The car is the four-seater mid-size sports car that Ferrari manufactured in the early 1980s, the Ferrari Mondial Quattrovalvole (indicating four valves per cylinder). The location is obvious: far away, on the grounds of a palace.
We do not often think of palaces here in the United States. We now have mansions. For some reason we also like to build castles. Palaces, with their expansive terrain and France-before-the-guillotine stuff, however, miss our collective imagination. We build houses as big as palaces, on lands as big as palaces, but somehow it always comes out as estate.
The grandeur of the palace also evokes modern criticism. When you are actually out there, through Versailles or Sanssouci or anywhere else touring, you are almost overcome by the opulence of a room covered with priceless works of art, which are placed under a precious mural that is the full length of the ceiling covering, which gilds at its edges, a thought always creeps into your mind. These people did not even have plumbing, let alone WiFi.
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I think the Mondial is similar. The very high heights of the Ferrari license plate, of the gated manual shifter, of the cushioned leather seats, of the four-valve, quad-cam V8, it all comes to mind, hey, this thing is actually not faster than my friend 240SX. And the Ferrari is just slightly less likely to break down.
The expectations associated with the “mid-engine Ferrari” overwhelm the Mondial, and it’s a raid. It’s a neat car on its own, though it may not be the best Ferrari. A palace is an interesting kind of human dwelling, though it is not the most comfortable place to shower.
Can I say that this is why Ferrari rolled a Mondial to a palace for photography in 1982. It still feels appropriate somehow.