Monterey, California. Among the hills where billionaires go to be photographed next to their four-wheeled fantasies, Ferrari unveiled the CZ26. A “One-Off”. That is, a unique piece. That is, something that exists only because an American gentleman called Maranello and said: “Make me something that no one has ever seen before, but that is still a Ferrari.” And Flavio Manzoni, with the patience of someone who knows that American dreams are paid for in advance, pulled this supercar out of the Design Studio’s hat.
Read more ADUO, the FIA rules out that some engine manufacturers could be hiding
The CZ26 is born from the SF90 Stradale, only here they decided to purify it. To remove everything that was not essential. The result is a car that looks like an extrusion of metal: it starts from the front mask and ends in a truncated tail, as if someone had taken a block of material and pushed it out of a mold. Two volumes, pure central mass, four “muscles” on the wheel arches. The front is a full-width mask that swallows ultra-thin headlights, air intakes, and sensors. The rear has protruding taillights and a horizontal diffuser that widens the car until it looks wider than it actually is.
The project
The functional elements are not applied: they emerge from the surface as if the bodywork itself had generated them. A language that, they say in Maranello, recalls the Italian industrial design of the Seventies. Only in the Seventies things were made for the people. Today they are made for a single client.
The details
The color is called Argento Veloce: a liquid silver that makes the car look like it is already moving even when stationary. In contrast, Rosso Lampante (a wonderful name, like something from a Buzzati novel) highlights the technical parts. The wheels are glossy black. The exhausts are raw titanium. Inside, black technical fabric, 3D printed inserts, embroidery with the CZ26 logo, and a few touches of Rosso Lampante so you don’t forget that we are still in Italy.
Read more Marquez and Bagnaia after Silverstone: “How to ride in the wet”
The interior
The cockpit is a black cell embedded in the shell. As if the driver were a special passenger of a private spaceship. The aerodynamics, of course, have been completely redone: ducts, vortex generators, air curtain, spoiler, diffuser.
The CZ26 is, after all, proof that excess can be essential. That formal purity, today, is a luxury reserved for those who can afford to have a car designed like a tailor-made suit. An American client, an Italian designer, a car that will not exist in any other example.
Read more Montoya: “Newey’s first true Aston Martin was the one in Budapest and it showed”
