Flat

Flat (pronounced flat)

(1) Level, even, or without unevenness of surface, as land or tabletops.

(2) Having a shape or appearance not deep or thick.

(3) Deflated; collapsed.

(4) Absolute, downright, or positive; without qualification; without modification or variation.

(5) Without vitality or animation; lifeless; dull.

(6) Prosaic, banal, or insipid.

(7) In artistic criticism, lifeless, not having the illusion of volume or depth or lacking contrast or gradations of tone or colour.

(8) Of paint, without gloss; not shiny; matt.

(9) In musical criticism, not clear, sharp, or ringing, as sound or a voice lacking resonance and variation in pitch; monotonous.

(10) In musical notation, the character ♭ which, when attached to a note or a staff degree, lowers its significance one chromatic half step.

(11) In music, below an intended pitch, as a note; too low (as opposed to sharp).

(12) In English grammar, derived without change in form, as to brush from the noun brush and adverbs that do not add -ly to the adjectival form as fast, cheap, and slow.

(13) In nautical matters, a sail cut with little or no fullness.

(14) A woman’s shoe with a flat heel (pump) or no heel (ballet flat).

(15) In geography, a marsh, shoal, or shallow.

(16) In shipbuilding, a partial deck between two full decks (also called platform).

(17) In construction, broad, flat piece of iron or steel for overlapping and joining two plates at their edges.

(18) In architecture, a straight timber in a frame or other assembly of generally curved timbers.

(19) An iron or steel bar of rectangular cross section.

(20) In textile production, one of a series of laths covered with card clothing, used in conjunction with the cylinder in carding.

(21) In photography, one or more negatives or positives in position to be reproduced.

(22) In printing, a device for holding a negative or positive flat for reproduction by photoengraving.

(23) In horticulture, a shallow, lidless box or tray used for rooting seeds and cuttings and for growing young plants.

(24) In certain forms of football, the area of the field immediately inside of or outside an offensive end, close behind or at the line of scrimmage.

(25) In horse racing, events held on flat tracks (ie without jumps).

(26) An alternative name for a residential apartment or unit (mostly UK, Australia, NZ).

(27) In phonetics, the vowel sound of a as in the usual US or southern British pronunciation of hand, cat, usually represented by the symbol (æ).

(28) In internal combustion engines (ICE), a configuration in which the cylinders are horizontally opposed.

1275–1325: From the Middle English flat from the Old Norse flatr, related to Old High German flaz (flat) and the Old Saxon flat (flat; shallow) and akin to Old English flet.  It was cognate with the Norwegian and Swedish flat and the Danish flad, both from the Proto-Germanic flataz, from Proto-Indo-European pleth (flat); akin to the Saterland Frisian flot (smooth), the German flöz (a geological layer), the Latvian plats and Sanskrit प्रथस् (prathas) (extension).  Source is thought to be the Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús & platys) (flat, broad).  The sense of "prosaic or dull" emerged in the 1570s and was first applied to drink from circa 1600, a meaning extended to musical notes in the 1590s (ie the tone is "lowered").   Flat-out, an adjectival form, was first noted in 1932, apparently a reference to pushing a car’s throttle (accelerator) flat to the floor and thus came to be slang for a vehicle’s top speed.  The US colloquial use as a noun from 1870 meaning "total failure" endures in the sense of “falling flat”.  The notion of a small, residential space, a divided part of a larger structure, dates from 1795–1805; variant of the obsolete Old English flet (floor, house, hall), most suggesting the meaning followed the early practice of sub-dividing buildings within levels.  In this sense, the Old High German flezzi (floor) has been noted and it is perhaps derived from the primitive Indo-European plat (to spread) but the link to flat as part of a building is tenuous.

The Flat Earth

Members of the Flat Earth Society believe the Earth is flat but there's genuine debate within the organisation, some holding the shape is disk-like, others that it's conical but both agree we live on something like the face of a coin.  There are also those in a radical faction suggesting it's actually shaped like a doughnut but this theory is regarded by the flat-earth mainstream as speculative or even "heretical".  Evidence, such as photographs from orbit showing Earth to be a sphere, is dismissed as part of the "round Earth conspiracy" run by NASA and others.

The flat-earther theory is that the Arctic Circle is in the center and the Antarctic is a 150-foot (45m) tall wall of ice around the rim; NASA contractors guard the ice wall so nobody can fall over the edge.  Earth's daily cycle is a product of the sun and moon being 32 mile (51 km) wide spheres travelling in a plane 3,000 miles (4,800 km) above Earth.  The more distant stars are some 3100 miles (5000 km) away and there's also an invisible "anti-moon" which obscures the moon during lunar eclipses.

Lindsay Lohan in Lanvin Classic Garnet ballet flats (Lanvin part-number is FW-BAPBS1-NAPA-A18391), Los Angeles, 2012.  In some markets, these are known as ballet pumps.

Flat Engines

“Flat” engines are so named because the cylinders are horizontally opposed which means traditionally (though not inherently) there are an equal number of cylinders.  It would not be impossible to build a flat engine with an uneven cylinder count but the disadvantages would probably outweigh anything gained and specific efficiencies could anyway be obtained in more conventional ways.  The flat engine configuration can be visualized as a “flattened V” and this concept does have some currency because engineers like to distinguish between the “boxer” and the “180^o V” (also called the “horizontal V”, both forms proving engineers accord the rules of math more respect than those of English).  The boxer is fitted with one crankpin per cylinder while the 180^o V uses one crankpin per pair of horizontally opposed cylinders.

The 180^o V vs the Boxer.

Both engines use a 180^o layout but the boxer gains its name from the manner in which each pair of opposing pistons operate: Those with pairs of pistons which move inwards and outwards at the same time are dubbed “boxers” on the metaphor of the pugilist punching their gloves together before the start of the match whereas those where the strokes vary are merely “flat”.  Apart from engineers, this matters to pedants who enjoy pointing out that while all boxers are flat, not all flats are boxers, a distinction Ferrari to this day are not much concerned about, on the factory website cheerfully referring to the flat-12 introduced in the 365/4 BB variously as a “boxer”, a “flat-12” and a 180^o V12”.  Actually, the story of the BB (1974-1983) is even more amusing because years later the factory would admit the name designation didn’t actually stand for “Berlinetta Boxer” but Bridget Bardot, the engineers developing the thing quite besotted.  There’s also another version of the flat engine and that’s one in which there are two crankshafts (at the far left & right) and no cylinder head; the combustion chamber created in the gap between the two pistons.  The layout offers some advantages and enjoyed limited success in commercial vehicles but never really caught on.

The boxer layout has been in use since 1897 when Carl (also as Karl) Benz (1844–1929) released a twin cylinder version and it was widely emulated although Mercedes-Benz has never returned to the idea while others (notably BMW (motorcycles), Porsche and Subaru) have made variations of the flat configuration a signature feature.  The advantages of the flat form include (1) a lower centre of gravity, (2) reduced long-term wear on the cylinder walls because some oil tends to remain on the surface when not running, meaning instant lubrication upon start-up and (3) reduced height meaning the physical mass sits lower, permitting bodywork more easily to be optimized for aerodynamic efficiency although this can't be pursued to extremes on road cars because there are various rules about the minimum heights of this & that.  The disadvantages include (1) greater width, (2) accessibility (a cross-flow combustion chamber will necessitate the intake or exhaust (usually the latter) plumbing being on the underside, (3) some challenges in providing cooling and (4) the additional weight and complexity (two cylinder heads) compare to an in-line engine (although the same can be said of conventional vees).

Flat out but anti-climatic: The Coventry-Climax flat-16

Flat engines have ranged from the modest (the flat-4 in the long-running Volkswagen Beetle (1939-2003)) to the spectacular (Coventry-Climax and Porsche both building flat-16s although both proved abortive).  The most glorious failure however was the remarkable BRM H16, used to contest the 1966-1967 Formula One (F1) season when the displacement limit was doubled to three litres.  What BRM did was take the 1.5 litre V8 with which they’d won the 1962 F1 driver and constructor championships, flatten it to and 180^o V and join two as a pair, one atop the other.  It was a variation on what Coventry-Climax had done with their 1.5 litre V8 which they flattened and joined to create a conventional flat-16 and the two approaches illustrate the trade-offs which engineers have to assess for merit.  BRM gained a short engine but it was tall which adversely affected the centre of gravity while Coventry-Climax retained a low profile but had to accommodate great length and challenges in cooling.  The Coventry-Climax flat-16 never appeared on the track and the BRM H16 was abandoned although it did win one Grand Prix (albeit when installed in a Lotus chassis).  Unfortunately for those who adore intricacy for its own sake, BRM's plan to build four valve heads never came to fruition so the chance to assess an engine with sixteen cylinders, two crankshafts, eight camshafts, two distributers and 64 valves was never possible.  Truly, that would have been compounding existing errors on a grand scale.  Tellingly perhaps, the F1 titles in 1966-1967 were won using an engine based on one used in the early 1960s by General Motors in road cars (usually in a mild state of tune although there was an unsuccessful foray into turbo-charging) before it was abandoned and sold to Rover to become their long-running aluminium V8.  As raced, it boasted 8 cylinders, one crankshaft, two camshafts, one distributer and 16 valves.  The principle of Occam's Razor (the reductionist philosophic position attributed to English Franciscan friar & theologian William of Ockham (circa 1288–1347) written usually as Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem (Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity) is essentially: “the simplest solution is usually the best".

The ultimate flats: Napier-Sabre H-24 (left) and BRM H-16 (right).

The H configuration though was sound if one had an appropriate purpose of its application.  What showed every sign of evolving into the most outstanding piston aero-engine of World War II (1939-1945) was the Napier-Sabre H-24 which, with reduced displacement, offered superior power, higher engine speeds and reduced fuel consumption compared with the conventional V12s in use and V16s in development.  The early teething troubles had been overcome and extraordinary power outputs were being obtained in testing but the arrival of the jet age meant the big piston-engined warplanes were relics and development of the H24 was abandoned along with the H-32 planned for used in long-range heavy bombers.

A mastectomy bra with prostheses (left) and with the prostheses inserted in the cups' pockets (centre & right).

For those who elect not to have a reconstruction after the loss of a breast, there are bras with “double-skinned” cups which feature internal “pockets” into which a prosthetic breast form (a prosthesis) can be inserted.  Those who have had a unilateral mastectomy (the surgical removal of one breast) can choose a cup size to match the remaining while those who lost both (a bilateral or double mastectomy) can adopt whatever size they prefer.  There are now even single cup bras for those who have lost one breast but opt not to use a prosthetic, an approach which reflects both an aesthetic choice and a reaction against what is described in the US as the “medical-industrial complex”, the point being that women who have undergone a mastectomy should not be subject to pressure either to use a prosthetic or agree to surgical reconstruction (a lucrative procedure for the industry).  This has now emerged as a form of advocacy called the “going flat” movement which has a focus not only on available fashions but also the need for a protocol under which, if women request an AFC (aesthetic flat closure, a surgical closure (sewing up) in which the “surplus” skin often preserved to accommodate a future reconstructive procedure is removed and the chest rendered essentially “flat”), that is what must be provided.  The medical industry has argued the AFC can preclude a satisfactory cosmetic outcome in reconstruction if a woman “changes her mind” but the movement insists it's an example of how the “informed consent” of women is not being respected.  Essentially, what the “going flat” movement seems to be arguing is the request for an AFC should be understood as an example of the legal principle of VAR (voluntary assumption of risk).  The attitude of surgeons who decline to perform an AFC is described by the movement as the “flat refusal”.

Pugilist

Pugilist (pronounced pyoo-juh-list)

A person who fights with their fists; a boxer, amateur or professional.

1789: From the Latin pugil (boxer, fist-fighter) related to pugnus (a fist), from a suffixed form of the primitive Indo-European roots peuk- (to prick) & pewǵ- (to prick, to punch) and from the Latin root, English picked up the slang term for the journeyman boxer (pug).  Pugil as a descriptor for a boxer was first noted in English in the 1640s but faded from use although in 1962 the pugil stick was introduced by US military as a substitute for rifles in bayonet drills.  Related forms include the noun pugnacity (the act or characteristic of being aggressive or combative), from the Latin pugnacitas, from pugnāx (combative, fond of fighting) and the adjective pugnacious (naturally aggressive or hostile; combative; belligerent; bellicose), from the Latin, a derivative of pugnāx, from pugnō (I fight), from pugnus (a fist).  Pugilist & pugilism are nouns, pugilistic is an adjective and pugilistically and adverb; the noun plural is pugilists.

The heavyweights

Three heavyweights dominated the perception of the sport in the second-half of the twentieth century, Sonny Liston, Muhammad Ali & Mike Tyson.

Sonny Liston (circa 1932-1970).

Sonny Liston was a thug, something no disqualification for success in the  heavyweight ranks and he’d been undisputed world champion for half a decade when first he fought Muhammad Ali.  Ali was a rank outsider rated by the bookies between 7-8:1 yet beat Liston.  To this day it’s not known if there's any truth in the rumors of Liston’s heavy drinking the night before the bout or throwing the fight for money.  Some find the first-round knock-out of Liston in the return match proof of a conspiracy while claim it suggests Ali was the better fighter and Liston’s best years were over although when he died in 1970, even if no longer quite the formidable fighter of his younger years, he was still a world-rated boxer.

Muhammad Ali (1942-2016).

While understandable, it's unfortunate the popular focus on Muhammad Ali’s flair for publicity, prose and politics has drawn attention from just how good a boxer he was.  Ali was fast, technically almost perfect and possessed a physique close to at least equal in height and reach of most of his opponents although his most under-rated trait was the ability to absorb blows yet remain an attacking force late in matches.  In a career interrupted by bans and suspension, Ali fought in the heavyweight division’s golden age, the finest group of the mid-late century, of whom Ali was "the greatest", not because he was indisputably the best ever heavyweight (among the experts there are various top-ten list though he's in them all) but because he influenced his sport and wider culture like no other.

Mike Tyson (b 1966).

The younger Mike Tyson was ferocious and intimidating and he scared men.  Although not tall by the standards of his profession, he was famous for the power and speed of his punch and it’s really easy to believe there’s no one who could have beaten Tyson the younger.  Boxing analysts tend to disagree, being split on the likely result of Liston v Tyson, largely because of Tyson’s technical flaws but almost as one in finding Ali would have beaten Tyson.  Tyson had a difficult, troubled youth and has admitted that had it not been for boxing, things would likely have worked out worse but had his career been better managed, such was his potential, much more could have been achieved.

Amateur pugilist Lindsay Lohan in pugnacious mode.

Glove & Mitten

Glove (pronounced gluhv)

(1) A shaped covering for the hand with individual sheaths for the fingers and thumb, made of leather, fabric etc.

(2) To cover with or as if with a glove; provide with gloves.

(3) In specialized use (as golf glove, boxing glove, driving glove etc), any of various protective or grip-enhancing hand covers worn in sports and related pursuits.

(4) In the rules of cricket, to touch a delivery with one's glove while the gloved hand is on the bat.  Under the rules of cricket, the batsman is deemed to have hit the ball with the bat.

Pre 900: From the Middle English glove & glofe, from the Old English glōf, glōfe & glōfa (glove (weak forms attested only in plural form glōfan (gloves))), from the Proto-Germanic galōfô (glove), a construct of ga- (the collective and associative prefix) + lōfô (flat of the hand, palm), from the primitive Indo-European lāp-, lēp-, & lep- (flat).  It was cognate with the Old Norse glōfi, the Scots gluve & gluive (glove) and the Icelandic glófi (glove).  It was related to the Middle English lofe &, lufe (palm of the hand).  The verb form “to cover or fit with a glove” emerged circa 1400, gloved & gloving followed later; Old English had adjective glofed.  The surname Glover is recorded in parish records from the mid-thirteenth century.  In German, Handschuh is the usual word for glove and translates literally as "hand-shoe"; the Old High German was hantscuoh and it exist in both Danish and Swedish as hantsche, all related to the Old English Handscio (the name of one of Beowulf's companions, eaten by Grendel) which was attested only as a proper name.  Glove is both noun and verb, gloved a verb and adjective, the other adjectival forms being gloveless, glovelike, un·gloved.

Glove appear often in English sayings.  To throw down the glove (often also as gauntlet) is to offer a challenge; to take up the glove is to accept it.  Fits like a glove (attested from 1771) indicates something perfect; to be hand in glove is to be in association with (often pejorative); to treat with kid gloves means gently to handle; to hang up the gloves (in the sense of a pugilist) is to retire.  Again, drawn from boxing, to take off the gloves (when in a dispute or argument) is to continue ruthlessly without regard for the normal rules of conduct; boxing gloves apparently date from 1847.

Mitten (pronounced mit-n)

(1) A hand covering enclosing the four fingers together and the thumb separately; sometimes shortened to mitt.

(2) A slang term for any form of glove (rare).

1350–1400: From the Middle English miteyn & mitain, from the Old & Middle French mitan, miton & mitaine (mitten; half-glove), from Old French mitaine (Mitain noted as a surname from the mid-thirteenth century).  The Modern French spelling is mitaine, from the Frankish mitamo & mittamo (half), superlative of mitti (midpoint), from the Proto-Germanic midjô & midją (middle, center), from the primitive Indo-European médhyos (between, in the middle, center).  It was cognate with the Old High German mittamo & metemo (half, in the middle), the Old Dutch medemest (midmost) and the Old English medume (average, moderate, medium).  Related to all was the Medieval Latin mitta of uncertain origin but perhaps from the Middle High German mittemo & the Old High German mittamo (middle, midmost (reflecting the notion of "half-glove")), or from the Vulgar Latin medietana (divided in the middle) from the Classical Latin medius.  From circa 1755, a mitten was a "lace or knitted silk glove for women covering the forearm, the wrist, and part of the hand", a item of fashion for women in the early 1800s and revived at the turn of the twentieth century.  The now obsolete colloquial phrase from the 1820s get the mitten meaning “a man refused or dismissed as a lover", the notion receiving the mitten instead of the hand.  The only derived for is the adjective mittenlike; mittened apparently doesn’t exist.

Lindsay Lohan in gloves.

In general use, many things technically mittens are referred to as gloves.  Boxing gloves for example don't have separate fingers but there is actually a boxing mitt.  It features thicker knuckle padding compared to standard boxing gloves, designed to protect the hands from heavy boxing bag impacts.  Manufacturers caution that while they can be used for pad work, their dense foam protection is not ideal for sparring sessions.

World War II (1939-1945) veteran George HW Bush (1924–2018; US President (George XLI 1989-1993)) would have remembered Winston Churchill's (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) wartime "V for victory" sign and that’s the meaning the gesture gained in the US.  Unfortunately he wasn’t aware of its significance in the antipodes: when given with the palm facing inwards, it’s the equivalent to the upraised middle finger in the US.  On a state visit to Australia in 1992, while his motorcade was percolating through Canberra, he made the sign to some locals lining the road.  What might have been thought a slight worked out well, the crowd lining the road cheering the gesture which must have been encouraging.  That same day, the president gave a speech advocating stronger efforts “to foster greater understanding” between the American and Australian cultures. The Lakeland Ledger, reporting his latest gaffe, wrote, “...wearing mittens when abroad would be a beginning”.

Bernie Sanders, (b 1941; US senator (independent) for Vermont since 2007 and "Crazy Bernie" in Donald Trump's naming system) wearing mittens at President Biden’s inauguration, Washington DC, 20 January 2021.  Vermont folk are used to cold winters and the mittens attracted memes.  Here, comrade Bernie bookends the 1945 Yalta Conference with comrade Stalin.

Monospecchio

Monospecchio (pronounced mon-oh-spec-kjo)

The Italian for “one mirror”, a descriptor applied to the early production (1984-1987) Ferrari Testarossas (1984-1991).   

1984: The construct was mono- + specchio.  Mono was from the Ancient Greek, a combining form of μόνος (monos) (alone, only, sole, single), from the Proto-Hellenic mónwos, from the primitive Indo-European mey- (small).  It was related to the Armenian մանր (manr) (slender, small), the Ancient Greek μανός (manós) (sparse, rare), the Middle Low German mone & möne, the West Frisian meun, the Dutch meun, the Old High German muniwa, munuwa & munewa (from which German gained Münne (minnow).  As a prefix, mono- is often found in chemical names to indicate a substance containing just one of a specified atom or group (eg a monohydrate such as carbon monoxide; carbon attached to a single atom of oxygen).  The Italian specchio (mirror, table, chart) was from the Vulgar Latin speclum, a syncopated form of the Classical Latin speculum, the construct being speciō +‎ -culum.  Speciō (observe, watch, look at) was from the From Proto-Italic spekjō, from the primitive Indo-European spéḱyeti which was cognate with the Ancient Greek σκέπτομαι (sképtomai), the Avestan (spasyeiti), and the Sanskrit पश्यति (páśyati).  The suffix –culum was (with anaptyxis) from the Proto-Italic -klom, from the primitive Indo-European -tlom, from -trom.  Despite the resemblance, ōsculum and other diminutive nouns do not contain this suffix which was used to form some nouns derived from verbs, particularly nouns representing tools and instruments.

1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa.  One sold in a private sale in 2014 for a reported US$39.8 million, exceeding somewhat the US$16.39 million one achieved at auction in 2011.

The type F110 Ferrari Testarossa (1984-1991) was one of a number of models between 1973-1996 to use a flat-12 which pedants insist is actually a 180^o V12 because of a definitional distinction related to the attachment and movement of internal components; the external shape is essentially identical.  The Testarossa name (testra rossa literally “red head” in Italian) was a revival of one the factory had last used for the 1957 250 Testa Rossa which had won that year’s World Sportscar Championship, the first having been the 1954 500 TR.  The visual link to the name was the red paint applied to the engines’ camshaft covers.

BB & BB:  Ferrari 365 GT4 Berlinetta Boxer displayed at the 1971 Turin Motor Show & Brigitte Bardot, supine, 1968.

The factory was in general a bit loose with the nomenclature on which purists like to insist.  The first of the road-going flat-12 Ferraris was the 365 GT4 BB (1973-1984), the “BB” long thought to stand for Berlinetta Boxer but Road & Track in 2018 noted RoadRat's publication of an interview with the BB’s designer, Leonardo Fioravanti (b 1938) who admitted it was named after the actress Brigitte Bardot (b 1934), simply because the staff in Ferrari's design office were as besotted with Mademoiselle Bardot as engineers everywhere; "Berlinetta Boxer" was just a cover story.  There’s an undeniable similarity in the lines of the two and on the factory website, Ferrari later confirmed the story.

The Italian berlinetta translates as “little saloon” and is the diminutive of berlina (sedan) and the 365 GT4 BB in no way resembled a saloon, small or large, Ferrari using the word to describe a two-seat car with a closed cockpit (convertibles are Spiders), referred to by most as a coupé.  Nor was the Ferrari’s flat-12 technically a boxer, the boxer configuration one where each pair of opposed pistons move inwards and outwards in unison, the imagery being that of a pugilist, ritualistically thumping together their gloves prior to a bout.  The Ferrari unit instead used the same arrangement as a conventional V12, each pair of pistons sharing a crankpin whereas as true boxer has a separate crankpin for each piston.  This is one practical reason why boxer engines tend not to have many cylinders, the need for additional crankpins adding to weight & length.  Thus the earlier flat-16s, the Coventry Climax FWMW (1963-1965) intended for Formula One and the unit Porsche developed in 1971 for the Can-Am and tested in chassis 917-027 weren't boxers although bulk was anyway a factor in both proving abortive, Porsche instead turbo-charging their flat-12 and Coventry Climax giving up entirely, the FWMW having never left the test-bench.  Despite it all, just about everybody calls the 365 GT4 BB “the Boxer” and its engine a “flat-12”, the factory clearly unconcerned and while cheerfully acknowledging the technical differences, their documents refer to it variously as a “boxer”, a “180^o v12”, a “flat-12” & a “boxer-type” engine.

1986 Ferrari Testarossa in monospecchio trim.

The early-production Testarossas were fitted with a single high-mounted external mirror, on the left or right depending on the market into which it was sold and although the preferred term was the Italian “monospecchio” (one mirror), in the English speaking-world it was quickly dubbed the “flying mirror" (rendered sometimes in Italian as “specchio volante” (a ordinary wing mirror being a “specchietto laterale esterno”, proving everything sounds better in Italian)).  The unusual placement and blatant asymmetry annoyed some and delighted others, the unhappy more disgruntled still if they noticed the vent on right of the front spoiler not being matched by one to the left.  It was there to feed the air-conditioning’s radiator and while such offset singularities are not unusual in cars, many manufacturers create a matching fake as an aesthetic device: Ferrari did not.  The mirror’s curious placement was an unintended consequence of a European regulation regarding the devices and this was interpreted by the designers as having to provide 100% rearward visibility.  Because of the sheer size of the rear bodywork necessitated by the twin radiators which sat behind the side-strakes (another distinctive Testarossa feature), the elevation was the only way but it later transpired the interpretation of the law was wrong, a perhaps forgivable mistake given the turgidity of much legislation.

1991 Ferrari Testarossa in duospecchio trim.

That alone may have been enough to convince the factory to change to a more conventional location but there had also been complaints, notably from the US, that the monospecchio restricted the vision of oncoming traffic and many missed having a passenger-side mirror, remarking too on the difficulties found when trying rapidly to adapt to the placement, few owners using a Testarossa as their only car.  Thus was taken the decision to phase in the fitting of dual mirrors, mounted in a conventional position at the base of the A pillars.  Shown at the 1986 Geneva Motor Show, the first examples of the new arrangement were those built for European sale, those bound for the US revised initially in 1987 with a single, low-mounted, driver-side mirror before later gaining the same dual arrangement as those sold in Europe.

Caveat emptor: 1986 Ferrari Testarossa.

Being Ferraris with a certain cachet, the monospecchio cars attract additional interest and inevitably there is fakery and folklore.  There exists the odd early Testarossa with either double-high or double-low mirrors but Ferrari insists these are modifications installed either by dealers or owners and there was at a time, a lot of it about.  It wasn’t a simple job, requiring one or two mirrors, window frames and support assemblies and thus always cost somewhere in four figures but, like those who once converted their now precious 1963 split-window Chevrolet Corvettes to 1964’s single piece of glass lest they be thought driving last year’s model, there were those who didn’t wish to look outdated.  Also, the Testarossa was, by Ferrari’s standards at the time, almost mass-produced with over seven-thousand sold and, in the aftermath of the severe recession of the early 1990s, a glut emerged which for years depressed prices; originality not then the fetish it would later become, modifications to mirrors and other bits & pieces not uncommon.  Still, the factory was known to accommodate special requests from good customers so if a duospecchio with high mounts does show up, accompanied with the vital proof of authenticity, it would add a notch of desirability.  Market support for Ferrari’s flat-12 ecosystem (Boxer, Testarossa & 512 TR) is now healthy and, while not matching the buoyancy of the pre-1973 cars, operates well into US$ six figures, the quirk of the monospecchio cars making them much fancied.

Monospecchio: Lindsay Lohan selfies, one mirror at a time.