What's all this about?
Ferrari has a department called Special Projects, which has been making custom, one-off commissions of its cars for its most well-heeled of clientele since 2008. Well, the car you're looking at here is the latest in that hallowed canon. It's called the Ferrari SP-8 and it's a development of the F8 Spider.
Wait, are you saying this is the only SP-8 that will be made?
We are indeed. This one has been commissioned by a renowned Ferrari collector who originally hails from Taiwan, so the car has extra-special meaning to this person as in Chinese culture, the number eight augurs good fortune. Anyway, the car itself is mechanically pretty much identical to the F8 Spider, which means it has a mid-mounted, 720hp/770Nm twin-turbo V8 for motive force. There's a big physical change, though, in that the folding roof of the F8 Spider has gone; this SP-8 is a permanently open roadster. That one alteration alone meant Ferrari SP had to do a lot of work with computational fluid dynamics, as well as wind-tunnel and track testing, to ensure the bespoke car had the right level of refinement and acoustic isolation as it would demand of its main production vehicles.
Can you talk to me about that exterior a bit more?
The front is finished in unpainted carbon fibre, although it has glossy Blue Sandstone highlights. This teams to a unique Ble Scuro Stellato colour that blends the carbon bits of the body with the sections finished in matte Argento Micalizzato. A gloss-black centre section around the cab is the 'functional' bit of the SP-8, housing various ducts and side intakes for the engine and its massive intercoolers, while slatted vents on the rear deck above the V8 are echoed by vertical elements in the cast-aluminium, full-width grille. Both the front and rear light clusters gain special lenses, the back units being those from a Ferrari Roma rather than the F8 Spider, while the tailpipes for the exhaust are finished like those on a 296 GTB. Even the five-spoke, directional alloys - designed to mimic the wheels on Ferrari's sports prototypes from the past, not to mention the rims from the legendary F40 - are painted in a bespoke colour, which is matte Grigio NART.
And how about the cabin?
Those exterior blue highlights are most obviously complemented by the Navy Blue Alcantara-trimmed seats, with carpets rendered in an iridescent twill fabric. Another alteration comes with 'F1 commands' for the gears, which is something first seen in the SF90 Stradale.
When does the lucky owner get to hold the SP-8's keys?
Not for a while yet. Following its reveal, the SP-8 will be on display at the Mugello Circuit in Italy during the remainder of Ferrari's Finali Mondiali show. After that, it will be going to the manufacturer's museum at Maranello, where it will be on display from November 16 to March 2024. And then, and only then, the owner will get to do with it what he or she wishes. Incidentally, the SP-8 is the latest in a line of modern-era Ferrari bespoke commissions from the super-rich, which kicked off with the F430-based SP1 of 2008. Various examples have been made over the years, based on Fezzas as widely varied as the 488 and the 812, but the 458-based SP12 EC is one to note. It was commissioned by none other than old 'Slowhand' himself, Eric Clapton (hence the 'EC' bit of the name) and it was designed to look like a 512BB. Apparently, it cost Clapton £3,000,000 to have built back in 2012.
Matt Robinson - 24 Oct 2023
