There are cars you read about. Then there are cars that feel like someone quietly closed a chapter of history and handed you the book. The Ferrari HC25 is the latter. Unveiled on 15 May 2026 at Ferrari Racing Days in the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, this one-off roadster is built for a single client, born of two years of collaboration between that client and the Ferrari Design Studio.
Let me be direct: the HC25 is extraordinary. Not because it breaks new technological ground, but because it does something far harder. It takes what already exists, the architecture of the F8 Spider, and turns it into something you have genuinely never seen before.
The Engine That Makes This Matter
Start where it counts: the powertrain. At the HC25’s heart sits a 3.9-litre twin-turbocharged 90-degree V8 with dry-sump lubrication, displacing 3,902 cc and producing 720 cv at 7,000 rpm. Peak torque arrives at 3,250 rpm with 770 Nm, which, given the rear-biased layout and a seven-speed dual-clutch F1 gearbox, translates to a 0–100 km/h sprint of 2.9 seconds. The engine runs to 8,000 rpm and offers a specific output of 185 cv per litre, running on 98-octane petrol. Top speed is a claimed 340 km/h.
Crucially, there is no hybrid assistance here whatsoever. Ferrari built the HC25 on the F8 Spider platform specifically because it represents the last open-top Prancing Horse to feature the non-hybrid turbo V8 in a mid-rear position. In a world where the 296 GTS already plugs in, this feels like a deliberate, principled decision. You are getting pure combustion, raw and unapologetic, for what may well be the final time in a Ferrari spider of this nature.
The electronics package is anything but primitive, however. Ferrari fits the HC25 with its full suite: eDiff3, F1-Trac, high-performance ABS/EBD with Ferrari Pre-fill, FrS SCM-E, FDE+ and SSC 6.1. All of this works beneath the surface so that you, the driver, feel connected rather than cushioned.
Design That Earns Its Complexity
Flavio Manzoni and the Ferrari Design Studio have created something that bridges two worlds intentionally. The HC25 looks forward, borrowing the muscular, sculptural language of the F80 and the Ferrari 12Cilindri, yet it sits on bones that belong to a previous generation. That tension, between what was and what is coming, gives the car genuine visual drama.
The defining element is the central black ribbon that wraps around the car’s midsection. This glossy band is not decorative. It incorporates the air intakes for the radiators and the heat extraction channels for the powertrain. Form follows function here with exceptional clarity. The contrast between the matt Moonlight Grey body, which gives the surfaces a sense of weight and substance, and the glossy black ribbon creates one of the most decisive visual statements Ferrari has produced in years.
At the front, the headlamp design is entirely new to Ferrari: a very slim lens with a central indentation, and DRLs arranged vertically for the first time, exploiting the leading edge of the front wings to form a distinctive boomerang shape. That boomerang motif carries through to the cabin graphics, tying the exterior language to the interior in a way that feels considered rather than superficial.
The door handle deserves a mention on its own terms. It does not look like a door handle. Instead, it integrates into a long blade milled from solid aluminium, bridging the two halves of the bodyshell that the black ribbon separates. That level of detail is what separates a truly resolved design from one that simply looks good in photographs.
Dimensions and Context
The HC25 sits at 4,758 mm long, 2,006 mm wide, and 1,183 mm tall, with a wheelbase of 2,650 mm. Compared to the production F8, it stretches 147 mm longer and sits 23 mm lower. Those proportions matter because the design team used them to minimise the visual impact of the glazing and lower the perceived shoulder line, giving the car a more planted, purposeful stance.
Front brakes measure 398 x 223 x 38 mm; the rears come in at 360 x 233 x 32 mm. The wheels are 20-inch units front and rear, with 245/35 ZR20 tyres up front and 305/35 ZR20 at the rear, sitting on five-spoke rims with diamond-finished outer rims and recessed grooves that visually widen the wheel diameter.
One Client. Two Years. One Car.
The Special Projects programme works like this: a client brings an idea, Ferrari‘s designers develop it over roughly two years, building blueprints and a full styling buck before production begins. The HC25 is the third one-off built on the F8 platform, following the SP49 Unica from 2022 and the SP-8 roadster from 2023. Each one is different. Each one is singular.
What the HC25 represents, beyond the specifications, is a specific kind of confidence. Someone out there believed strongly enough in the naturally combusted, mid-engined V8 roadster formula to commission one final, definitive version of it. Ferrari, for its part, built the best possible version of that vision. The result is a car that closes a story beautifully, without looking back.
