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"The owner of this car is also the CEO of the project, and the relationship we had with Jim was great. There was no marketing, no focus groups, no board of directors - just one person. It wasn't built on statistics - we knew exactly who the customer was."

That brings us to James Glickenhaus, car collector extraordinaire. He made his fortune through writing and producing movies, then on the stock market, and is now General Partner at Glickenhaus and Co and also runs the Glickenhaus Foundation.

Ken Okuyama pointedly mentioned the Medici family of Florence as we sat and watched Rip take photos of this car, how the role of that wealthy family in financially supporting the Renaissance has never been fully appreciated.

Without financial backing, much of the great art of the 16th and 17th centuries would not have been created. James Glickenhaus, who has the financial clout to commission a car like this and precisely the right spirit to enjoy it, played a crucial role in the P4/5's development. He was involved in every stage, suggesting changes along the way.

"Anyone who loves cars always has a dream of what the perfect car would be," says Jim. "In February last year, when Pininfarina first told me it had re-started the programme it had been doing over the years, I asked for a real car, a fully functioning thing. I'm stuck in the Sixties and Seventies, and I love the Ferrari P3 and P4 Le Mans cars.

"Initially, my idea was simply a homage to the P4 - a modern interpretation of the P4 shape running on an Enzo chassis.

"Like the Ford GT. But as we went on, everyone at Pininfarina said 'Jim, you can do whatever you want, but think about something that stands on its own, something that pays homage to the Sixties cars but has a reason for being.'

"I visited Pininfarina with my daughter Veronica, who is now 18. She said that the new direction was 'way cool, Dad'. So that was that. I started thinking that maybe I might be a bit too retro.

"I've driven old Le Mans cars and at 50mph, they feel like 300mph. They look fantastic but they're not usable. This car is usable - we drove it on the autostrada and in the city, and it's great. It doesn't bottom out, doesn't hit its nose on speed bumps, you close the door and it seals, you can see behind the car - Pininfarina has done all this magnificently."

So, it's much more than a retro P4 shape on an Enzo chassis, more than a Ferrari version of the Ford GT, which is a handsome car but too closely related to its forebear. That wouldn't be enough for Pininfarina, especially as the GT40 was such a great rival of the P3/4 on the track.

No, this is light years ahead - a super-technical, ultra-modern machine with just enough of a hint of P3/4 to make you look twice. The car is on Pininfarina's stand at the Paris motor show until October 15 - buy your tickets now, because it'll be hard to keep Jim out of this car afterwards.

And is there anything we don't like? Oh yes - that there will only ever be one. That's the deal with Ferrari. But it's a hell of a lot better than none.

Bill Thomas