His voice narrates and transmits passion and love for the cars he drives. Technical and synthetic, he’s the soul of Ferraris because he has developed and improved them with his experience. Founding element of Red successes.
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The King of Speed, the impossibly cool Dario Benuzzi (born January 1946) is a legendary Ferrari test driver. He has tested every production model following the Dino road cars as well as the company's F1 cars. As a chief test driver, he is responsible for its development work that involves spending five to six hours in a car daily at Ferrari's private track and on the road, then giving feedback to his team of test drivers and car engineers. Originally from the neighbouring Vignola, his career with the factory began in 1971 when as a mechanic, he applied for a job at Ferrari and soon, he began working in its prototype department. He gradually progressed from mechanic to trainee test driver under the auspice of chief test driver Roberto Lippi. From the late 1980s to 1993, when Nicola Larini stepped in, Benuzzi was the test driver for Ferrari's F1 cars. Benuzzi was named one of the "Men of the Year 2011" by Top Gear for beating unruly Ferraris into shape for 40 long years.
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At Ferrari you are certainly a legendary figure, in almost 50 years you have driven all the historic cars of the brand, which model has given you more emotions, a journalist asked him? "Actually all of them left me something, I have so many good memories at Ferrari. The first one I drove was the 365 Daytona, a wonderful car at the time, then the Dino, the legendary F40 that made history, I followed the development of the Testarossa, even though today they are not cars that I would buy. The only Ferrari that I would probably buy is the 488 Pista, one of the last ones I tried, perhaps the one that better balances performance and driving pleasure, a truly unusual model. I don't say this because I'm biased but I'm still convinced that Ferrari makes the best sports cars in the world, both in terms of performance and safety and driving pleasure".
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He is one of those technicians whose skill is still measured with the chronometer. Indeed with the responses of Fiorano photocells. Dario Benuzzi is the man who gave birth, weaned but also tortured the F50. He also tried the F1, those of Prost, Mansell and Berger. Benuzzi is in love with his «F50», his like no other. He knows every secret, every reaction of it. "There are no such cars. It has qualities and limits that you can't even imagine. It goes like a missile but you drive it easily even in city traffic. We worked hard for four years to make it perfect, both on the track and on the road. A painstaking job to give her the qualities that perhaps were missing from the "GTO" and the "F40". It's easy to drive, sincere despite its enormous power. Fantastic beyond 4000 rpm, it may seem a bit empty under this regime. But is not so. And then with the naturally aspirated engine you can avoid those sudden torque discharges of the F40 turbo engine. We have made it perfectly neutral, to take advantage of the qualities of the mid-engine, to make it more stable, more manageable with a minimum understeer at the limit. And then there have been many, many kilometers of road improvement. Example: docile and safe brakes even without ABS and steering wheel, precise, light even without the servo. Then the suspensions: thanks to the computer they adapt themselves to any ground, the smooth of the track or the bumpy of a state road; at every speed, in every corner. And with the very rigid carbon structure, no vibrations or creaking sounds can be heard. Even the air conditioning does not give problems. The noise? That we left them. The Ferrari customer pays hundreds of thousands to hear it. God forbid us to take it from them».
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