Friday 20th May 2011

Ferrari Reveals Superamerica 45

One-off customer commission will headline Villa d'Este

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These are the first pictures of the Ferrari Superamerica 45, which despite looking a bit like a customised SA APERTA is officially described as 'a unique one-off model built for New York collector and Ferrari enthusiast Peter Kalikow'.
Styled internally by Ferrari Design and engineered and built in-house, the car will make its public debut on the 20th of May at the Villa d'Este Concorso d'Eleganza.

According to an official news release from Ferrari, the design is bespoke, featuring a carbonfibre rotating hard-top that incorporates the rear screen. The boot has been made to house the roof while motoring topless, and is also in carbonfibre.

The rear buttresses are body-coloured, integral with the rear wheelarches and incorporating rear quarterlights. There are double air vents on the front wing and the car also features a chromed front grille and burnished aluminium A-pillars, wing mirrors and door handles.

The Superamerica 45 is finished in an exclusive Blu Antille, a colour we're told that matches another car in the Mr K's collection - a 1961 400 Superamerica cabriolet. The wheels are body-coloured with a contrasting diamond finish on the spokes, while the roof and other carbonfibre bits - front splitter, side skirts and rear diffuser - are in contrasting darker blue. The interior is trimmed to match.

There's no clue as to how much the Superamerica 45 cost to build, but we're guessing it's out of our price range. Anyone care to take a stab at it..?

[dvs_dave]

Now that is one great looking Corvette!!!

[Luke.]

For some reason I find a £2k Clio Williams more interesting than this.

[BlackPrince]

agree with dave - its sad that Ferrari will kowtow to the latest Yank "collector" (as opposed to car enthusiast like Jay Leno or Jay Kay) with horrid taste.

I've always liked the look of the 599, and I like the 599GTOesque front of this, but Ferrari is taking the piss a bit by calling this a "one off" (I realize it is actually a one off, but in reality its just a 599 cabrio in blue with body kit and disgusting alloys). Is there any limit to what companies like Ferrari, Lamborghini and Pagani will do to separate a rich bloke from his money?

[AstV12]

Love that.

[cc8s]

It is actually a 'one-off' in the way that some 'unique' cars are not... this car actually has a number of completely unique panels and roof mechanism, none of which would have been cheap.

From what I can see:

Front bumper: GTO
Bonnet: GTO
Side skirts: GTO
Foward panels: unique
Door: any 599
Roof: unique
Rear bumper: GTO
Boot and two side panels: unique
Wheels: SA Aperta

My personal opinion is it would be amazing apart from the colour and the wheels!

[F.C.]

BlackPrince said:

agree with dave - its sad that Ferrari will kowtow to the latest Yank "collector" (as opposed to car enthusiast like Jay Leno or Jay Kay) with horrid taste.

I've always liked the look of the 599, and I like the 599GTOesque front of this, but Ferrari is taking the piss a bit by calling this a "one off" (I realize it is actually a one off, but in reality its just a 599 cabrio in blue with body kit and disgusting alloys). Is there any limit to what companies like Ferrari, Lamborghini and Pagani will do to separate a rich bloke from his money?

What, you wouldn't do the same?
Isn't there any limit a rich bloke won't go to get a one off bespoke motor from Ferrari, Lamborghini, or Pagani?

[glazbagun]

dvs_dave said:

Now that is one great looking Corvette!!!

Amen. I'm using my phone for a modem & the compressed image looked exactly like a new corvette.

[cc8s]

GTO wheels are the way forward

or

[Lawsome]

I think it looks amazing. Wheels are rank though. The darker GTOs on the above photoshop win

[lordlee]

Fair play to the chap for getting it built but the car does nothing for me. In fact a standard GTO does more. The colour doesn't suit the lines or the sheer size of the car and the wheels look a bit Halfords for my taste.

[ZesPak]

One of the only time I've seen colour-coded wheels work is on a Citroën DS3 racing thingy. And I'm guesssing that's a different market, on this, they look vile imho, the photoshop above with the dark ones is at least 10x better.

Oh and yes, the front 3/4 pic does look like a Z07.

[fathomfive]

BlackPrince said:

Is there any limit to what companies like Ferrari, Lamborghini and Pagani will do to separate a rich bloke from his money?

So you're in charge of Ferrari. One day a bloke with a lot of money gives you a call and says he already has a few Ferraris, but would quite like something bespoke and is willing to give you a very large amount of money to provide him with that.

Your answer would be no? Seriously?

I love the idea that these places are willing to do this kind of work rather than directing people to their sales catalogue with a disgruntled 'meh'.

This one isn't really to my taste though.

[JumpinJack]

ZesPak said:

One of the only time I've seen colour-coded wheels work is on a Citroën DS3 racing thingy. And I'm guesssing that's a different market, on this, they look vile imho, the photoshop above with the dark ones is at least 10x better.

Oh and yes, the front 3/4 pic does look like a Z07.

Exactly what I thought. Those wheels definitely do not belong on exotics.

Also, I thought the rear in the same pic looked (a little) like the old viper.

[AUDIHenry]

BlackPrince said:

agree with dave - its sad that Ferrari will kowtow to the latest Yank "collector" (as opposed to car enthusiast like Jay Leno or Jay Kay) with horrid taste.

I've always liked the look of the 599, and I like the 599GTOesque front of this, but Ferrari is taking the piss a bit by calling this a "one off" (I realize it is actually a one off, but in reality its just a 599 cabrio in blue with body kit and disgusting alloys). Is there any limit to what companies like Ferrari, Lamborghini and Pagani will do to separate a rich bloke from his money?

Latest Yank collector? This guy has been collecting Ferraris and other cars since the 1980s, he is very well known and very charitable. He owns a couple of high rises in New York. How is this any different than Medicis paying an artist to produce a masterpiece that people admire today? Think of it as him supporting a great, historic car company and getting a unique, one of a kind product in return.

[carnut360]

i would love to see some more pictures of it, as the owner of a 575 superamerica i don't think it looks qute as nice, but still think it looks pretty stunning

[Rawwr]

I wish Ferrari would stop using historically significant names, badges and designations as marketing tools. The 599GTO isn't a GTO and this isn't a Superamerica.

[louiebaby]

Apart from the wheels, that is quite something...

Actually the wheels are quite something too, but a different something...

[Chicane-UK]

I actually think it's quite pretty. Really like the roof / boot and associated styling!

[stephen300o]

Looks really nice, like the return of the buttress.

[The real Apache]

JumpinJack said:

ZesPak said:

One of the only time I've seen colour-coded wheels work is on a Citroën DS3 racing thingy. And I'm guesssing that's a different market, on this, they look vile imho, the photoshop above with the dark ones is at least 10x better.

Oh and yes, the front 3/4 pic does look like a Z07.

Exactly what I thought. Those wheels definitely do not belong on exotics.

Also, I thought the rear in the same pic looked (a little) like the old viper.

I'm not keen, too fussy, but I guess that's the way modern styling goes. less is omore IMO and the main reason the Griffith was such a success