Amongst those who work on Ferrari Special Projects (SP) — often ‘One-Offs’, but not always — there is a saying: “An SP car rewards twice. Once on the day it’s delivered and once on all the days that come before that.” Commissioning your very own Ferrari is indeed a Special Process. It is — famously — not for everyone. Ferrari chooses which customers it will invite to commission a car and it is, if anything, a celebration of the most intense and long-lived relationship, something purchasing power alone will never buy. John Collins — known the world over for Talacrest, a company established in 1989 that can reasonably claim to have sold at least one example of all the ‘greatest’ made-in-Maranello cars — is one of the select few. Among Ferrari One-Off clients Collins is perhaps unique, in that he has not one, but two matching models. We say ‘matching’ but the two cars — dubbed SP3JC, with the ‘JC’ standing for ‘John Collins’ — are, of course, anything but: one is right-hand drive, the other left-hand drive.
The latest Ferrari one-off project, the SP3JC, has been officially consigned to its owner. Designed by the Ferrari Styling Centre, the SP3JC was commissioned by a Ferrari client and collector whose brief set out to create a pure, uncompromising roadster using the chassis and running gear of the F12tdf. The Ferrari SP3JC features a very muscular stance with dynamic sculpturing on the flanks designed to emphasise the front-engine layout, a distinctive air intake outline at the front, and a dramatic rear fascia with horizontal slashes contributing to a wider stance. There is the matter of the liveries: the right-hand-drive one is striking with its bands of blue ‘Azzurro Met’ and yellow ‘Giallo Modena’ over a base of silver-white ‘Bianco Italia’. The other car is a matt grey ‘Grigio Silverstone’ with bands of white ‘Bianco Bianco’ and ‘Rosso Magma’ painted glossily across its nose.
The two SP3JC roadsters showcase their distinctive design, something quite unlike that of any other Ferrari on the road today.
The sole one-off car to be commissioned on this limited-series special, the Ferrari SP3JC is the maximum expression of open-air motoring, harking back to Ferrari’s epic V12-engined spiders of the 1950s and ’60s. The striking one-off makes an important and individual styling statement and represents the outcome of over two years of intense work, with close involvement from the client throughout the process. The client’s passion for Pop Art is reflected in the strong graphics, and the unique combination of the Azzurro Met and Giallo Modena livery over the main Bianco Italia colour scheme underlines the car’s sensual volumes.The sporting theme is reinforced by specific detailing such as split glass inserts on the bonnet to show off the 780cv V12 engine, a flying bridge between the fairings of the integral carbon-fibre roll hoops and a brushed aluminium external fuel filler cap. The seats are trimmed in blue leather with a white insert. The blue leather extends to the lower dashboard and the colour is picked up in the contrasting stitching to the rest of the interior trim.
