The Ferrari Mythos is a

mid-engine In automotive engineering, a mid-engine layout describes the placement of an automobile engine in front of the rear-wheel axles, but behind the front axle. History The mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive format can be considered the original layout o ...

, rear wheel drive

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...

based on the mechanical underpinnings of the

Ferrari Testarossa The Ferrari Testarossa (Type F110) is a 12-cylinder mid-engine sports car manufactured by Ferrari, which went into production in 1984 as the successor to the Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer. The Pininfarina-designed car was originally produced from ...

. Designed by Italian design house

Pininfarina Pininfarina S.p.A. (short for Carrozzeria Pininfarina) is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder, with headquarters in Cambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930. On 14 December 2015, the Indian ...

and developed by automobile manufacturer Ferrari, its world premiere was at the 1989 Tokyo Motor Show.

Design

The design was implemented on the platform of the

, which dictated the car's wedge shape and large air intake ahead of the rear wheels. The design of the Mythos later evolved into the

Ferrari F40 The Ferrari F40 (''tipo'' F120) is a mid-engine, rear-wheel drive sports car engineered by Nicola Materazzi with styling by Pininfarina. It was built from 1987 until 1992, with the LM and GTE race car versions continuing production until 1994 ...

's successor, the F50. The show car is stored at the Pininfarina style center at

Cambiano Cambiano ( pms, Cambiagn) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southeast of Turin. Cambiano borders the following municipalities: Pino Torinese, Chieri, Pecetto Torinese ...

(Italy).

Performance

The Mythos is powered by a 4.9 L ''Tipo F113 B''

Ferrari flat-12 engine The Ferrari flat-12 engine family is a series of flat-12 DOHC petrol engines produced by Ferrari from 1964 to 1996. The first racing Ferrari flat-12, the Mauro Forghieri-designed ''Tipo 207'', was introduced in the Ferrari 1512 F1 car in 1964. Lat ...

sourced from the Testarossa, the engine has a power output of at 6,300 rpm and of torque at 4,500 rpm while having a power to weight ratio of 308 hp per tonne. Power is sent to the rear wheels through a Testarossa sourced 5-speed

manual transmission A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission system, where gear chang ...

. The car utilises a helical coil suspension system with transverse arms on the front and rear. Acceleration figures of the car remain unknown but the car has a projected top speed of around .

Production

Although not intended to be sold to the public, the current Sultan of

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...

Hassanal Bolkiah Hassanal Bolkiah ibni Omar Ali Saifuddien III ( Jawi: ; born 15 July 1946) is the 29th and current Sultan and Yang di-Pertuan of Brunei since 1967 and the Prime Minister of Brunei since independence from the United Kingdom in 1984. He is on ...

, is known to have commissioned two Mythos, with one being red and the other being turquoise, although it is unclear which cars in the Sultan's collections belong to which family members as clear records do not exist.

Gallery

Other media

Though never officially produced, the Mythos was prominently featured in the 1990 award-winning arcade racing game video game '' Test Drive III''.

References

External links

Technical Information

Photographs of the mythos

Mythos Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...