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It's not something that founder Enzo Ferrari would have conceived but Ferrari has unveiled a green concept car that runs on E85 fuel: a blend of 85 per cent ethanol and 15 per cent petrol that reduces CO2 emissions 5 per cent.
The company says the fuel also boosts power from the car's 4.3-litre V8 engine by 7.5kW and torque by 4 per cent.
The concept, based on the F430 Spider and unveiled at the Detroit motor show, is part of Ferrari's programme to cut fuel consumption and emissions 40 per cent by 2012.
The F430 Spider Biofuel uses technology developed to meet new bio-fuel regulations in Formula One racing.
All road-going Ferrari cars can already use up to 10 per cent ethanol (E10) without any modification whatsoever.
But with the F430 Spider Biofuel, changes were made to the fuel feed system and to the engine central processing unit (CPU) to allow the engine to use E85.
The new CPU enables the F430 Spider BioFuel to run on either pure petrol or an 85 per cent ethanol and 15 per cent petrol blend, without changing the compression ratio.
All of the other technical characteristics of the standard 4.3-litre V8 remain unchanged.
General manager Amedeo Felisa said earlier Ferrari wanted to reduce CO2 emissions from 400g per km per vehicle to 280-300 by the same target date.
"We have to face the challenge of reducing consumption but not affecting the performance of the car," he said.
"Otherwise we move [away] from our position in the market and we do not want to do that."
Felisa said Ferrari engineers were looking at everything from improving the performance of the engine to using lighter materials for the body of the car.
"The answer is efficiency," he said.
Ferrari, 85 per cent owned by Fiat, invests 17 per cent of its sales in research and development.
The European Commission is preparing legislation to require average CO2 emissions from new cars to come down to 120g per km by 2012. The New Zealand Government is looking at a draft plan for 170g/km by 2015.
All of the major car-makers in Europe are far away from the EU goal of 120g/100km but some are making progress.
In the greater scheme of things, Felisa said he did not think Ferrari was causing much damage.
"Our volumes will not ... affect the environment."
