Ferrari's top-secret department

The second model to emerge from Ferrari’s top-secret Special Projects Programme has been revealed.

The department was set up in 2007 after the firm saw there was a market in creating unique models to wear the Ferrari badge.

See the Ferrari P540 Superfast Aperta pics

In 2007 James Glickenhaus created a P4/5 based on an Enzo, but it was made by Pininfarina and not Ferrari. This meant Glickenhaus’s P4/5 wasn’t able to wear a Ferrari badge or be entered in concours events as a Ferrari.

Special Projects was then set up by Ferrari to counter this demand and ensure it could cater for one-off individual requests. Any car has to keep the same basic architecture as the donor car so it doesn’t have to be re-homologated.

Special Projects’ latest model is the Ferrari P540 Superfast Aperta. It has been inspired by the gold Ferrari from the 1968 film Toby Dammit and was delivered to its new owner, Edward Walson, whose father invented cable television, over the weekend.

Walson approached Ferrari last year. Special Projects is able to decline requests, but it felts Walson’s was in keeping with the brand’s ideals. Walson worked with a Ferrari consultant in Maranello on the design, before Pininfarina sculpted the final model. The car was then built in Maranello, taking 14 months from Walson’s initial request to its final shakedown test as a road-legal Ferrari.

The Superfast Aperta is based on a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, and it had to undergo extensive carbonfibre chassis strengthening in order to accommodate its targa roof. Weight has increased by 20kg over the standard car.

As well as owning the car, Walson also receives the tooling as part of buying his car through Special Projects. This is to ensure each model made by the department remains unique. Ferrari has the first option to buy back Special Projects cars and tooling to stop them from falling into the hands of speculators.

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