When the testarossa’s was unveiled the car was the successor to the beautiful designed Berlinetta Boxer and a total new era in design that was replaced by the smoother lines of the Maranello in 1995. Even Piero Ferrari called it “much to extroverted” in a review.
Obvious details of the first series of the testarossa were the exotic single high mirror (Monospecchio, 67077 is the final Monospecchio), the typical side fins, adopted on the 348 as well and the enormous big rear, the fat ass with a width of nearly 2 meters. The production of digit “17” was a very unusual high number of 7,177 cars compared to a total of about 2,000 BB and BBi. The rarest testarossa is the car that was never built, the testarossa Spider. A digit, “18” was reserved, but a total number of zero cars was built, leaving the title for the most rare testarossa for Pininfarina’s one off Speciale Spider with digit “30” and Serial Number 62897. Final testarossa is S/N 92471, what means that the testarossa and its successor TR have been produced during an overlapping period.
The modification was the 512 TR. Series 2 testrossas already lost the Monospechccio and the TR had a moderate facelift that was recognizable by the front grill. Technical it was the expected evolution with a now Motoronic and additional 38 hp. Digit “40” was produced in a total number of 2,280 cars. The production range is from #89100 to #99743. 15 cars have been exclusively produced or Japanese official dealer, Cornes, to celebrate their 15th anniversary, all of them livered in Rosso Monza.
testarossa’s swan song was a modification that needed time to grow as it combined the 80’s design with the design of the Montezemolo era. Front and rear of the F512 M became similar to the F355 with the typical round lights at the rear that looked a bit strange on fat ass. The pop up headlights were replaced by glass headlamp covers. The official production number of 500 cars is still subject of discussion as many believe that the number is significantly lower. The number of 75 US-specification cars is without doubt, all of them are individually numbered and all of them are identified in F-Register’s huge database. The M started with S/N 98977 and the ever final testarossa became to be F512 M #105516.
There are numerous modified cars like Spiders from Straman and Lorenz & Rankl, some Targa-conversions and the Koenig kits with rear wings and without the side fins.
We will provide you with a big testarossa-steron Slide Show tomorrow!