Touring Superleggera Brings the Ferrari 550 Into the Modern Era While Keeping It Old-School

Italian coachbuilder Touring Superleggera has given the Ferrari 550 Maranello a complete makeover. The coupe, which was built from 1996 to 2002, essentially returns to the new-car market as the Veloce12 with a carbon fiber body, styling updates, a luxurious interior, and a more powerful V-12. There’s a higher price tag, too.

While the 550 Maranello’s silhouette remains instantly recognizable, Touring Superleggera made several updates to the original Pininfarina design. Up front, there’s an updated bumper with a wider air dam and a more chiseled splitter. These updates aren’t merely aesthetic: The air curtains integrated into the front bumper, which the coachbuilder says were partially inspired by sharks, channel air through the front end.

There are redesigned LED lights on both ends, and the Veloce12 rides on new lightweight wheels. As you’d expect, buyers will be able to customize nearly every part of the coupe.

The example displayed at Retromobile is finished in Azzurro Cielo, a new color that draws inspiration from historic Touring Superleggera-bodied cars such as the Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 B Lungo. The company points out that the paint job alone requires over 600 hours of work; the end result is gorgeous.

Inside, you’ll feel right at home if you’ve spent time in a 550 Maranello. It’s a nicer home, though, as the Veloce12 gets wall-to-wall leather upholstery, yards of contrast stitching, and machined trim pieces on the center console. There isn’t a single touchscreen in sight, and that’s intentional; the brand markets its born-again 550 Maranello as the “antidote to electronic overload.” It’s all analog, all the time.

Touring Superleggera didn’t stop at the visual updates. Power for the Veloce12 comes from a naturally-aspirated 5.5-liter V-12 rated at 503 horsepower, a 25-horse increase over the 550’s output, made possible by a revised exhaust system. There’s a new carbon fiber intake, and we’re told that the cooling system was updated as well. The engine spins the rear wheels via a gated six-speed manual transmission.

Larger brake rotors keep the extra power in check, while model-specific brake calipers reduce unsprung weight on both axles. Touring Superleggera also notes that it reinforced the chassis to increase structural rigidity, while Dutch brand TracTive contributed an adaptive suspension with several damping modes.

Touring Superleggera will cap Veloce12 production at 30 units. Pricing starts at €690,000 (about $713,000 at the current conversion rate) excluding the cost of the donor car, which can run between $100,000 and $250,000 depending on the mileage and the overall condition. Put another way, you’re looking at a resto-modded Ferrari that costs approximately $1 million, which is a not-insignificant amount of money even when you consider that building one takes roughly 5000 hours. Worth it? Let us know in the comments.