{"id":9134,"date":"2026-05-29T11:54:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T15:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/?p=9134"},"modified":"2026-05-29T11:54:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T15:54:43","slug":"the-luce-wasnt-first-controversial-ferrari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/the-luce-wasnt-first-controversial-ferrari\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferrari Built a Four-Door the Purists Hated, Then Buried It. That Was 1980. The Single Prototype That Survived Now Costs Almost Exactly What Ferrari Is Charging for the New Luce"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ferrari Luce<\/a> has launched, and controversy has followed. Purists have labeled the four-door EV as ugly, overpriced, and very much not a Ferrari. Some have praised certain elements of the vehicle\u2019s interior, which was partially designed by Jony Ive, but all in all the Prancing Horse\u2019s first EV has not gone down well.<\/p>\n

But as the old saying goes, nothing is new under the sun. And Ferrari has sort of been here before. Back in 1980, the legendary Italian automaker unveiled the \u201cFerrari Pinin\u201d a four-door, four-seat, sedan.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re talking about Ferrari purism, models built in collaboration with design house are considered to be part of a golden era amongst enthusiasts. The two companies worked together from 1951 to 2017, and aside from the rare exception Pininfarina gave pretty much every Ferrari during that period its distinctive look. The Ferrari Pinin concept, as the name suggests, was built as a tribute to Battista “Pinin” Farina, but you wouldn\u2019t peg it as a classic Ferrari at first glance.<\/p>\n

\"1980
Credit: RM Sotheby<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While it does look high-end, and it does have some bold styling touches, it is very much a sedan. Which means it has that air of something your mother would use to pick you up from school at some point in the late 90s.<\/p>\n

Understandably, there was a bit of a pushback from the Ferrari fanbase. The Ferrari board wasn\u2019t too keen on the Pinin either, preferring to keep production focused on what Ferrari was best known for. Exciting two-seater sports cars. Similarly Fiat, Ferrari\u2019s parent company at the time, was not willing to pour resources into a four-door-Ferrari.<\/p>\n

So it remains a one off, and while the brand\u2019s distinctive flat-12 was resting under the hood, the drivetrain wasn\u2019t even connected when the vehicle was displayed.<\/p>\n

That drive train did eventually get hooked up, and the one example of the Pinin is completely road legal. It pops up for sale every now and then, like in a 2011 RM Sotheby\u2019s auction<\/a> in London where it was estimated to be worth between \u00a3480,000 – \u00a3550,000 (over $645,828.82 at today\u2019s exchange rates, which ironically enough is about the same price as a Luce).<\/p>\n

While there is only one, it\u2019s a common curiosity at higher-end American car shows these days. And despite the backlash, the Ferrari Pinin was pioneering in many ways.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just the four doors that set the Ferrari Pinin apart<\/h2>\n
\"1980
Credit: RM Sotheby<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unlike the Luce, Ferrari didn\u2019t claim the Pinin was its future. However, the Ferrari sedan was quite forward looking for its time. It had a handful of features that wouldn\u2019t be commonplace in vehicles for decades afterwards, with the most obvious being the screen-based rear-passenger entertainment and comfort controls.<\/p>\n

There are shades of that rear screen that can be seen on modern Ferraris, including the Luce. The shielded design is a little similar to the passenger controls on the Ferrari Purosangue\u2019s<\/a> dashboard. This is a bit of a stretch, but you could also compare the handles to the prominent handle on the bottom of the Luce\u2019s ball-jointed infotainment panel.<\/p>\n

In addition to the rear screen, the 1980 Ferrari Pinin also featured an onboard computer, to manage things like passenger comfort. A hidden multi-dial dashboard was also present in the vehicle, which would only become visible when you turned the car on. It featured a plethora of displays to cater to the driver\u2019s performance needs, this is a Ferrari after all.<\/p>\n

\"1980
Credit: RM Sotheby<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Also similar to the Luce was the Pinin\u2019s use of glass. The window was designed to appear as if it was wrapping around the car from C-Pillar to C-Pillar. This is pretty common these days, but it was fairly unique in 1980.<\/p>\n

While Ferrari pumped the brakes on the Pinin long before the sedan went into production, it does seem to be backing the controversial Luce. Despite widespread criticism online and from one of the company\u2019s most notable former CEOs,<\/a> Ferrari maintains that the order books are filling up and intends to push ahead with its new EV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ferrari Luce has launched, and controversy has followed. Purists have labeled the four-door EV as ugly, overpriced, and very … <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-9134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cars","tag-ferrari","resize-featured-image"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9134"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9141,"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9134\/revisions\/9141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}