Just got this RSS in my e-mail!!!! http://www.leftlanenews.com/report-ferrari-to-offer-official-coachbuilding-service.html
This is good news. Now we can look forward to some custom one-offs. Let's hope they look better than some of the Sultan's cars!
Nice!! I'm especially glad, looking at this list... ... that I don't see the name Sbarro there! *shiver*
Wonderful idea! Exactly the type of thing Ferrari should be doing. Get alot of bodies into car shows i'd think should the designs make it there.
Technically speaking, this has already been done recently by Peter Kalikow and NAPOLIS....this isn't exactly 'new', although there have been some 'so-called' knowledgable people who would like to claim that such cars are 'unofficial'. Some idiots have even had the nerve to discredit the P-4/5 as not really being a Ferrari at all. This should completely and totally silence the 'so-called' knowledgable critics....
It is exciting news which could be seen as 'going back to the roots'. Not sure about the true reason though... (probably just $$$, but who can blame them?) More here: http://www.coachbuild.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=94&Itemid=1
Remember the days when Jim spoke about project P4/5 with only Pininfarina badges on the car? It is all in the P4/5 thread.
That was before Andrea and I showed the full scale styling model to Luca. Upon seeing the styling model, well before the car was finished, Luca agreed that it deserved to be officially recognised by Ferrari and badged as a Ferrari. Luca, Andrea, and I agreed on the official name after some back and forth: Ferrari P 4/5 by Pininfarina. That has been public record for years and was reported in Car and Driver after they confirmed that fact before the car was unveiled at Pebble Beach where it was clearly in writing identified as an official Ferrari and the fact that I had elected to paint rather than use enamel SF Shields was specifically discussed by me and JT who at the time was the CEO of Ferrari. (JT felt enamel shields would have been better and urged me to consider installing them) At every public display the car has been clearly identified in writing on signage as an official Ferrari and so badged including at the Paris Auto Show which was attended by many executives of Ferrari who came by to see the car and commented on it. It's official status has been clearly referred to in written correspondence between Ferrari, Pininfarina, and I. All of this has been public record for years. The people who M.James was referring to made those ridiculous claims long after the car was officially recognised by Ferrari and badged as a Ferrari and long after all of the above had been public knowledge for a long time. I publicly challenged one of them to name the person "the Horses mouth" who had told him that this car wasn't officially a Ferrari and futher told him by ignoring the clear public record he and them were showing a reckless disregard for the truth and he slunk off without naming anyone. I'm glad that the tradition of officially recognised coach building will go on and do think that P 4/5 and I had a little something to do with that as noted by Left Lane News...
Jim your car is amazing, bet none of these cars will even hold a candle to the P 4/5. Cannot wait to see your car someday.
IMO Ferrari could more effectively market the personalization it currently offers. It seems very difficult, in the US, to find out what the factory will do - except by submitting for approval an order with lots of "extracamps." Proper materials and exterior color samples seem not to be widely available. Very few cars depart from the common options, so it's difficult even to find examples of the factory's customization work. I wonder how many current and potential clients are aware of the 612 one to one program. As for major personalization requests, I've thought that an interesting order would be: 599 with an electrochromic roof. I wonder if they'd build it.
Like a Phoenix Rising, tradition rekindled via history in the making, courtesy of 'Napolis and Pininfarina redesigning The Enzo as it should have been, a visionary, postmodern take on 0846 and her sisters. And we got to see it all.
Hmm... I wonder how the dimensions of this new Ferrari (that everybody seemingly hates) compare to a LWB Cal Spyder? Seeing how the recent auction confirmed the unlikelihood of me ever owning the real thing, a cool modern car with a Cal body that has all the modern amenities. Sounds kinda groovy to me. Yeah, I can dig it. Dale
I preferred painting them as it was a lighter solution and originally the SF shields had been painted. Jean felt they would be more elegant if I embedded the enamel ones and I can see his point but I stayed with how we had done them on P 4/5 and embedded the original enamel ones that had been on my Enzo on Jesse's 208 GTB Turbo where they seem to look good and carry on a piece of History. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I would disagree. Imagine you had your dream car drawn up at Pininfarina, similar to the one you had sketched in your notebook in fifth grade. Would you want it to not become reality just because someone felt your design "wasn't quite right"? Not everyone loves the Zagato 575's or some of the coach built '50's cars (as an example), but I think they are just as important as anything else Ferrari has produced. Just IMVHO.
I hope there will be a few that don't come out as flat out racecars.. Maybe some modern cars (California) with a classic touch.
Wow, I think this is the best news EVER! So are the cars going to all be one-off custom commisions, or will there be limited runs of, say, 20 Zagato 599s? Or both?
This new program is directly through Ferrari and if anyone is interested you should contact them directly. Cheers!
I wonder if you could have custom coach building on even older Ferraris, like the F50. Boy would I love to have the F50 mechanicals with a custom body that is a reinterpretation of the 80s Testarossa! Now all I have to do is win the Mega Lotto!