Top-flight Ferraris are not cheap things, and special editions even less cheap. So we shudder to think what one-off creations like this SP38 would cost. It's a custom work by the Ferrari Design Center for a specific mystery client "with a deep passion for racing" and apparently quite a bit of taste.
The car's based on the engine and chassis of the 488 GTB, a twin-turbo mid-engine V8 making some 660 hp (492 kW), but from there the design team claims it has drawn inspiration from the Ferrari F40 of the late 1980s – a giant of a car and the last commissioned by Enzo Ferrari himself.
Mind you, beyond the tiny rear heat vent slashes in the otherwise solid engine cover, we'd be hard pressed to tell you where exactly the F40's angular lines are referenced in this thoroughly sensual, modern design.
You'd certainly never recognize it as a GTB either. We'd argue it's much, much nicer to look at, finished in a new three-layer metallic red, with a very sexy wraparound concept to the front and rear bodywork, a nice curve leading to the back of the cabin windows, and narrow-waisted carbon side skirting that gives the impression the top three quarters of the car is thinner, pointier and riding on air. All this while still maintaining recognizable Ferrari lines around the wheel arches.
We're a fan of this design so some of these ideas seem sorely wasted on a one-off special. But that's probably the point, though. Still, we hope to see some of them sneaking their way into some production Ferraris in the future.
If you want to see the SP38 in the flesh, you have precisely one opportunity to do so before it gets locked away in its mystery owner's collection and brought out sparingly for private use. That opportunity is this weekend's Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este on the shores of Lake Como, Italy. If you can't make that, jump into the gallery for a few more photos.
Source: Ferrari
