Jim Glickenhaus and his team have treated us to another video of the P4/5 Competizione lapping a race track, this time Germany’s iconic Nurburgring Nordschleife. We get to ride along as the performance machine is driven around the Bavarian circuit by Italian race driver Luca Cappellari.

The laps will help the team prepare for several races at the Nurburgring, starting with the P4/5 Competizione’s race debut at the VLN Endurance Championship in April, and continuing with the 24 Hours of Nurburgring race this June. In a brief documentary released earlier this month, we got a brief look behind-the-scenes of the Competizione’s construction, highlighting race equipment like the roll cage. Yet in spite of its racing pedigree, the car wears a New York license plate, implying that it is–somehow–road-legal like its Pininfarina P4/5 sibling.

The video doesn’t reveal the P4/5′s Nurburgring lap time, a number which has become the unofficial benchmark for modern performance cars, but the car looks just as fast here as when we saw it on the Vallelunga Circuit in Italy. Based on the Ferrari 430 Scuderia with the drivetrain from the F430 GT2 race car, Glickenhaus’s creation has no trouble passing the various other sports cars attacking the German circuit. The team members are no doubt crossing their fingers that the car can likewise dispatch competitors in April.

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Source: rumors.automobilemag.com

If you’ve ever seen photos of Jim Glickenhaus’ amazing one-off Ferrari P4/5 then you’ll know that all it takes is money to make your dreams come true. The P4/5 was commissioned from Pininfarina back in 2005 and cost Glickenhaus an estimated $4 million to complete. It was built off the platform of a Ferrari Enzo, and was a tribute to the 1967 Ferrari 330 P 3/4. The P4/5 made its debut back in 2006 at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elégance in California and from then on has become somewhat of a legend.

Jump forward now 3 years to 2009 when Glickenhaus announced that he wanted to run a race version of the P4/5 in the 2011 24 Hours Nürburgring. As mentioned the original car was based on a Ferrari Enzo, the new car however, coined the P4/5 Competizione, would be based upon a Ferrari F430 Scuderia. It’s now 2011 and the P4/5 Competizione is finally complete and undergoing testing. Looks wise the car is just as stunning as the original renderings we brought you back in August. We are looking forward in seeing how Glickenhaus’s Ferrari P4/5 Competizione will perform on the legendary Nordschleife between 25 and 26 June 2011. The drivers will be Nordschleife Mika Salo, Nicola Larini, Fabrizio Giovanardi and Luca Cappellari.

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Source: ridelust.com and carsession.com

Car collector James Glickenhaus may be hard at work crafting a racing version of his one-off, Ferrari Enzo-based P4/5, but that won’t be ready for some time yet. In the meantime, he took his road-going super-exotic to France for some high-speed runs, and posted the subsequent footage for the world to enjoy. The Pininfarina-bodied car has been seen everywhere from New York City to a Gooding’s auction at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, Palm Beach, Florida and even the Paris Motor Show.

While the P4/5 has been chronicled time and time again, we never shy away from an opportunity to see and hear the Pininfarina project being driven at 10/10ths. This clip shows the car screaming around a high-banked turn at a nominal velocity before cutting to the car slogging through city traffic — an unfortunate scenario for the driver, and quite a contrast to the preceding scene. The video ends with the P4/5 parked behind red ropes in Paris, allowing the growing crowds surrounding the car to bask in its beauty.

We can’t wait to see the P4/5 Competizione in action at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this June, but this latest clip of the so-called stock P4/5 will have to suffice until then.

What do you think about the video of the Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina doing laps at the race track in France and then being driven in Paris?

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Source: rumors.automobilemag.com and autoblog.com

Jim Glickenhaus is our favorite American billionaire! This guy became very famous in the auto world a few years ago when he decided to turn one of his Ferrari Enzo into a one-off bespoke hyper car inspired by road-legal racing Ferraris of the 60s. The result of that was the Pininfarina P4/5, but that wasn’t the end for him, he is now working on an actual racing version of that car called the P4/5 Competizione and when it’s done he’s going to race with it. They’ve put together a sort of documentary of this car being built, and here is part 1 in which Jim himself talks to you about his ideas.

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Source: jalopnik.com and motorward.com

Ferrari P540 Superfast Aperta

On display for the first time even, Ferrari chose the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance to display the one-off P540 Superfast Aperta. One of the first vehicles to come from Ferrari’s Special Projects program (others including the Enzo-based P4/5 and the F430-based SP1), underneath this gold beauty is a Ferrari 599 chassis.

The P540 Superfast was built for Edward Walson, the son of John Walson, who invented cable TV. Walson commissioned the vehicle with inspiration coming from the Fantuzzi-designed Ferrari which appeared in the 1968 film Toby Dammit. It was designed by Pininfarina and built in-house in Maranello, with Walson taking part in the entire design process. While added bracing was required to maintain the chassis’ rigidity, plenty of carbon fiber panels were used to reduce the impact of the weight gain. In total, engineers managed to limit the added weight to just 44 lbs.

Like previous projects, the luxurious Ferrari’s engine remains untouched, with the factory 6.0-liter V12 producing a tremendous 612-hp.

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Source: autoguide.com

Ferrari P4/5 Competizione

If you are not familiar with the Ferrari P4/5, it’s a one-off car commissioned by American billionaire Jim Glickenhaus and designed by Pininfarina based on the Ferrari Enzo. The car is inspired by P3/4 and 412P race cars of 60s and 70s, and it’s one of the best coachbuilt Ferraris made to date. Now Jim wants a racing version of that car, and it’s getting built right now! 

There are no shortage of reasons why we love the Ferrari P4/5, and by extension, owner Jim Glickenhaus for bringing it to realization. The Pininfarina-penned one-off drew its inspiration and design cues from the legendary P3/4, one of the most achingly beautiful – and devastatingly fast – Ferraris ever devised. Just one problem: the original P3/4 was an approved race car, going back to the days when you could drive your machinery to the track, race for the day and then blast back home. Those days are far behind us, but that’s no problem for our old friend Jim. He’ll just make another one.

And so was born the P4/5 Competition project, creating a racing version to compliment the street-legal coachbuilt special. Unlike the Enzo-based road car, Glickenhaus chose to base the Competizione model on the combination of F430 underpinnings, using the 430 Scuderia’s chassis (to ensure that it would be able to be converted back to street use once its racing days were over) and the F430 GT2′s drivetrain to keep it up to speed with the competition.

The project is now well under way, and Jim has released the rendering you see above to give us a heads-up on what the final product will look like. Of course the design is largely the same as the P4/5 roadcar, but upgrades with some race-specific components, from the front splitter to the rear wing and a livery inspired by racing Ferraris of the past. Reports indicate that it will be classified as an experimental racer in the same vein as the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid.

For our part, we can’t wait to see it turn its wheels at the 2011 Nurburgring 24 Hours race, which is scheduled to take place on June 25-26, to see what the racer is really capable of.

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Source: autoblog.com, motorward.com and autoevolution.com

Jason Castriota

Jason Castriota, formerly designer for Ferrari, Pininfarina and Stile Bertone, has been tapped by Saab to lead design, through Mr. Castriota’s design firm to help the Swedish carmaker take on Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) AG and Audi AG.

Jason Castriota Designs has been hired to handle design for Saab Automobile, the automaker that was bought in February by Spyker NV, a Dutch car company.

Saab’s news release referred to Mr. Castriota, 36, as design director, adding that he would take “the lead role in design at Saab,” but he will not work exclusively for Saab, Mr. Castriota said in an interview on Monday.

Mr. Castriota is widely regarded as a star in the car design world. He started his career at Pininfarina SpA in Turin, Italy from 2001 to 2008. While he was at Pininfarina, he worked on the Ferrari P4/5, Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano and also for Maserati (which is owned by Ferrari) including the Maserati GranTurismo and the Maserati Birdcage concept. More recently, he worked at Stile Bertone in Italy until September 2009, where he designed the Mantide, an exotic car based on the Corvette ZR1.

Mr. Castriota, who was born in the United States, set up his own firm, Jason Castriota Design, last December. The design house is based in New York City and Turin, Italy, where he also keeps a residence.

In the interview, Mr. Castriota said that the Saab relationship began with a meeting he had with Jan Ake Jonsson, Saab Automobile’s chief executive, and Victor Muller, the chief executive of Spyker and chairman of Saab, at the Geneva Auto Show in March. They discussed Mr. Castriota’s designs for a sportier, upscale version of the company’s bread and butter 9-3 sedan.

At first Mr. Muller and Mr. Jonsson wanted to hire him as Saab’s in-house design director, Mr. Castriota said. Instead, it was agreed that Mr. Castriota’s firm would remain independent, but direct design for Saab.

How does Mr. Castriota see Saab?

“Quirky and distinctive are important words,” he said. “It should be a true premium car alternative to the Germans. With the 900 series, with turbocharging and sporty performance, it was a smart buy. You saw doctors and lawyers everywhere driving Saab.”

These days, he noted, Audi has taken that position in the market that Saab occupied in the 1980s and part of the 1990s.

Mr. Castriota’s 9-3 may be on the road by 2012. He also may work on a small car, the 9-2.

Mr. Castriota pointed to the success of the Mini Cooper as a model for the success that the 9-2 might achieve. “There’s some behind-the-scenes talk going on for platform sharing with other companies,” he said, adding that he will have a voice in Saab’s marketing.

Mr. Castriota said his firm has five employees, and among its other clients are a boutique shoe company and a maker of a water bottle. The only other automotive client he was willing to mention is Shelby SuperCars – the name belongs to Jerod Shelby, not Carroll Shelby – which produces the Shelby Ultimate Aero. Castriota Design is shaping the next generation of that car and possibly a smaller model that will bear Mr. Castriota’s name.

As described by Mr. Castriota, the relationship between Saab and his firm sounds like those common in the product design world, but rare in the auto industry. Consultant design firms have long functioned as de facto design departments or directors for corporations. Examples include Walter Dorwin Teague for Kodak or Henry Dreyfuss for Polaroid.

Examples in the car industry include the tie between Pininfarina and Ferrari from the 1950s or between Raymond Loewy and Associates and Studebaker Corporation, from the late 1940s to the ’60s. That liaison produced such iconic models as the Studebaker Starlight Coupe and the Avanti.

For new designs, Mr. Castriota said, “We want to return to the Saab DNA.” He pointed to the first or “Ur”saab, the original highly streamlined concept that was created in 1945. It sits in the Saab Museum and preceded the first production model, the 92, which was designed by Sixten Sason in 1947.

“Aero was a key factor in that model,” Mr. Castriota said, “and today of course aero is more important than ever.”

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Ferrari P4/5

Maserati Gran Turismo

Bertone Mantide

Saab 92

Source: wheels.blogs.nytimes.com, businessweek.com and ridelust.com

Gold colored Ferrari one-off P540 Superfast Aperta

Ferrari is back into business of coachbuilding as the Italian supercar maker unveiled the second one-off special. After the P4/5 was built for American collector (and millionaire…) James Glickenhaus back in 2006 by Pininfarina and the first SP1 (Sport Prototype 1) in 2008 for the prominent Ferrari collector and Japanese business executive Junichiro Hiramatsu which was designed by Leonardo Fioravanti and built by Ferrari.

Inspired by a Luigi Chinetti-owned 330 LM used in an obscure Fellini film, the Ferrari P540 Superfast Aperta is a 599 GTB Fiorano-based one-off Pininfarina designed for the son of the creator of cable TV.

This is the work of Pininfarina and Ferrari’s Special Projects division, which handles one-off customizations for the automaker. And while it shares similar technical specs with the 599, it’s a strong visual departure featuring touches of Maserati, 250 GTO and even a bit of Shelby Series One. Whereas the donor car is a sportier GT, the P540 is a more aggressive and masculine take. Most notably, and the reason for the Aperta label (Italian for “window”), is the open top.

Source: autoblog.com, jalopnik.com and carscoop.blogspot.com

Pininfarina Ferrari P4/5 Competizione

The man behind the coachbuilt Pininfarina Ferrari P4/5, James Glickenhaus, has confirmed that he will build a race version of the car to compete in endurance racing.

The P4/5, which was unveiled at the 2006 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, is a one-off rebodied Ferrari Enzo, built by the Pininfarina design house to look like the famous 1967 Ferrari P4 race car. It is reported to cost Glickenhaus $4 million.

The P4/5 Competizione would be a racing variant of that car and would likely cost even more.

Several months back when Glickenhaus first proposed the idea he admitted it was a long shot, saying that, “There are a LOT of stars that would have to align for this to happen but its not impossible.”

Glickenhaus recently mentioned on FerrariChat under his screen name of Napoli that, “Things are starting to come together. It will take time but there is excitement and real interest. Thanks to my Partners in this adventure! This will be some trip and it has begun. P4/5 took on a life of her own. May P4/5 Competizione follow her example.”

It is expected that the P4/5 Competizione will be entered at an upcoming Nurburgring 24 hour race.

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Source: autoguide.com