Did you know the designer of the Ferrari 599 built himself a one-off version of it?
The designer loved his own creation so much he rebuilt it by hand
Some cars hide a great story in plain sight, and this is one of them. It looks like a heavily reworked Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, and that is exactly what it is, but the twist is who did the reworking: the very designer who penned the original 599 in the first place. Welcome to one of our favourite pieces of modern Ferrari trivia.
Did you know: the designer made it his own
The 599 GT Speciale started life as a standard 599 GTB Fiorano, custom-ordered from Ferrari back in 2007 by Jason Castriota, the former Pininfarina chief designer who styled the original car. Years later, working with the car's second owner, he set about transforming it. Over roughly two years the 599 was given a bespoke carbon-fibre body, executed in Italy by artisans who had worked on famous Ferrari one-offs and prototypes, chasing a look Castriota described as aggressive but still classically GT.
Did you know: it is a manual V12
Here is the detail that really makes enthusiasts weak at the knees. The vast majority of 599s left Maranello with the paddle-shift F1 automated gearbox, but a tiny handful were built with a proper six-speed manual, available only if you asked very nicely. This is one of them, one of roughly 20 delivered to the United States. That makes the underlying car one of the last manual V12 grand tourers Ferrari ever produced, and to many the last truly analogue Ferrari V12.
Did you know: it is a genuine one-off
Under the reshaped skin sits the 599's glorious 6.0-litre V12, making around 620 hp at a screaming 7,600 rpm. This particular car wears a unique Blu Notte Metallizzato paint over Poltrona Rau leather, a combination found on no other 599, and adds a shark-nose front, a hand-assembled aluminium egg-crate grille, GTO-spec forged wheels on Michelin rubber, a Capristo exhaust and carbon-fibre interior trim. With only around 4,500 miles on it, it is essentially a piece of automotive art you can actually drive.
Did you know: manual 599s are worth a fortune
Rarity like this comes at a price. Standard manual 599s have long been serious collector cars, with examples selling at auction for figures well into the hundreds of thousands. A bespoke, designer-built one-off like the GT Speciale sits above even that, commanding many hundreds of thousands, and it is widely tipped to keep appreciating. Not bad for a car whose creator simply could not leave his own design alone.
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We adore stories like this. The idea of a designer caring so deeply about one of his own creations that he buys it, then spends two years rebuilding it exactly the way he always wanted, is the kind of obsession that makes car culture special. That it is based on the rare manual, arguably the last great analogue Ferrari V12, only adds to the magic. It is easy to get swept up chasing the newest hybrid hypercar, but a hand-shifted, hand-shaped 599 like this is a reminder of what made us fall for these cars in the first place.
If you love a manual Ferrari, you will enjoy the news that Ferrari has patented a fake H-pattern shifter. For more classic Ferrari passion, see how Pagani founder Horacio Pagani bought his dream 275 GTB4, and how Touring reimagined the 550 as the Veloce12 Aperta.
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Photos via Knute Motorsport
