Ferrari to show Enzo replacement to a select few by the end of the year

Ferrari will show the replacement for the Enzo supercar to a select group of current and potential customers at the end of 2012, Ferrari Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said.

“We want to surprise people not just in terms of price but also with the car itself,” Montezemolo told Automotive News Europe on the sidelines of the Geneva motor show last week.

Ferrari has not decided when the new limited-edition model will make its public debut. A company spokesman said the most likely choices would be either January 2013 at the Detroit auto show or next March at the 2013 Geneva show.

The new model will no longer carry the first name of company founder Enzo Ferrari because the Enzo also was a limited-edition model.

Ferrari says the Enzo replacement will be its fastest, most powerful road car ever, surpassing the record 740 hp in the F12 Berlinetta that debuted in Geneva. The Berlinetta can go from 0-62 mph in 3.1 seconds.

"The F12 Berlinetta delivers 740 hp and today's Formula One cars have between 740 hp and 750 hp," Montezemolo said. "Thus we are offering F1 power in a road car."

The Enzo replacement will have a carbon fiber body and a new, normally aspirated V12. Ferrari has not decided how many units of the car it will build. The company produced 399 Enzos from 2002-2011 and 349 units of the Enzo's predecessor, the F50, from 1995-2001.

Montezemolo expects Ferrari to sell more than 7,000 supercars this year but he declined to say whether the automaker would top its record 7,195 sales in 2011.

By Luca Ciferri- Automotive News Europe