2008 Ferrari 612 P4/5

Called the 612 P4/5, the two-seater has the Enzo’s V12 engine and is based on a modified version of that car’s carbon chassis. It will debut on 20 August at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elégance. The car is a one-off commissioned by James Glickenhaus, the American collector with a yen for the legendary racing cars of the Sixties.

“This project - comments Andrea Pininfarina, Pininfarina S.p.A. Chairman and CEO - represents an exciting challenge, i.e. trying to meet the Customer’s requests in the best way possible without deteriorating the company’s approach based on stylishness and innovation”.

Officially, the car is a one-off, but our Pininfarina source admitted that it’s much more than simply a concept, as it has been cre-ated to explore the wilder side of the design firm’s creativity, as well as Ferrari’s future. To do that properly, it was essential to ensure the machine would be road legal.

Design and Features

The car has been designed, engineered and built entirely by Pininfarina, bringing to life something that, just a few months earlier, was just a dream and creating a sort of symbiosis between the customer and Pininfarina along the path leading to definition of this astonishing model. Starting from a Ferrari Enzo, the aim was to produce a sole vehicle inspired by sport racing cars with extreme vocations: not just a show-car but a vehicle to be enjoyed on the road. After freezing styling with various touch-ups to the initial sketches, the surfaces were defined using CAS modeling, then moving on to actual construction and assembly.

More than 200 components were specifically developed through constant interaction between styling and design: from the bixenon lighting clusters specifically designed with an innovative system of yellow and white leds to the alloy wheels - 20-inch aluminum - milled from the block up to and including the aluminum and special steel in-sight hinges.

An Enzo chassis is wrapped in the carbon bodywork, which incorporates a full roll cage. From behind the wheel, the windscreen, roof and rear of the cabin are all see-through. As a result, there’s incredible visibility, and a fantastic sense of space.

The nose is shorter and more aggressive than the Enzo’s, while echoes of the classic P4 racer run from nose to tail. At the rear, underbody aerodynamics are clearly visible, and are designed to maintain stability at the predicted top speed of more than 220mph.

The sleek lines of the vehicle, characterized by a soft muscular touch, took shape on the body - made entirely of carbon fiber. The tapered profile of the nose highlights both its aerodynamic function and the car’s new look; the central body is dominated by the single-shell windscreen, while the car is accessed via two butterfly type doors. The rear features powerful sides with the embedded teardrop type transparent rear window which also acts as engine cover and from which ceramic-coated exhaust tips peep out, as on racing cars of the Sixties.

Inside, the two-seater has been custom fitted to accommodate even the most demanding owners’ needs, and there will be an assortment of hi-tech in-car entertainment for the passenger to play with. Power is kept at the V12 Enzo’s original 660bhp, and the six-speed F1-style gearbox also remains unchanged.

Because the curvy new body is said to perform better than the Enzo’s in the wind tunnel, the P4/5’s acceleration is claimed to be an improvement. What’s more, the prototype weighs less than the Enzo’s 3009 lbs, so the custom-built machine is set to be one of the fastest cars on the planet.

“The entire vehicle - stresses Ken Okuyama, Director of Pininfarina Styling - expresses elegance and fluidity with the clear-cut, uncluttered lines that are typical of Pininfarina’s style. Considerable attention has been dedicated to aerodynamics with continuous testing at the Pininfarina Aerodynamic and Aeroacoustic Research Center of Grugliasco (Turin, Italy) in an effort to reach the highest levels of performance combined with perfect functionality of all the appendices integrated in the body of the vehicle.

It is important to stress how re-styling was not restricted only to the outside of the car but continued also when defining the interior, completely redesigned according to the customer’s indications.

“Pininfarina has been a strong stakeholder on the automotive scene for many years, as confirmed by the five new productions launched between the end of 2005 and 2006: Alfa Romeo Spider, Mitsubishi Colt CZC and Ford Focus CC for which we also followed up design and development, and Alfa Romeo Brera and Volvo C70 which we also engineered.

The Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina and the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti “K” by Pininfarina - built for Mr. Kalikow and presented in April at Villa d’Este Concours d’Elegance - give us a chance to demonstrate our excellent creativity, making our know-how available to special customers in order to provide a real personal experience that goes well beyond simply the possibility of designing their own car” concludes Andrea Pininfarina.<