Ferrari V-8s use a "flat" crank instead of the typical 90 degree crank. It makes the exhaust plumbing easier to do, and Ferrari says it's worth about 5-10% on the horsepower. Incidentally, Maserati, which is now pretty much a deivsion of Ferrari uses conventional 90 degree cranks.
A flat crank makes the engine into essentially into two four cylnder engines joined at the crank, 90 degrees out of phase. If you have ever heard a Cosworth F-1 engine from the 70's, they sounded much the same. (And all current CART engines, but it isn't quite as evident because the turbo blends the exhaustt sounds some.) The reason most everyone else uses the 90 degree crank has to do with smoothness. A V-8 with a flat crank will vibrate more than a conventional crank.
The first yeear of the IRL cars, they were required to use 90 degree cranks. They sounded like a bunch of trucks (like a Nascar race, but I digress.. "Nascar: the WWF of racing"...). Then Tony George decided that just wouldn't do and allowed them to switch to flat cranks. Engine note changes to what we hear today.
(BTW, the strangest sounding V-8 I ever heard was the Honda "big bang" CART engine. They had were working with firing multiple cylders at once in the bikes and thought it might work with the CART engine. They never publicly divulged exactly what they firing order was, but it was thought that they were either firing all 8 cylinders in one revolution, or were firing the cylinders in pairs. Anyway, it sounded sort of like a Ducati on steroids. It didn't work because of the turbo. They only used it for a few races in the early 80's.)
