What's Wrong With This Picture: Putting The "Special" In Special Projects Edition

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

As Ferrari leaves its traditional elegance aside in favor of expeditions to the limits of geek-gauche, few efforts by the Modena firm are as dismaying as its Special Projects one-offs. Jimmy Glickenhaus’s million-dollar Enzo-upgrade, the Pininfarina P4/5 set the pattern: one-off Ferraris must clearly signal that their owners have far more money than taste. Following in that bold tradition is this, the P540 Superfast Aperta, based on the 599 GTB. Though it looks like the buyer, Edward Walson, simply asked for a gold, targa-topped 599 with 250 GTO styling cues, the Aperta was actually inspired by the gold Fezza from Fellini’s Toby Dammit. Not that the pedigree keeps the Aperta from looking like a 1970s oil-sheik special. And considering this dismal re-working does such disservice to Ferrari’s best-looking car (plus the targa-top adds 50 lbs), it’s hard to see why they were so certain the project was “in keeping with the brand’s ideals,” as Autocar puts it. On the plus side, Walson gets the 540’s tooling to ensure uniqueness. Here’s hoping it stays as “unique” as it is “special.”.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • FreedMike FreedMike on Dec 14, 2009

    C'mon, guys, it ain't THAT bad...

    • Ingvar Ingvar on Dec 14, 2009

      Oh yes, it is. Good design is coherent. The Italians are master at that, especially the fluidity and clarity of line. What makes the 250 GTO so beautiful is that it seems to be carved out of solid muscle. It "fits", and it flexes doing so. This car has no coherence anywhere, it seems to be designed by not two but three different persons not working together. There's a front, a middle, and an end, and nothing fits together. Contemporary Ferrari front end, Chevrolet Corvette middle section, and the rear end from a Ferrari 275 GTB/4. The design doesn't make sense, it doesn't hold up together, it's not a coherent "whole". It looks like what a two-person Californian coachbuilder would make out of a Corvette and some glassfibre-mouldings.

  • Exnilo Exnilo on Dec 14, 2009

    Front: Callaway Corvette Back: 67 and later Corvette

  • Morea Morea on Dec 15, 2009

    It is strange that working for the same corporation as Maserati and Alfa Romeo (who make some of the most beautiful berlinettas) Ferrari produces some of the ugliest designs. Is it because the horsepower wars have reached a zenith (at some 600+) so to compete you must do so on avant style alone?

  • Mikenem Mikenem on Dec 15, 2009

    I like it, from this angle anyway. Red would look best though

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