More detail has emerged of the unique coachbuilt Ferrari F430 that was fleeting spotted around Maranello this summer, a distinctive design created specially by Fioravanti for a Japanese businessman and Ferrari collector. He Mr Hiramatsu has always been a keen admirer of Leonardo Fioravanti's 1998 Ferrari F100 (above), a concept that really made the designer's name as an independent, and he wanted the SP1 to draw clear influence from this timeless project.

More detail has emerged of the unique coachbuilt Ferrari F430 that was fleeting spotted around Maranello this summer, a distinctive design created specially by Fioravanti for a Japanese businessman and Ferrari collector.

Commissioned by Junichiro Hiramatsu, the road-going F430 Coupé has seen its styling reworked by the designers at Fioravanti who have stamped their traditional mark onto the finished product, which is now know as the SP1 (Special Project #1), a name that also hints at the evocative 'sports prototype' tag. The new image of the coachbuilt car at Maranello is drawn from the latest issue of the new Ferrari magazine.

Mr Hiramatsu has been a serious Ferrari collector for more than forty years, and as well as a collection that includes cars such as the 250 GTO, F40, F50 and Enzo, he has more than 10,000 items of factory literature and over 20,000 miniatures. He has always been a keen admirer of Leonardo Fioravanti's 1998 Ferrari F100 prototype, a concept that really made the designer's name as an independent, and Mr Hiramatsu wanted the SP1 to draw clear influence from this timeless project. Before setting up his eponymous design house, Fioravanti worked at Pininfarina for almost quarter of a century, followed by short stints at Ferrari and Centro Stile Alfa Romeo. He put his name to a string of the most famous all-time Ferrari designs, including the Dino, Daytona, 288 GTO, 512 Berlinetta Boxer as well as the P4 and P5 concepts.

The SP1 is an early product of a bold new initiative by Ferrari, and championed by President Luca di Montezemolo, that aims to revive the famous historic tradition of coachbuilding its cars. With a cheque-book capable of covering two million euros, and a decent design idea, Ferrari will offer the client the choice of three cars from its current-and-recent model range, the F430, 612 Scaglietti and Enzo, to use as a starting point, from which a unique “speciale” can be created. As well as Fioravanti, design houses Pininfarina and Zagato will be part of the programme. Certain hard points must remain, however, including the front windscreen and the fundamental crumple zone structure. In the case of the SP1, the well designed original F430 lighting units have also been retained.

In comparison to the heavily detailed front end, which has been relatively lightly modified from the base F430, the rear of this one-off remains refined. Single circular lighting units, sourced from the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, have been installed on either side of the mesh cooling grille, creating an understated elegance. Meanwhile, in harmony with the fluid form language, shallow flying buttresses have been added, a design element accredited to Pininfarina. Perhaps the bravest feature of the coachwork of this car lies in the application of carbon fibre as a finish for the side skirts, mirrors, roof, and front lower spoiler. Weight saving was clearly one of the goals of the project creator.