The Sport Wagon Enthusiast

SWGreen: 875-bhp Bio-Powered Ferrari FF

The Ferrari FF is a revolutionary shooting brake. As the first four-wheel drive, four seat Ferrari, the FF had to overcome its birth as a pariah (to the tastes of Ferrari purists). But with its 651bhp V12 that revs to a stratospheric 8,000 rpms, most critics were quickly won over. To make the FF even more potent, several aftermarket tuners have advocated differing performance strategies. There’s the typical stage one tune with a revised exhaust, an intake, and an ECU flash. For even more power, many tuners (like Novitec Rosso) add forced induction in the form of twin superchargers. Yet, the FF has emissions befitting a twelve-cylinder engine, and these tuning schemes only exacerbate its carbon footprint. Enter the rarely seen and “green” performance tune: Bio-ethanol engine conversions.

Norweigan firm Customized.no offers this ethanol conversion for the new Ferrari FF. And the price is right too. For under $3,000, FF owners can install (or in all likelihood, pay to have installed) the full conversion kit. And don’t worry, it doesn’t require the installation of an LPG tank. Best of all, it appears that Ferrari is open to working with Bio-ethanol tuners, as a Ferrari dealership actually performed one of the first conversions.

By running E85 ethanol—85% ethanol and 15% gasoline—the modified FF produces an additional power output of 23%. That means the E85 FF yields a serious 875-bhp. Like the Koenigsegg CCXR (which produces 21% more power on ethanol—1,020 hp), the E85-powered FF gains power due to the higher octane content (between 100 and 113) and the cooling principles of ethanol (a cooler intake charge). With its revolutionary four wheel drive system (which weighs 50% less than conventional systems), a bio-fueled FF can surpass sixty miles per hour in under 3 seconds. Like the 950-bhp Essing Dieseltuning RS6 Avant, this FF can hang with a Bugatti Veyron. With a stock top speed of 208, we’d expect this 875-bhp Ferrari to easily eclipse 215 mph. Easily one of the world’s fastest wagons.

Aside from prodigious power gains, running bio-ethanol through the FF’s converted V12 results in 80% less carbon emissions than the stock model—an ever-present concern with the Euro 5 emissions standards. Of course, there are well-documented environmental problems with ethanol, so this solution is only “green” insofar as the cars direct emissions (rather than the total carbon footprint from growing, transporting, and refining ethanol). And for all the hype about extra power and lower emissions, converted gasoline engines require more ethanol than gasoline for traveling the same distance—the E85-powered FF gets worse fuel economy. We’d also be interested to see how the V12 holds up over time with ethanol, as E85 can deteriorate certain internal engine components. Bio-ethanol conversions certainly offer improved performance, but there’s always a downside.