It’s been a while since we’ve featured a car, hasn’t it? Me and JohnP have been wanting to feature a few cars lately, but we both vowed to wait for a car that would be out-of-this-world. I believe this Ferrari fit the bill.

Back a couple of months ago, I got a phone call from notorious Texan photographer James Evins of MotorMavens fame about a “job” that he wasn’t able to make. Thinking it was just another Japanese car to shoot, he told me that I would never believe him what kind of car it was. “AE86? Celica All-Trac? Neon SRT-4?”

It’s a fucking Ferrari FXX.

What.

My ricer notations were completely blown out of my mind, and then immediate images of the Prancing Horse symbol galloped all over my mushy brain. After I came back down to earth, James informed me that it was Ferrari of Houston’s car, or more specifically, Giuseppe Risi, the owner of Ferrari of Houston that owned this SuperCar. This was a complete surprise to me, as you see, i’ve read a little about this unicorn here and there on the internet, and it was thought that no FXX could leave it’s home continent of Europe. Damn you, Wikipedia, that obviously didn’t have any truth behind it.

So what do we know about the FXX?
Let’s all get on the same page so that you can understand what type of vehicle this FXX is. In 2002, the Ferrari Enzo, named after Enzo Ferrari began to appear all around the world as a bonafide, turn-key, street legal Formula One car. With 12 cylinders humming to the tune of 650 horsepower at 7800 rpm and a 3,000lb curb weight, this stunner from Italy was an absolute fucking monster on any given track. Ferrari prides itself on translating Formula One technology to it’s street cars, and the Enzo was no different. This was apparent in that the 6 speed semi-automatic gearbox can shift gears in less than 150 milliseconds. Now I don’t know about you guys, but I have yet to see Toyota making their Camrys more NASCAR like (I know, I know, you don’t have to say it. LOL)

Surely the Enzo was more than enough car for even the most demanding car thrill seekers, right? The answer was a resounding “Hell no”. Don’t forget that we are talking about Ferrari here, not KIA. Ferrari seeks perfection at all costs, and so the FXX Programme was born.

What you have to understand is, the FXX is not just a car, in the same way that Michael Jordan wasn’t just some dude that bounced a ball. In 2005, the FXX Programme was a well known project of sorts that involved it’s customers in helping to evolve the Ferrari namesake. 30 FXX’s were made based on the Enzo chassis, only this time, everything was upgraded. The car went on a diet, aerodynamics were altered, and the car even received a horsepower boost to 800 (yes you read correctly) horsepower, with a matching modified transmission to drop shift changes to under 100 milliseconds!

So how does one purchase an FXX? I mean hell, there’s only 30 of them, it can’t be easy. The answer is you simply can’t walk into a Ferrari dealership, plunk down $1.8million dollars and leave with one. No, Ferrari hand picks each customer to see if they are qualified, and after receiving your application, it is then reviewed by a council based on racing experience, loyalty, and god know what else. Mustaches? I have no idea. But let’s say you ARE one of the lucky 30 to be able to buy an FXX, that’s it, right? Time to hit up the next cars and coffee, and take that bad boy out to the club on my new 22″ rims, right? Wrong again.

You are entitled to purchase it, but you are only allowed to race (not drive, but race) the FXX at a Ferrari approved event under tight supervision from big brother himself. This may seem kind of odd to some, as you’ve just busted your wallet and you can’t even take it home to admire it in your custom made garage, but it is with sound reasoning. Ferrari holds and stores your car and this guarantees that the car is only used for racing as it is a way to log racing data from all 30 drivers and take that info to create something even better in their future cars. While out on a closed circuit track in your FXX, you also have 15 Ferrari technicians by your side for help and to tune your car.

That leads us to this particular red and white FXX.
Giuseppe Risi, of Risi Competizione fame, was one of the lucky few to be able to purchase an FXX along with Michael Schumacher, Ferrari’s ace F1 driver. Risi is no stranger to racing Ferrari’s, as he also runs Risi Competizione, a Houston based Racing team spanning all different types of racing, but more well known for their involvement in the American Le Mans series (my favorite series). It was no surprise here that Ferrari elected Risi as a prime candidate for the FXX programme. The car had been raced a total of three times before the FXX got it’s latest upgrade direct from Ferrari Italy, the Evoluzione kit.

After a couple of years acquiring thousands of miles of racing data, Ferrari offered an upgrade to the FXX’s should you be enticed with going even faster than before. Risi sent his car to the Italian factory so that the chassis, suspension, and engine could be tweaked. What was the end result? Power was increased to an unfathomable 860 horsepower at 9,500 rpms, curb weight went on the Lindsay Lohan diet to a paltry 2,500lbs, and even the transmission, with it’s lightning quick shifts reduced shift time to under 60 milliseconds, just a hair off of their real F1 competition cars! Fuck! Even a new traction control system was introduced, enabling it’s drivers to choose from nine different settings, all located in the center console.

Unfortunately, Risi never did get to track the newly upgraded FXX before the car was sold at an auction in Monterey, California by RM Auctions. Our photographer Khiem was the lucky one to shoot the FXX at an undisclosed location for RM Auctions. It was brought in by flatbed for Khiem to have at it. All he had to say about the FXX was how balls to the wall it was, and that the car sounded like no other car he had ever come across or ever will. Shooting a million dollar car is definitely an experience. It sold for a low price of $1.9 million dollars to some lucky schmuck with lots of money.

If you ever wanted to see and hear what a $2 million dollar Ferrari banned from the streets sounds like on a, well, street, check out the short video Khiem managed to capture as the car was driven! (Forgive the shakiness, he was trying to quickly capture the moment on his Canon 5D mk2 and manual focus is a bitch)
**For the love of god, please turn the volume up and put it on full screen in HD!**

Automotive Porn: The Ferrari FXX Evoluzione from MayDay DavidD on Vimeo.

I could go on and on about all the cool things about the car, the carbon fiber everything, the dry sump lubrication system, the air jack system, the roll cage, the LED lit steering wheel, and even the custom made seats that were produced after taking measurements of the owners dimensions, but in the end, it is way too much car for most people to handle, but I doubt the Prancing Horse engineers think the same.

Bonus Video:
Michael Schumacher drives his personal FXX around the Top Gear test track to prove that the FXX is no joke.

All photos were taken by Khiem Pham exclusively for Maydaygarage and RM Auctions.
For all of the 48 high resolution photos, Click HERE!

Special thanks:
Ferrari of Houston
RM Auctions
Risi Competizione
James Evins

–David–
David@maydaygarage.com