Ferrari Just Gave Its Finest 1948 Sportscar a Very 2018 Update

Introducing the 798-HP Icona series

September 19, 2018 9:00 am

If you’re looking for a heritage car, your options these days are a little better than snoozing through the Mecum Top 10, or heading downtown that one weekend when all the old guys in sun hats pilot their waxed, decades-old roadsters down Main.

Luxury automakers like Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin have each recently opened showrooms to show off their buffed-up collections of vintage coupes, and car auctions are at all-time ubiquity, bringing in well over a billion dollars each year.

Actually committing to a vintage car, though, is no easy decision. With only so much money to go around, it’s tough to completely ignore the comfort and utility of brand-new models.

That tricky trade-off is exactly where Ferrari’s new Icona line comes in. “Old meets new” has never been a more apt description. 

icona (6 images)

Icona — which comprises two models, the Monza SP1 and SP2 sportscars — owes its heritage to the 1948 166 MM, a perennial contender in the World Sports Car Championships. The builds owe combine those clean, mid-20th-century lines with some definitively bat-out-of-hell engine specs that very much come from the here and now. Each of the carbon-clad cars boasts a titanic 6.5-liter V12 engine (good for 798 HP), which makes for a 0-62 time of under three seconds.

The main difference between the SP1 and SP2 is in the cockpit: the SP2 can seat two up front, while the SP1 has a tonneau cover. Neither, however, comes with a windshield. All 500 of these limited-editions have been snatchued up, but keep your eyes peeled on the secondary market for the chance to pick one up.

Find more information on the builds here.

All images from Ferrari
h/t Wired

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