Ferrari's Already Sold Out SA Aperta Roadster Stops by Paris Show

The 'greener' California HELE wasn't the only new car on display at Ferrari's Paris Show stand. The 670-horsepower SA Aperta, which we reported on last week, also made its debut. All 80 examples of the limited edition, open-top 599s have been spoken for well before the car made its way to Paris.

Co-designed with Ferrari Centro Stile to celebrate 80 years of Italian design firm Pininfarina, the car was built partly as homage to Sergio and Andrea Pininfarina, the son and grandson respectively of company founder Battista Farina (latter Battista Pininfarina).

Like the Bugatti Veyron roadster, the SA Aperta features an emergency soft top [read: umbrella] and the same structural rigidity of the hardtop without adding any additional weight

Pricing is irrelevant as you can't buy one, at least not new. There is, however, an online configurator, which doesn't make any sense but anyways...

By Tristan Hankins

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Ferrari Launches Online Configurator for SA Aperta even though it's Sold Out...

Ferrari may have sold all 80 examples of its awkwardly named SA Aperta before the roadster's world premiere at the Paris International Motor Show on September 30, but that hasn't deterred the company from launching an online configurator for the rest of the world to see.

Unfortunately, the configurator is preset, meaning you're only allowed to check out the five available configurations and can't fool around with paint schemes or interior decors, so unless you're a photoshop wizard, there goes your dream of creating a lime-green colored SA Aperta with pink seats.

If you don't fancy Ferrari's site, here are the five available color configurations of the SA Aperta:

Nero Stellato

Rims: Chrome shadow
Brake calipers: Rosso Corsa
Interior leather color: Sabbia colour with black straight stretch; ecrù stitching
Passenger zone dashboard: black wrinckled
Other features: F1 dashboard, radio doors/panels, collar badge in varnished black

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Blu Elettrico

Rims: Chrome shadow
Brake calipers: Argento Alluminio
Interior leather color: black with straight stretch, blue central part of the seat, central part of the panel and white stitching
Passenger zone dashboard: external Blu Elettrico
Other features: F1 dashboard, radio doors/panels, collar badge in carbon fibre

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Giallo Tristrato

Rims: Chrome shadow
Brake calipers: Nero
Interior leather color: black with yellow straight stretch and white stitching
Passenger zone dashboard: carbon fibre
Other features: F1 dashboard, radio doors/panels, collar badge in carbon fibre

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Rosso Fuoco

Rims: Chrome shadow
Brake calipers: Black
Interior leather color: black with red straight stretch and white stitching
Passenger zone dashboard: Argento Nürburgring Opaco
Other features: F1 dashboard, radio doors/panels, collar badge in varnished black

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Rosso Dino

Rims: Chrome shadow
Brake calipers: Argento Alluminio
Interior leather color: black with straight stretch, central part of the seat and central part of the panel in orange leather
Passenger zone dashboard: Black wrinckled
Other features: F1 dashboard, radio doors/panels, collar badge in carbon fibre

Paris Preshow: Ferrari SA APERTA, aka the 599 Roadster

The long-anticipated roadster version of Ferrari's front-engined 599 is finally here but don't get too excited as all 80 examples have already been sold even before the car makes its formal world premiere at next week's Paris Motor Show. Named SA APERTA, the new member of the 599 family was designed in celebration of Pininfarina's 80th anniversary.

And if you're wondering about the name, the SA nomenclature pays homage to both Sergio and Andrea Pininfarina, while 'aperta' means 'open' in Italian.

Maranello's newest supercar loses the standard 599's tin top and gains a low-slung windscreen, two roll bars that mimic the outline of the seats and a pair of aerodynamic fins, while the car's stance is made more aggressive thanks to a lowered ride height.

Unlike the car's predecessor, the 575M Superamerica, which sported a rotating central-piece rooftop, the SA APERTA makes use of a simple light soft top. Ferrari says the top is "designed to be resorted to only if the weather gets particularly bad". That's Ferrari's way of saying we didn't bother to develop a normal ragtop.

As is the case with all coupe models converted to roadsters, the 599's chassis has been reworked and strengthened, with the company claiming it offers "a standard of stiffness comparable to that of a closed berlinetta" and that there's "a negligible weight difference."

Under the hood, the open-top 599 model gets the same 670-horsepower V12 as the recently revealed GTO model. Further details are to be released at next week's Paris show.