The press release offers few clues apart from confirming the project's existence and saying that it will be equipped with a 6.0-litre engine while the accompanying press release reads: "A recent and fascinating trend in the rarefied world of top end Ferrari collectors is the commissioning of a once off bespoke version of high end models from Italian coach builders. Several 'special clients' have approached Pininfarina (and others) in recent years to build uniquely styled cars, an idea that goes back to the fifties when customers like film director Roberto Rossellini had a special car built for his wife, Ingrid Bergman. The Villa d'Este is the natural setting for the exposure of such special vehicles as well as the Glickenhaus [Ferrari]P4/5. This year we will have a very special Ferrari Super America."

Pininfarina has been one of the leading lights in the new era of dramatic Maranello-blessed coachbuilt sports cars that carry the Ferrari badge and has already used the occasion of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este to showcase one-off models such as the 612 Kappa built for New York collector Peter Kalikow and the P4/5 by Pininfarina for another well-known Stateside collector, Jim Glickenhaus, although the Turin design and engineering concern has been overtaken in overall programme responsibility by the arrival of Ferrari's in-house "Special Projects" division. The latter car, based on the Ferrari Enzo supercar, will in fact be back at the "concorso" on the banks of picturesque Lake Como this year to go up against the new Super America 45 in the "Concept" class judging, with other entries in the headline category set to include Italdesign-Giugiaro's Go!, Infiniti's Etherea, Mercedes Benz's Concept Shooting Break and Audi's Quattro Concept Fastback Coupé.

Media reports suggest the Ferrari Super America 45 has been commissioned by Kalikow with this new convertible set to complement his coupé-bodied 612 K, which was presented in 2006. Kalikow, who already owns several historic Ferrari Super America-tagged models, would call for more understated design language and innovate details which in light of the convertible nature of the project will use technology from the Pininfarina-designed Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. The Super America 45's design team has attempted to incorporate a plethora of highly retro-styling details into the thoroughly-modern layout of the 599 GTB Fiorano with the resulting harmony of this ambitious design fusion being somewhat open to question.

"The concept cars at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este represent a rare opportunity to see these prototypes in close proximity, outside the context of the dazzle of the international motor exhibition circuit, a chance to examine the details, features and form in natural light close up, in the reality of the outside world," said the President of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este and Director of BMW Group Classic, Karl Baumer. "As fascinating essays in the automobile in the years ahead they are fully in the spirit of an event that, for over eighty years, has celebrated not only the history of personal transportation but also its future," added Dott. Jean-Marc Droulers, President of Villa d’Este.