FLIPPING ITS LID

The Ferrari 575M was a watershed modern-era Ferrari. But it was the Leonardo Fioravanti-developed Superamerica that really opened it up

- Matthew Hayward

Ten seconds is all it takes, but watching the Ferrari 575 Superamerica flip its top is incredible. I know, this is a thoroughbred supercar, I should be talking about 0-60mph times or top speed but there’s no doubt that watching the carbonfibre-framed, Saint Gobain-glazed roof flip backwards through 180° is this car’s real party piece. It shouldn't come as a surprise, though, as the Revocromico mechanism was created and patented by the father of the Daytona and 288 GTO, one Leonardo Fioravanti.

Fioravanti set up his own design house in 1991 after parting ways with Fiat, where he had ended up as director of design after decades at Pininfarina. After several interesting designs and concepts, the first incarnation of the roof appeared in 2001 on Fioravanti’s vision of a 21st Century Alfa Romeo sports car, called the Vola. Aside from a handful of concepts, and the Superamerica in 2005, the patented roof mechanism would notably go on to appear under licence on the back of Renault’s shortlived Wind two-seater...

In the Ferrari’s case, Fioravanti’s roof provided a clever solution to a traditionally tricky problem. The limited-production Superamerica was the follow-up to the rather compromised 550 Barchetta. Pininfarina had, in effect, chopped the roof off the 550 Maranello, creating a thing of beauty to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the coachbuilder in 2000. There was certainly an appetite for the car, but the roof or lack of one caused issues

for those in colder, wetter climates. It was designed to be driven with no roof but, if you ran with the supplied canopy’, the car couldn’t be taken above 70mph. It was glorious, but Ferrari customers weren't willing to put up with that kind of compromise.