Analysis using an ancient formula is used to determine the most beautiful car in the world.

This is the most beautiful car in the world. Apparently.

THAT old saying about beauty being in the eye of the beholder?

A load of tosh, apparently. In reality, beauty is defined by scientific analysis, using an ancient mathematical calculation.

At least, that’s the argument proposed by a British car buying website, Carwow, when nailing down the most beautiful performance car of the past 70 years.

The winner? According to science, it’s potentially not the most obvious choice. But, for the record, the 2019 Ferrari Monza SP1 takes this one.

Really? Well, the site says it analysed 197 of the world's most popular performance cars over the last 70 years to discover how close they were to the ‘golden ratio’.

Don’t know it? That’s an ancient (like, dating back 2500 years) algebraic equation that has been observed in nature, and copied in art and design, that is thought to help contribute to the most visually attractive shapes.

Michelangelo was a big fan; he used the ratio when painting The Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Anyway, it uses a literal ratio of 1:1.618 (or Phi). In short this implies that the most pleasing form to the human eye is that of a rectangle. But anyway.

The research was done by measuring and comparing the distance between different set points on the cars.

“In total, we plotted 14 different points on each front-on view of the cars, for example, the headlights, the wing mirrors and the corners of the windscreen,” says Carwow.

“Using that data, we then computed and compared the distance ratios between these points, to reveal how closely their design followed the proportions of the golden ratio.”

So, anyway, after the Monza SP1, which achieved a 61.75 percent alignment to the golden ratio, the ratings put the 1964 Ford GT40 in second, (61.64 percent) the 1967 Ferrari 330 GTC Speciale (61.15 percent) as the bronze winner and the 1974 Lotus Elite as the best of the rest outside the medals table, with a 60.07 percent alignment.

As for the Jaguar E-type, famously called immediately after its launch the most beautiful car in the world by Enzo Ferrari? The man clearly didn’t know a thing. Fifteenth here.

Also lucking out of top trumps status was Aston Martin, which claims all of its cars are “designed to reflect the golden ratio”. The 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette C2 (Stingray), the 1967 Ferrari 330 P4, the 1974 Alfa Romeo Alfetta, the 1966 Lamborghini Miura and the 1969 Maserati Indy filled out the top 10. The highest-ranked Aston was the 1963 DB5, in 25th.

The top 100 was dominated by Ferrari, with 16 cars. Lamborghini had 10 and Porsche seven for second and third respectively, and the remaining positions were taken by Aston Martin, McLaren, Maserati, Lotus, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar and Ford.

The E-Type? Enzo Ferrari liked this classic Jaguar … the study? Not so much.

The Grand Prix was canned, but a Ferrari was still caned around Monaco by a top works driver today.

‘SOME appointments in the calendar cannot be forgotten.’

So says Ferrari in explaining its part in a just-conducted short film shoot.

Today should have been the Monaco Grand Prix. Coronavirus put a stop to that, yet local boy Charles Leclerc still ensured a Ferrari was hurtling around its streets.

With full factory support, Leclerc got behind the wheel of Ferrari’s SF90 Stradale early on race morning to assist director Claude Lelouch with the shooting of a short film reprising the theme of another, very famous flick.

“Le Grand Rendez-Vous” is inspired by LeLouch’s famous ‘C’etait un Rendez-Vous” filmed in 1976 and subsequently lauded as a pretty nifty homage to fast cars.

The original was an eight-minute drive through Paris during the early hours of a Sunday morning in August (when much of Paris is on summer vacation), accompanied by sounds of a high-revving engine, gear changes and squealing tyres. LeLouch, and Ferrari, insist the epochal movie was made with a Ferrari 275 GTB, but dark rumours still persist that the actual film car was a Mercedes 450 SE 6.9L, with the Fezza’s soundtrack dubbed in.

No matter. This time there’s no doubting. The Ferrari SF90 Stradale, the Prancing Horse’s first series production hybrid model, and the Monegasque talent, are very mich front and centre in what is promised to be a breathtaking drive through the Principality’s winding streets and roads.

We’’d like to show you the footage, but it won’t be released until June 13. In the meantime, Ferrari has furnished some stills. And, as a treat, we’ve included the 1976 original. See below.

The promise is that the film evokes both the atmosphere of the beloved Grand Prix and Lelouch’s original.

Leclerc certainly let his enthusiasm run wild, the car reaching speeds of up to 240kmh on the closed roads.

Ferrari knew it would do the job, saying before the action began: “On the city circuit the SF90 Stradale will measure its unmatched performance for a Ferrari production car: 736kW (1000bhp), a weight-to-power ratio of 1.57 kg/bhp, and 390kg of downforce at 250kmh.

“The car’s name, a reference to the 90th anniversary of Scuderia Ferrari celebrated last year, exemplifies the symbiosis of transferred technology between Ferrari road and track cars, of which this recent model is the maximum expression.”

The brand cited what it is calling the first post lockdown French shoot as a symbolic restart of a gradual return to the ‘new normal’ after the pandemic and the restart for the film industry, impacted significantly by recent restrictions.

Ferrari said welcomed partnership in the film as a way of demonstrating support for its tifosi, clients and supporters as an expression of hope that the world will gradually be able to absorb the painful and complex health crisis which has affected everyone, allowing us to begin to look positively towards the future, also in anticipation of the expected restart of the F1 season in July.

Leclerc was joined at the film shoot - but presumably not in the car - by Prince Albert II of Monaco and Ferrari Chairman John Elkann