No rumours, no spy shots and no dubious leaks, Ferrari have remained extremely tight lipped about their newest supercar the J50 where the official unveiling occurred during a presentation at the National Art Center in Tokyo.
Based on the 488 Spider the J50 will be built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ferrari in Japan. And what a celebration it is with only 10 J50’s planned for production, the Special Projects department within Ferrari combined with the Ferrari Styling Center team based in Maranello have put together an absolutely jaw dropping machine.
The J50 “marks a return to the targa body style evocative of several well-loved Ferrari road cars of the 1970s and 1980s“, Ferrari explained. While the 488 Spider is a true convertible utilising a folding metal roof, the J50 will be classed as a targa model making use of carbon fibre targa panels which live behind the seats when not mounted in place above the drivers head. The pillar-less doors house windows that combined with the front window encapsulate the driver in glass akin to a racing helmet.
Additional changes from the 488 Spider that the J50 is based on come in the form of sleek horizontal LED headlights on the aggressively styled front end, an F40 and F50 styled black stripe runs the length of the car and disappears into the rear side air vents. From the rear you’ll notice two twin tail lights, a jet engine afterburner inspired diffuser and a set of 20″ ten spoke pentagram style forged wheels complete the look.
The J50 will be powered by the same 3.9-liter V8 twin-turbo engine from the 488 Spider but this one has a few improvements to the tune of 15kW (20 HP) for a total of 507kW (680 HP) and overall performance is anticipated to slightly exceed the 488 Spider though Ferrari haven’t announced any solid performance numbers to back this up yet.
