Street spotted — Ferrari-red 2019 Ferrari GTC4Lusso
Recently I spotted one of my dream cars in the most unlikely of places — parked outside a Costco Business Center — and yet, if you think about it, this location makes perfect sense. The GTC4Lusso was designed to be the daily driver of Ferraris, so how better to demonstrate that than on a Costco run?
I, too, had been grocery shopping on a Costco run. I had arrived in my red RAV4 Prime just before they closed for the day, so by the time I left the store to return to my SUV, the parking lot had emptied.
As I was walking, I spotted a red Ferrari in the next aisle over to mine. I left my my large Costco flatbed shopping cart, pulled out my iPhone and walked across the aisle to take a picture of the Ferrari.
This was not just any Ferrari. This was a 4-seater Ferrari hatchback sportscar. It was beautiful, Ferrari-red in color (the best color for a Ferrari, as far as I’m concerned) and, unlike other Ferraris, it is practical. That is something that I have always sought in a sportscar but rarely found.
Perhaps the closest I ever came to owning a practical, daily driven sportscar was my then new, red, 1975 Datsun 280-Z 2+2. It had a (tiny) back seat, a hatchback design with a decent-sized luggage compartment and it was, indeed, a sportscar, but its extra weight and length compared to the 2-seat version of that car significantly took its toll on its competitive performance, as I soon learned when I unsuccessfully autocrossed it in CASC (the Canadian equivalent to the SCCA) stock class competition.
I tried to improve its competitive performance potential by having the electronic fuel injection replaced with triple Weber carburetors, making suspension modifications and more, but its extra length and weight also made it uncompetitive in its new competition class for modified cars. Similarly modified 2-seat Datsun 280-Z and other sportscars in that new class were quicker. Worse yet, my modifications, combined with the poor jetting of the Weber carburetors (it bogged badly upon hard acceleration at low RPMs), also made it much worse as a street car.
The Ferrari, with regards to its practicality as a daily driver, is also very unlike my 2019, 30th. Anniversary, fourth generation Mazda MX-5 Miata — a reality that I came to understand all too well when I had to live with it as my daily driver for two months, while my RAV4 was being rebuilt — after being crashed into by a truck in a major hit-and-run accident on the freeway. The Miata’s tiny trunk with a small opening, and no back seat, does not work very well for Costco runs. Furthermore, it is difficult for me to get in and out of — so much so that I twisted and sprained my left knee doing so. It took months of physical therapy for me to recover, and that knee is still not 100% two years later.
Soon the owner of the Ferrari came out of Costco, to load his purchases into his car. I told him that I very much admired his car. Fortunately, he was willing to answer my questions about it and let me take photos of its cargo compartment…
… beautiful leather interior…
… and the 12-cylinder engine under its hood.
I learned that his is a 2019 model with a 6.3-liter, 680 hp V-12 engine…
… all-wheel-drive, four-wheel-steering…
… a backseat that folds down to provide more cargo capacity, and a practical hatchback design that provides easy access for loading and transporting larger items.
He uses it as a daily driver, and it has been reliable. That is my idea of an ideal sportscar — something that is fun to drive, beautiful to look at and also practical.
Needless to say, I absolutely love this car, but sadly I will never be able to afford one. The current used price of a Ferrari GTC4Lusso is nearly as high as what its new MSRP was ($260,750.). At least I got to see it and hear the sound of its glorious V-12 engine when he started it and drove it away.
To learn more about the incredible and practical 2019 Ferrari GTC4Lusso, a Google search will reveal plenty of articles on popular enthusiast websites, or visit here on the Ferrari website: https://www.ferrari.com/en-EN/auto/gtc4lusso.
To explore a wide variety of content dating back to 2002, with the most photos and the latest text, visit “AutoMatters & More” at https://automatters.net. Search by title or topic in the Search Bar in the middle of the Home Page or click on the blue ‘years’ boxes and browse.
My original comment did get through. It needs a correction. A coupe with a chopped back is called a Shooting Brake. David.
Jan, it looks like my comment never turned up. I’ll have to send it again. David
Hi Jan. It’s always nice to see a red Ferrari in your own backyard. I believe a two door sports car with a chopped rear end is called a Racing Brake…I’m not sure. I saw a red Ferrari drop top at my local CVS pharmacy a few years ago…I’ll send you a pic.
Great to see your 1975 280Z. I remember you had a 1970 240Z. I owned new a 1970 240Z in Montreal, which might have been the first in all of Canada. I recall all this because it was your post of your 1970 Z that caught my attention on the now defunct DriveTribe. Those were the days when posts attracted hundreds of viewers. David
Hi David,
Thank you for your comment.
While I could see my 1975 Datsun 280-Z 2+2 in my mind, finding an actual picture of it to include in this column was much more difficult. Key wording and storing photos on searchable hard drives makes it relatively easy to find pictures if I remember have taken them in the last 25 years or so, but my thousands of pictures taken before that were either buried in dozens of unindexed photo albums — some with their negative strips, or hidden in dozens of 100-slide slide trays. Then, assuming I can even find the photos that I’m looking for there, I need to digitize them so that I can import them into my computer system.
The worst quality alternative would be to take pictures of prints. Fortunately, I have a rig that enables me to achieve much higher quality results. I spent several hours last night relearning how to use that. I found, digitized, imported, and edited that one 280-Z 2+2 photo for this column. Here’s how.
As you may remember, several years ago I switched from Nikon to Canon gear. I sold almost all of my Nikon gear but, fortunately, I kept one particular 60mm F2.8 Nikon lens and a compatible Nikon digitizing apparatus that attaches to the front of that lens. Inserted into that apparatus can be either a two-slide tray or a negative film strip tray.
For the back end of that lens, I have a third-party lens adapter that lets me attach that Nikon lens to my Canon RF-mount cameras. However, my Canon cameras will not communicate with that (or any other) Nikon lens, so my Canon cameras do not recognize that a lens is attached. Autofocus does not work, so I manually focus the lens. I phoned Canon last night to learn how to get the shutter to release when a lens is not attached.
All that, for one picture…
Jan
The nicely appointed storage in the Ferrari is perfect for loading up cases of champagne. This makes me think, if only I was buying my champagne at Costco, I too could be affording a nice Italian sports car… or maybe not. Cheers!
John,
If you buy your champagne at Costco, that probably will help save you some money, but your Ferrari would probably best be a scale model diecast!
Jan