Ferrari launches Icona series with Monza

Here is a sports car – actually two – that will inspire the petrol heads of the 21^st century just as they did seventy years ago. The new Ferrari Monza SP1 and SP2 are limited-edition special-series cars, which are the first in a new segment called ‘Icona’ and draw inspiration from the most evocative Ferraris of the 1950s. Their inspiration might come from the past but they feature the most advanced sports car technology available today.

Inspiration can be traced to Ferrari racing barchettas like the 1948 166 MM, which even inspired the name ‘barchetta’, the 750 Monza and 860 Monza. The victory trail created at the World Sports Car Championship by these models built the Ferrari legend in the 1950s. [By the way, barchetta is what Italian carmakers called two-seater sport convertibles or open-tops – the word means ‘little boat’ and why can be sorted by simply looking at the new Monza SP1.] WATCH THE UNVEILING

The Ferrari Monza SP1 is designed as a single-seat road car while the second configuration, the Monza SP2, is a two-seater that loses the tonneau cover while adding a second protective screen and a second roll-bar. The architecture of the two cars is based on a monolithic form with an aerodynamic wing profile where the complete absence of a roof and windscreen gave the designers the freedom to create unique proportions that would not have been possible on a traditional spider. The resultant feeling of blazing velocities is only experienced by Formula 1 drivers, which derives from the concept of a cockpit carved from the car’s very volume that wraps around the driver.

Anyway, the feeling of speed isn’t just a feeling! The unique models have used plenty of carbon fibre and has the best weight-to-power ratio of any barchetta. They are equipped with the most powerful engine Maranello has ever built, a 810 cv V12 that does 0-100 kmph in 2.9 seconds and 0-200 km/h in 7.9 seconds.

The design has been kept visibly pure, as though born of a single pencil stroke, eschewing complex elements flaunted by modern racing cars. The Monzas’ compact doors open upwards while the all-carbon-fibre one-piece bonnet-wing assembly opens frontwards to showcase the imposing V12 engine once open. The Ferrari press release calls them authentic “en plein air” sports cars (a French expression that means ‘in open air’). So, managing the aerodynamic flows inside the cockpit was a challenge, as there was no windscreen. This inspired a patented “Virtual Wind Shield” that deflects some of the airflow sitting on the fairing in front of the instrument panel and the steering wheel. WATCH THE OFFICIAL VIDEO