Ferrari 458 Italia.

Ferrari has leaked more pictures and videos of it's upcoming mid-engine, V8 458 Italia and I must say, I don't like it. It doesn't stop me in my tracks and leave my mouth agape like a Ferrari should. I bet if you take the Ferrari badge off, most people would agree. I would even say most people would never guess it's a Ferrari. It reminds me of the Ascari KZ1.

Truth be told, the last Ferrari's to get me excited were the F355 and the 550 Maranello. These were the last Ferrari's that looked like Ferrari's.

I like the F430, but not enough to buy one over a Porsche 911 Turbo. The 360 Modena is boring to look at, as is the 599 and the 612 Scaglietti.

In fact, I think I lost a lot of the love I had for Ferrari.

I blame it on the F1 gearbox, which debuted on the F355F1. It was at this point, I feel, that Ferrari lost their passion and immersed themselves in technology. Their cars lost their human soul and became sort of the Terminators of the car world. They look enough like a Ferrari but underneath, it's all electronics, and with no feeling or soul.

Another point was when Ferrari said the 360 was "shaped in a wind tunnel."

What?

A Ferrari should be drawn by hand, shaped by the imagination of the designer.

I find Ferrari's new highly technological direction kind of ironic as well. Supposedly, Ferrari engineers in the early sixties had a tough time selling Il Commendatore on the benefits of disc brakes and independent rear suspension.

It's truly a shame because my love for cars was deeply influenced by Ferrari during my childhood. I have die-cast F40's, F50's, Testarossa's, 288 GTO's, 365 GTB/4's and 512 BB's. I watched "Miami Vice" just for the white Testarossa with beige interior. I knew more about the F40 than most people knew about their own parents.

I could look at a 365GTB/4 Daytona all day and then all night. In fact, that particular model is my favorite Ferrari, closely followed by the 512BB.

There have been ugly Ferrari's in the past as well, such as the 400i, Mondial 8 or 365GTC, so an ugly car is not a new thing.

Ferrari's direction is what bothers me. They seem to be moving away from creating rolling art that you drove and toward creating a rolling techno-sled that you steer.