Ferrari FXXK

Five years ago, Ferrari wrested control of its visual creative back from Pininfarina, Maranello’s chosen couturier since a celebrated meeting between Enzo Ferrari and Battista Farina in 1951, and set up its own Centro Stile under Manzoni. Since then, he’s won the famous Compasso d’Oro for the F12 Berlinetta, and his team has genetically modified Ferrari’s hypercar bloodline to stunning effect with the LaFerrari. But even that somehow pales in comparison with the monster you see here, the FXXK, the car that Manzoni quietly regards as CS’s greatest achievement so far. This is sculpture and engineering on an unimaginable scale.

Let’s recap. The FXXK is the latest product of Ferrari’s Corse Clienti division, a limited-run track-only mobile laboratory for the super-rich strata of the company’s customer base that prefers to operate at the bleeding edge of high performance, rather than commission a one-off SP (special projects) car or run a decommissioned Formula One machine. When Ferrari announced the FXX programme a decade ago, some scoffed at the notion of a £1m-plus track car, stored by Ferrari and ferried to different circuits around the world, never mind the idea of using owners as guinea pigs for new technology. But if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Ferrari ought to be very flattered indeed by McLaren’s P1 GTR and Aston Martin’s Vulcan.

Typically, the FXXK has the jump on them. A power output of 1,035bhp provokes memories of insane Eighties turbo-era F1 cars, and if that figure falls short of the Veyron in sheer Top Trumps terms, remember that the Bugatti is lugging the equivalent of an Alfa 4C in excess baggage.

The FXXK has 101bhp more than the regular LaF, with 848bhp generated by the 6.3-litre V12 and the remaining 187bhp ponied up by the electric motor. The combustion engine has new camshafts, reworked intake manifolds and an exhaust system that junks the silencers.