Fahrradi Farfalla FFX could just be the world's slowest supercar
It sure looks like a Ferrari special edition
Look quickly at the Fahrradi Farfalla FFX and you might mistake it for a
limited edition Ferrari. Scan a little more closely, though, and you'll
notice the thin, hollow wheels and barren interior. Something is
certainly amiss, and it's because the FFX isn't one of the world's most
exotic supercars. It's one of the world's most exotic bicycles.
With four wheels, it's technically a quad-cycle.
It's modeled after some of Ferrari's most powerful supercars, with
clear Enzo and FXX influence, but it doesn't offer a single horsepower
of its own. Instead, it offers up to 2 human power in the form of a pair
of pedals, cranks and gears.
The FFX is the latest creation of MT Racing, where the slogan
"Millionaires Snail Luxury" gives you an idea of what's going on. It's
the successor to the firm's original supercycle – the Porsche-aping
Ferdinand GT3 RS. MT appears to be a venture of artistic, intellectual
types (Austrian hipsters judging by their images and ad nauseum use of
irony) as opposed to gearheads, which explains why the mechanics of
their "cars" have more in common with 12-speeds than supercars.
While the pointed nose and deep nostrils on the FFX are clearly
related to the Enzo/FXX, the car isn't a simple replica. Instead, it
pulls influence from both real cars and design studies, creating what MT
Racing calls an "anticipation of a future top model of an actually
existing automobile brand." The brand is clearly Ferrari, and the
designers add modern Ferrari design language like the 458-like vertical
headlamps. We'll see how accurate its prognostication is when Ferrari
introduces the Enzo successor.
Inside, one or two "drivers" sit atop the tubular aluminum frame and
pedal their way around town with the use of an 11-speed hub gearbox.
Thanks to an even greater transmission ratio than the Ferdinand GT3 RS,
MT Racing is effective in making the FFX even slower than its
predecessor, a "serious rival for pedestrians in street traffic." It can
race pedestrians day or night thanks to the use of around 200
ultra-bright LEDs in its lighting system.
MT Racing has nearly as much fun playing with language as it does
with bending the rules of auto design. The Fahrradi name is a pairing of
the German Fahrrad, which means bicycle, and an "i" that simultaneously
takes influence from Apple's infamous "i" and plays phonetically on
Ferrari. The Farfalla is taken from the Italian "butterfly" and
references part of the drive mechanism. Rather than something
straightforward like a "pedaled supercar," MT categorizes the FFX as a
[human] "muscle car."
The Fahrradi Farfalla FFX is currently on display at the Lentos
Museum of Art in Linz, Austria. MT Racing doesn't indicate if it plans
to put this functional sculpture up for sale, so no word on how the
price of a pedaled supercar one-off compares to the real thing.
You can watch some hot footage of the FFX in the video below. Just be
prepared to sit through repetitive "vrooms" and other forms of
exaggerated visual and audio jokes. Depending upon your disposition, it
may be humorous and whimsical or gratingly annoying and overdone.
