The automotive web lit up this weekend with speculation over a mysterious Ferrari photographed running development laps around the Fiorano test track.. While some suggest this could be the successor to either the F430 or the Enzo, observers were confused by the complete lack of any apparent effort to disguise the car's bodywork. The latest reports now indicate that the vehicle in question is a one-off rebodied F430 custom made by Italian design house Fioravanti for what must be an incredibly wealthy customer.
The emergence of the purported Fioravanti F430 follows similar creations from Pininfarina, Giugiaro and Zagato (and reportedly soon from Touring) as well as the announcement of Ferrari's program to offer discerning (and financially unlimited) clients with custom models. The criteria call for leaving certain elements – including the crash structures and the running gear – intact, but apart from that it's open season. The Fioravanti take on the F430 includes a mildly re-sculpted front end, a heavily-modified rear section and an extensive remolding of many body panels in lightweight (and costly) carbon fiber. The vehicle looks about ready for delivery, so we hope we might get a chance for an up-close view at the upcoming Paris show in October.
At last month's Geneva Motor Show, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo surprised the industry by revealing that his company would be coming to the Paris Motor Show in October with a new model. Widely anticipated to be the oft-refuted new "entry-level" Ferrari, dubbed tentatively as the Dino or 430 GT California, the test mule has been spotted repeatedly making its way around any of the three circuits that the company owns in Italy.
These new spy shots reveal a nose as long as the 599 GTB Fiorano's or the 612 Scaglietti's, but while those models have to accommodate a long V12 under the hood, the new model is expected to carry a front-mounted V8 based on the architecture shared by the Ferrari F430, Maserati GranTurismo and Quattroporte and Alfa 8C Competizione. While the former is built by Ferrari at its factory in Maranello, the fact that the plant is already at capacity while demand continues to grow and the company continues to expand into new markets leads to speculation that the new model could be built alongside the others at Maserati's factory in nearby Modena. We're also interested to see whether the headlights reminiscent of the classic Daytona (like the one Ferrari also showed in Geneva) are just part of the camouflage, or if they will make it to production. One way or another, we'll see after the summer in the French capital.
Our friends over at Carscoop have managed to – you guessed it – scoop another car. This spy shot was taken by a reader visiting Maranello and reveals a Ferrari test mule under heavy camouflage. The most intriguing element are the headlights, usually the first part disguised on a developmental test vehicle going out into the public domain, that bare a striking resemblance to those of the iconic Ferrari 365 GTB/4, better known as the Daytona.
The car was first spotted running laps around Ferrari's private Fiorano test track and then again on the road. The tester closely resembles the one we brought you earlier this month, and judging by the short wheelbase, front-engine layout and heavily bolstered roof, we'd have to assume this is the upcoming "entry-level" model, known tentatively as the GT California, whose existence Ferrari has been denying up and down for years.
