Pininfarina had wanted to do a special one-off Enzo-based hyper-car and was looking for a backer. After sending out feelers to its clients, American Ferrari collector,
James Glickenhaus eventually agreed to back the project by commissioning the car as a modern homage to great Ferrari sports racing cars such as the
330 P3/4, 512 S, 312 P, and 333 SP on the last unregistered U.S.-spec Enzo chassis.
[11] The car was dubbed the Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina,
[12] and retains the Enzo's drivetrain and
vehicle identification number.
[13] The car was unveiled at the 2006
Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance and appeared in the September issue of
Car and Driver. The "photos" previously shown in
AutoWeek and Octane were not close to what the car looks like. After its unveiling at Pebble Beach, the P4/5 returned to Europe for high speed testing, press days, and an appearance at the
Paris Auto Show in September.
Upon seeing P 4/5, Luca di Montezemolo felt that the car deserved to be officially badged as a Ferrari and along with Andrea Pininfarina and James Glickenhaus agreed that its official name would be "Ferrari P 4/5 by Pininfarina". Ted West wrote an article in Car and Driver about how this came to be: "The Beast of Turin".
[14]