The Ferrari P80/C project or the ”Special Project 36” kicked-off back in 2015 and took four years of rigorous development.
Flavio Manzoni from Ferrari Styling Centre had to create a resolutely modern track car and, in doing so, recreated the Scuderia’s past. The client, a great connoisseur of the Ferrari world and long-time prancing horse collector wanted a track-day sports prototype with a design readily identifiable with two of Ferrari’s greatest sports-racing cars, the 1966 Dino 206 S and the 330 P3/P4.
The Ferrari P80/C is based on the 488 GT3 Le Mans race car and is crafted out of carbon-fibre. The 488 GTS Le Mans was chosen over the 488 GTB road car because it provided the most creative freedom to Flavio and his team owing to its longer wheelbase. The P80/C uses the 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 from the GT3 and in a different, more aggressive state of tune is expected to produce over 660 PS and 700 Nm, mated to a sequential transmission. The extensive use of carbon-fibre shall help the P80/C achieve a better power-to-weight ratio.
But the P80/C is not merely a re-bodied 488 GT3. It ditches the road-legal items including the headlamps and tail-lamps and the rear-end design is called the ‘Catamaran’ which means that body-panels are non-existent and the mechanism fully visible. The rear profile on the P80/C is inspired by the T-wing adopted by the Scuderia in Formula 1 in 2017 and is here designed to provide maximum aerodynamic efficiency. And yes, it gets a Rosso Vero paint job.
