Ferrari gets the chop
BY DAVID HASSALL | 23rd May 2011
Unveiled at last week’s annual Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza on the shores of Lake Como in Italy, the Ferrari Superamerica 45 convertible was designed and built specifically for New York collector and Ferrari enthusiast Peter Kalikow.
It was named to celebrate 45 years of Ferrari buying by the 68-year-old real estate billionaire, who in 2006 had another custom Ferrari – called the 612 Kappa – produced for him by famed Italian design house Pininfarina.
Although the front-engined 599 has never officially been produced as a convertible, Ferrari announced at last year’s Paris motor show that Pininfarina would produce a run of 80 roadsters (with emergency soft-tops) in celebration of the design company’s 80th anniversary.
However, the unique Superamerica 45 was an in-house project by Ferrari’s customisation service at Maranello.
Ferrari claims the new boot, which is also made from carbon-fibre, has been designed to “optimise” the aerodynamics by reducing drag while increasing rear downforce.
The car’s distinctive rear buttresses are body-coloured and are integrated into the rear wheelarches – unlike Pininfarina’s limited-edition SA Aperta shown in Paris.
Other design features include double air vents on the front wings just behind the front wheels, a chromed front grille and burnished aluminium A-pillars, wing mirrors and door handles.
The wheels are body-coloured with a contrasting diamond finish to the spokes while the roof and other carbon-fibre elements of the bodywork – front splitter, side skirts and rear diffuser – are finished in a darker shade of blue.
This two-tone blue theme is carried into the cockpit, which features dark blue carbon-fibre dash trim and driver zone along with ‘Cuoio’ brown leather trim.
