The HC25 is a one-off, rebodied V8 Ferrari F8 Spider

The Ferrari F8 Spider is, by most rational accounts, a good-looking Ferrari. Wonderfully proportioned, dainty, a joker’s smile carved across its face and a delightful set of quad taillights. A client figured, ‘huh, let’s add some 2026 Ferrari to this 2020 Ferrari’. Welcome to the HC25.

It’s another Special Projects car, which means it’s a car that arose from a client's request, sketched out by Flavio Manzoni and his team, and delivered as one of the rarest Ferraris ever built.

Ferrari describes it as a ‘bridge’, closing the chasm between the last non-hybrid V8 platform it so excellently utilised last decade, with stylistic cues from its modern range. Keen Ferrari enthusiasts will no doubt see a sliver of 12Cilindri here, a flash of F80 there.

There’s what Maranello calls a “dual-volume” structure that join the front and rear ends with a giant functional black ribbon draped across the engine bay and falling down to the sides. It features air intakes, if you look closely.

Elsewhere there are new headlights “using modules never before featured on any Ferrari”, glossy and matte surfacing, fresh wheels, new door handles milled from solid aluminium, and split rear lights. Ferrari said the HC25’s proportions were refined “to lower the perceived shoulder line”. Naturally, you will have spotted that.

You will also have spotted mention of a ‘turbo V8’, because that’s what the F8 – a successor to the 488 which in turn was a successor to the sublime 458 – packed underneath. It’s a monster of a unit, a 3.9-litre turbocharged eight-cylinder powerhouse delivering 710bhp and many torques.

Not the greatest noise, admittedly, but hoo boy is it fast. “Bananas fast,” actually. Ferrari quotes 0-62mph in 2.9s, 0-124mph in 8.2s and a top speed of 211mph.

Not that you’ll likely ever see a Special Projects car ever crest such speeds, such is their rarity and detailed build: each car starts as mentioned with a client request, which Ferrari then spends two years (on average) turning into a (literally) singular automobile.

“This One-Off can be seen as an ideal bridge,” said Ferrari. “On one hand concluding the story of the iconic mid rear engined V8 platform; on the other projecting itself into the futuristic path Ferrari has taken with its flagship models, the Ferrari 12Cilindri and F80.”