Ferrari Enzo | Showpiece of the Week

Why make do with a plain old red Enzo, when you could have special order Giallo Modena?

For an indication of progress in the automotive world, look no further than Ferrari. Always at the forefront of technology and making giant leaps forward with each model generation, studying its history is a fascinating insight into how quickly car technology moves.

Look at the Enzo. 15 years ago, it was the very pinnacle of what Ferrari could achieve, drawing on its purple patch of F1 success to create its ultimate 21st century hypercar. A decade and a half later and we're on the brink of the SF90 entering series production (Ferrari made just 400 Enzos, don't forget), with 50 per cent more power again, electric drive and the sort of performance that would have sounded like science fiction back then.

Indeed the Enzo and a lot of its contemporaries come from that slightly awkward stage in supercar history of the early 2000s, where new technology was frequently being introduced and the genre was making its transition from the recalcitrant, demanding old stagers that had preceded it to the super capable, incredibly approachable 200mph machines of today. It meant things like a wider adoption of ceramic brakes, still in their infancy in road car applications and far trickier than today's set ups, automated manual gearboxes for race car cred and driver modes. The Enzo boasted all three, the leaps and bounds made in the tech (and F1-style gearboxes being abandoned together) dating it more than anything else. Certainly those vehicles that eschewed the tech onslaught arguably look more desirable to drivers - Carrera GT, Zonda, cars like that - but nothing was ever going to stand in the way of the Enzo's success as a collectible asset.

Think about it. Despite some less than flattering angles, a power output superseded by a 488 and the gearbox that was out of fashion almost as soon as it was in, the Enzo is part of a stunning automotive lineage. With 288, F40 and F50 running before it, then LaFerrari after, it's part of perhaps the most revered supercar family. It's also the final non-hybrid Ferrari flagship, using the then-new F140 V12 in its original, 6.0-litre, 660hp format back in 2002; it's an engine that still sees service in the 812 Superfast, in fact, although now at 6.5-litres and with another 140hp...

Bring that together with the rarity, the fact that Maranello only does its mid-engined, mad power flagships once a decade and that the car is a dedication to Enzo flippin Ferrari, and its significance is easier to understand. Even if it still looks a bit gawky.

This one is particularly interesting. A one owner car with just 12,000 kilometres from new, it's a special order Giallo Modena Enzo, also fitted out with fitted luggage and black/yellow leather. It has spent its life in Monaco in fact, maintained by Scuderia Monte Carlo from new - imagine the clientele there.

This one is for sale with POA; going from the other listings £2m is where most Enzos sit, this potentially more desirable than most because of the colour and history. Because why have a rare Ferrari, when one could instead purchase an extraordinarily rare Ferrari? Every collection needs one...

See the original advert here.