Entrepreneur TK Mak
commissioned Ferrari
to design and build him
the one-off P80/CGot more money than God? Put Maranello’s design and engineering
nous to work on a one-of-a-kind car of your dreamsYour own Ferrari... literallyAny Ferrari signals an ascension
to a higher form of automotive
ownership. But the company’s
Special Projects division is as elevated as
Maranello gets: you don’t get to buy your
own Ferrari, you get invited to create it.
This is a 21st-century reboot of Italy’s
carrozzeria coachbuilding tradition, in which
artisanal car firms reworked bodies into flam-
boyantly personal expressions of gentlemanly
taste. Owning something no one else has is a
signature of 2019’s luxury world and Ferrari
is happy to oblige, with mixed results.
But the P80/C is spectacular, not least
because it’s believed to be the first of the
30-odd SP cars to use
a racing car as its basis.
Its owner is Hong Kong-
based entrepreneur
TK Mak, whose inter-
ests include Blackbird
Automotive, Ferrari’s official dealer in the
territory, and the car is a love letter to Ferrari’s
best-loved endurance racers. In particular the
330 P3/4 that saw the Italians avenge defeat at
the hands of Ford’s upstart GT40 at Le Mans in
1966 by winning the 1967 Daytona 24 Hours.
As Mak explains, “To survive, you had to win
and the result was some of the most beautiful
racing cars ever made. For P80/C, the goal was
to re-create the feeling of that era – of aesthet-
ics meeting engineering, of equal parts beauty
and performance. This was a way to project my
vision of a design language for Ferrari, a brand
that lies very close to my heart.”Ferrari P80/C
Engine 710bhp
3.9-litre, twin turbo V8
Performance
0-60mph 2.7 secs;
top speed, 211mph
Price Undisclosed
but likely around
£5 million
Contact ferrari.comNeed
to knowHe’s also crazy enough to let me drive the result, becoming only the
third person in the world to do so and the first not employed by Ferrari,
and around the Italian GP venue, Monza, no less. The engine is the 3.9-
litre, twin turbo V8, with modified, lightweight internals and an Inconel
exhaust, almost identical to the car that took class honours in the Le
Mans 24 Hours endurance earlier this year. The racing regs limit power
to around 600bhp, but the P80/C is running a more aggressive engine
map so it’s closer to 700bhp.
Like all serious competition cars, getting into it means negotiating a
roll cage and making peace with a purpose-built race seat. Then you’re
effectively hard-wired into the machine. The digital display monitors
the engine’s vital signs hyperactively. The central console is a vertical
carbon fibre stack based on the 488 GT3’s, though the air con issues a
civilised blast of chilled air through a huge vent. The steering wheel is
lozenge-shaped, with dials for fuel mode and engine map and switches
to adjust traction control. It’s all business.
The transmission is the ubiquitous six-
speed unit from Xtrac. Engage first, release
the weighty clutch pedal and the car instant-
ly strains, all muscle and sinew, but it’s much
less truculent than I’d expected. It’s also not as
manically fast as the latest breed of hypercar, but then it has a different
job: to be utterly fit for purpose and dissect a circuit with scalpel-
wielding precision. I’ve had close calls with racing cars in the past, so I
stay well away from Monza’s sadistic sausage kerbs and rumble strips
and consequently ask little of the aerodynamic or mechanical grip.
Nevertheless, it’s an extraordinarily vivid experience.
Although the innermost workings of the client/Ferrari Centro Stile
relationship remain confidential, Mak casts some light on it: “We sat
down with Flavio [Manzoni, senior vice president of design] and the
team and carefully described the car’s raison d’être. It was very impor-
tant to me they understood why we wanted to build this car,” he
explains. “It wasn’t for vanity nor was it a chance for us to dictate to
them what to do. This was an opportunity for us to make something
truly special that we can all be proud of for years to come.” GIt’s a love letter toFerrari’s best-lovedendurance racersStory by Jason BarlowCARS09-19CarFerrari.indd 120 11/07/2019 08:28
116 GQ.CO.UK SEPTEMBER 2019