatt
V-12 engine-may never reach
the shopping mall. "You have to
remember, these fantasy cars are
made mostly of unobtainium,"
Ulrich says. "A $30 000 car that
does what it's designed to do can
in fact be more impressive."
Just how unobtainable the
car is struck Ulrich after he took
the FF on the Autostrada, got it
up to around 270 kilometers per
hour (170 miles per hour), and
turned into a truck stop to fill
its 90-liter tank. The bill came
to $160-a personal best (or worst).
"The attendant was amused at the
look on my face," Ulrich says.
o

IEEE Spectrum publishes two editions. in the international edition, the abbreviation int appears at the foot
of each page. the north american edition is identified with the letters na. Both have the same editorial
content, but because of differences in advertising, page numbers may differ. in citations, you should include
the issue designation. for example, the data is in IEEE Spectrum, vol. 49, no. 4 (int), april 2012, p. 60, or in
IEEE Spectrum, vol. 49, no. 4 (na), april 2012, p. 72.

NA * iEEE SpEctrum * April 2012

Willie d. Jones, w.jones@ieee.org

SEnior coPy Editor

citiNg ArticlES iN iEEE SpEctrum

harry Goldstein, h.goldstein@ieee.org

Elizabeth a. Bretz, e.bretz@ieee.org

SEnior EditorS

aSSiStant Editor

f you want to test-drive an
SUV under winter conditions,
any empty, snow-filled parking
lot will do. But Ferrari, being
Ferrari, wanted to make more
of a statement. So to show off
its first-ever SUV, the Italian
supercar maker put our own
Lawrence Ulrich [right] and a
band of colleagues into a cable
car and ran them up the Plan
de Corones, a mountain in the
Dolomites, in the South Tyrol.
There, waiting for the journalists, were six Ferrari FFs-
sleek, red, and menacing.
Each one had been airlifted
individually by Chinook
helicopter. "The mountains
were actually pink, especially when
the sun hit them right," Ulrich says.
"Everything looked like The Sound
of Music." Except for the racecourse
carved into the wintry wonderland.
"They had dug out a snow
course wide enough for a car, with
maybe a dozen curves," Ulrich
says. "First we rode shotgun,
alongside Ferrari's driver, Raffaele
De Simone. Then we each got to
jump in and test a car ourselves."
There's no denying the thrill
of slaloming US $300 000 worth
of superexotic Italian apparatus
through the legendary highlands
that gave the world yodeling,
funny shoes, and odd leather
breeches. But such cars are more
than just aphrodisiacs for the
middle-aged and paunchy, because

Glenn Zorpette, g.zorpette@ieee.org

Editorial dirEctor, diGital

http://spectrum.ieee.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum April, 2012