Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina

There can be no doubt: this is probably the best looking car I’ve ever seen. Sincerely, it could be punted as art for sale rather than a car. I feel as if I could stare and marvel at it for hours on end, perhaps imagining a future world in which a vision like this could be a common place reality. After taking in its visual assault on my aesthetic faculties, it is only to the car’s further honour to bear in mind that it is, under its inspiring veil, one of the most technologically sophisticated cars ever produced. The marriage of Ferrari’s engineering know-how with Pininfarina’s design team could only have produced an Enzo that looks like this.

The story of the P4/5’s genesis is certainly interesting, and explains why this is only such car in existence (I still can’t decide if its uniqueness is a tragedy for the motoring world or whether it only serves to make the P4/5 even cooler). Whatever its ultimate meaning, the fact remains that Pininfarina produced only one P4/5 for film director and stock market, er, “beneficiary”, James Glickenhaus.

Without Glickenhaus, the car would never have taken the form that it has, and the owner’s enthusiasm for Ferrari’s early P series cars (Glickenhaus already owns a 1967 Ferrari P 330 3) was the starting point for conceptual sketches done by Pininfarina designer, Jason Castriota.

Originally, Andrea Pininfarina, the grandson of Pininfarina’s founder, approached Glickenhaus with a proposal to do a Pininfarina design on Ferrari’s Enzo. The two companies have a history of collaboration that pre-dates the Second World War. The price tag for the project was about USD 4.5 million, which means that it cost even more than a decent supply of baby products.  Glickenhaus, already a father of two, was a motoring enthusiast who could afford the price tag for this once off creation.

Glickenhaus requested a design that would recall the Ferrari P-series of the 60s and 70s. The design that Castriota presented to the stock market magnate was intended to celebrate Ferrari pedigree, as per the design brief, but at the same time to look towards the future. After some heated debate between Pininfarina and Glickenhaus, Glickenhaus agreed to accept the non-retro design that Pininfarina had put to him (apparently the Glickenhaus children persuaded their father that the design was something worth the money spent on it).

Ferrari themselves were not made aware of Pininfarina’s intentions for the Enzo (Pininfarina conduct much design and testing in secret) but when they were made privy to the reworking of the Enzo, the prancing horse representatives were suitably impressed. The car manufacturer believed that the P4/5 would be a winner among enthusiasts and the public alike, and, further, that both companies would benefit by stamping the prancing horse badge on the vehicle.

It is thus that the “Glickenhaus car” is now officially titled the Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina. It seems apt that such an amicable partnership could be formed between the two companies, especially considering the result of their combined efforts.

The P4/5 modifications on the Enzo design, however, have made several contributions to the performance of the vehicle. The new P-series inspired P4/5 body was designed in a CAD programme in which its drag co-efficient was estimated to have been significantly less than the wind resistance encountered by the Enzo. Actual wind tunnel testing confirmed the CAD predictions, and therefore gave the new body an edge. Pininfarina, further, reduced the weight of the Enzo by (about) 270 kilograms through rewiring some of the car’s intricate electronics systems. The result of the above modifications is that the P4/5 can reach 100kph about 0.6 seconds faster than the Enzo (that is, the P4/5 does 0-100kph in 3.0 seconds, flat). The P4/5 will also beat out the Enzo in terms of top speed.