The Ferrari KC23 is a 600hp one-off track car from Maranello
As you may be aware, if you own enough cars with a prancing horse on the front and have a savings account with enough pennies in it, Ferrari will gladly work with you to create your perfect one-off supercar.
That’s exactly how the KC23 you see above came to fruition, as a ‘leading collector’ gave Ferrari a brief to pen something that could show what the future of closed wheel racing may look like. Certainly looks experimental, doesn’t it?
There are more than a few cues of Daytona SP3 in the design, but the KC23 is actually based on a 488 GT3 Evo racecar. Strange given that the 296 GT3 exists and is proving rather successful.
Anyway, we’re told that the KC23 took ‘over three years to develop’, so perhaps that’s why this thing is underpinned by the old iteration. The 488 GT3 was actually Ferrari’s most successful racecar ever too, with over 530 race wins and around 120 championship titles to its name.
Ferrari reckons the KC23 (the name presumably relates to the mysterious collector’s initials) “has a monolithic beauty, as if it were sculpted from a single block of metal”.
We’re also told that the design hides some of the more technical aspects of the car, which essentially refers to the giant, removable rear wing and the motorised air intake vents that sit just behind the butterfly doors and pop out automatically when the engine is switched on.
Ah yes, the engine. The KC23 takes all of its mechanicals from the 488 GT3 Evo, which means a 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 powers the rear wheels through a dual clutch gearbox.
Usually, Balance of Performance regulations would limit the GT3’s power to around 600hp, but Ferrari did up that to 690bhp for the shackle-free 488 GT Modificata.
There’s no word on how much power the KC23 is making, but we are assured that it’s a “radical one-off car completely free of homologation constraints”.
As a result, the mirrors have been swapped out for cameras too, and the glass surfaces blend rather beautifully into the rest of the design.
The dramatic front end is a single clamshell piece, while the rear is dominated by a lightbar that takes inspiration from the Ferrari Vision Gran Turismo.
Oh, and those little flaps behind the front wheels also extend to provide some extra downforce.
The paint is specially developed for this car too. Known as Gold Mercury, it’s four layers thick and features liquid metal in the paint so that the finish is extra shiny. We’re easily pleased by shiny things.
Clearly the KC23 isn’t road legal, but when it’s not on track and on display there are 21-inch wheels up front and 22-inch wheels at the rear.
On-track it’ll run 18-inch wheels, while inside it’s mostly a 488 GT3 Evo – the only differences being retrimmed door panels and special KC23 seats.
The one-off will make its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this week before it goes on display at the Ferrari Museum in Maranello until October. Hopefully KC finally gets to drive it after that…
STORY Greg Potts
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