Often VIP people have a lot of money but rarely a good taste. It is difficult, in fact, to imagine improving the standard Ferraris designed by the Maranello company. If not therefore particular peaks of elegance, however, we expect surprising models whose existence is sometimes not even known.
In the early days of Ferrari, having a custom bodywork was the norm. Customers decided on the chassis and engine with the factory and then chose an Italian coachbuilder to make the bodywork. All the best coachbuilders wanted to cover the splendid Ferrari chassis with the result that now, to fascinate collectors, there is a wide range of unique specimens of the Prancing Horse.
To revive the spirit of these bodied cars, in 2008 Ferrari launched the Portfolio Coachbuilding Program. Initially, the idea was to allow customers to work with the best Italian design companies to create unique reinterpretations of sporty Ferrari, in collaboration with Maranello experts. Soon it has come to the creation of completely new projects and, after the birth of the Ferrari Style Center in 2010, most of the projects were managed internally by the team of Flavio Manzoni.
These one-off creations you can only dream about are reserved for Ferrari's favourite and wealthiest customers. Since announcing its Special Projects Division some ten years ago, Ferrari has been dedicated to creating one-off cars but now it’s pretty snobbish about who is allowed to buy them and the list is pretty exclusive. Not all of the one-offs have been seen in public but when you see the letters "SP" in the title you know where it came from. Ferrari did make some one-off-one models also before Ferrari Special Projects. Here’s a list of unique Ferraris.
Ferrari P4/5
James Glickenhaus of the Glickenhaus & Company investment empire wanted a modern take on his 330 P3/4. To build his mashup of new and old, Pininfarina took an unregistered Ferrari Enzo chassis and went to town to build something that, reportedly, a member of the Saudi royal family offered Glickenhaus $40 million for. That would have been a crazy profit as he reputedly spent $4 million to have it built.
Ferrari Fioravanti SP1
The very first Special Projects car was built for Japanese businessman Kazuo Maruyama, actually Japan's first Ferrari owner. He owns a fleet of Ferraris, including a car that won at Le Mans and he managed to badger Ferrari's Modena headquarters to restore his 275 GTB. Reportedly, Maruyama was a huge fan of the 1998 Fioravanti F100 concept car, which is the inspiration for the F430-based SP1. Little was changed apart from the body but the Fioravanti SP1 is quite beautiful.
Ferrari 458 MM Speciale
Probably one of the best-looking one-offs to come from Ferrari Special Projects so far is the 458 MM Speciale. Based on a 458 Speciale, including its wondrous naturally aspirated 4.5-liter V8 making 597 horsepower, it takes its styling cues from the 288 GTO and the 488 GTB and is finished off in "Bianco Italia" paint with an Italian flag livery.
Ferrari SP3JC
One of the latest Ferrari one-offs is reported to have been commissioned in 2018 by the classic Ferrari dealer and fan of Pop Art, John Collins. The roadster uses a "Giallo Modena" and "Azzurro Met" livery over the "Bianco Italia" blue leather interior. The SP3JC is based on the F12tdf rather than the 812 Superfast so it has a screamer of a naturally-aspirated V12 as well as no roof.
Ferrari SP12 EC
Some one-offs have been commissioned by famous customers. Eric Clapton has a long history of Ferrari ownership and got together with the Pininfarina design studio to create this one-off based around the Ferrari 458 Italia with inspiration taken from the classic Ferrari Boxer models.
Ferrari F12 TRS
This one-off open-top Barchetta version of the F12berlinetta is inspired by the 250 Testa Rossa race car. It participated in the 2014 Ferrari Cavalcade and in the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Ferrari SP 275 RW Competizione
For the latest Ferrari special project inspired by the world of racing we present the 2016 SP 275 RW Competizione. With the help of Pininfarina, it fuses the modern stance and performance of the F12berlinetta with the iconic styling cues of the classic 275 Berlinetta. The bright yellow and the vents are a bold tribute to the Ecurie Francorchamps 275GTB that won the GT class at Le Mans in 1965.
Ferrari Superamerica 45
The Superamerica 45, entirely designed by the Style Center, was commissioned just before Ferrari started its Special Projects division. It's the brainchild of the New York real estate giant Peter Kalikow who wanted to celebrate the 45th anniversary of buying his first Red, a 1961 Ferrari 400 Superamerica. It's heavily derived from the Ferrari 599 SA Aperta and is topped off by the single piece carbon roof that slots away into the rear deck when removed. The car was painted in the exclusive Antilles Blue, in line with the original 1961 Superamerica of Kalikow. It was presented to the public in 2011, on the occasion of the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este.
Ferrari SP38 "Deborah"
Presented in early 2018, the SP38 is based on a 488 GTB chassis and was built for Corse Clienti racer Deborah Mayer. You can see in the rear wing and carbon-fiber clamshell cover for the engine that SP38 is heavily influenced by the F40. When Mayer picked her SP38 up in Maranello, she took it straight out to the Fiorano circuit to lay down some laps.
Ferrari SP America
Based on the F12 Berlinetta, the SP America was commissioned by American business magnate Danny Wegman. The design is heavily influenced by the 250 GTO, from the aggressive rear lip to the openings on the hood.
Ferrari P540 Superfast Aperta
The second one-off Ferrari is definitely a matter of taste. The base car is a Ferrari 599 but the Superfast Aperta is heavier due to the extra chassis strengthening required to lose the roof. It was built in 2008 for the American Edward Walson, son of the man who created cable television. The P540 Superfast Aperta was said to be inspired by an unique gold-plated Ferrari specimen, designed by Carrozzeria Fantuzzi for Federico Fellini’s short film Toby Dammit in 1968. It took 14 months to design the car and, when he received it in delivery at the end of 2009, Walson said to Ferrari: "it's the most special Christmas present of my life."
Ferrari one-off models have five-year waiting list: “the longest waiting list of all our product lines. The growing trend for one-off Ferraris is in response to clients’ increasing demands for extreme personalisation”, says Ferrari commercial and marketing boss Enrico Galliera.
“The client has not only a unique car but a unique experience working with the designer in the process. It’s the pinnacle of Ferrari”, he commented.
Unique Ferrari models are not available to anyone, explains Galliera: “it is offered to top clients only. We receive requests from clients and it won’t be considered unless they are in a pool of our top 250 clients or so.”
Despite growing demand, Ferrari will only produce two to three one-offs a year to ensure the access to such models remains exclusive and because production capacity won’t allow more. Galliera said a typical one-off takes 18 to 24 months to complete.
The Ferrari collectors secret club has 800 members and meets once a year to test in advance the latest model. A race proudly apart. There is an unusual comings and goings between the sheds of the Ferrari factory in Maranello. Eight hundred customers from all over the world were invited to Emilia to exclusively see a new model, before the press, the dealers and even some top executives. Some of them, the crème de la crème, will leave for the "Cavalcade", a four-day trip around Italy aboard a red fireball, as guests of the Prancing Horse factory that organizes the exclusive event for the best buyers. Those who wish can order the car immediately and return to pick it up here, thanks to the internal dealership able to deliver 150 vehicles per year. Others will be able to go to the tailor-made laboratory and have the car personalized in every part. We have listed some of those present.
The already mentioned Peter Kalikow owns four skyscrapers in New York, in addition to an unknown number of properties around the world. He is a busy man, quick to anger, with an always active inner engine. But there is one thing, he says, that when stress is at its limit relaxes him: "I drop everyone, even in the middle of a meeting. I take the elevator and go down to the garage, in the basement of the building. I sit in an armchair, light a cigar and look at my collection of thirty Ferraris. Then I choose one and drive it for twenty minutes on the streets of Manhattan. When I return it's all over, it's all clearer».
In the Gostner family they all compete with the 458 Challenge Evo in the amateur “Ferrari Challenge Europe” circuit.
David Holder, patron of Ladurée, is here with a 1962 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso.
There is also Mister “L.”, who does not want to reveal his profession but has a story to tell. He concentrates it this way: "I am 48 years old and twenty years ago I was a homeless person. Then I started my business and bought the first Ferrari. Owning it made me realize that the nightmare was behind me. That day I realized that I had made it."
It’s not present instead Hassanal Bolkiah, the 29th and current sultan of Brunei, a small country in Borneo.
The sultan has been ranked among the wealthiest individuals in the world. In 2008, Forbes estimated his total peak net worth at US $20 billion.
In addition to his great wealth, the sultan is famous for his immense collection of cars. It has been said that he owns between 3.000 and 6.000 of them, for an estimated value of US$4 billion. Among these, particular preference for Ferraris.
He also owns Formula 1 cars, like those of every winner of the F1 drivers' world championship from 1980 to today. The Daily Mirror reported on October 26, 2007 that the sultan owns 531 Mercedes-Benz, 367 Ferraris, 362 Bentley, 185 BMW, 177 Jaguar, 160 Porsche, 500 Rolls-Royce and 20 Lamborghini.
In 1988 six Ferrari F90's were made for the sultan of Brunei. None of the sultan’s special Ferraris have escaped Brunei. Only once an F90 was spotted in Monaco and captured for in a magazine.
After ordering six Ferrari F90s, the sultan and his brother prince Jefri spent the next ten years ordering custom supercars from Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Dauer and more. Just before they stopped the influx of supercars, six Ferrari FXs were made around the 512M and featured William’s F1 electro-hydraulic gearboxes. The project was managed by Enrico Fumia, the head of the Research and Development department at Pininfarina. “No doubt that F90 was the most complicated and sophisticated prototype ever built by Pininfarina, a difficult technical exercise mixed with a dramatic style”, he said. At the time, the project was top secret, so much so, Ferrari didn’t know of it. Fumia styled the car and said “the F90 name referred to it being a “Ferrari of the ’90s.”
When designing the F90, Ferrari says one of the most striking design cues was the edge design that flows around the vehicle. Fumia describes this as the elliptical leit-motiv. This theme is extended to rear light cluster, rear wing, and door accents. The F90’s custom interior is surrounded completely with a glass greenhouse and the sunroof can be fully removed. It is his hope that one day the F90 might escape the clutches of Brunei to be seen and appreciated by the world. He also said: “the most complicated ‘detail’ is the roof, still unique. It’s a sort of a sliding ‘Targa’-roof which overlaps the rear windshield.” All six F90s used a Ferrari Testarossa chassis which Pininfarina used to sculpt an entirely new body and interior on top of. The engines were stock units, producing 390 bhp and driven by the rear wheels but the radiators were moved to the front of the car.
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