Ferrari building one-off model for Dubai businessman

Like most exclusive automakers, Ferrari is willing to bend its model lineup for the right customer -- namely one in love enough with the company to pay the massive costs of crafting a unique body. This is Ferrari's latest special order, the SP Arya, named for its owner -- a wealthy Dubai businessman who wanted a car that stood out in the most wealth-conscious city in the world.

Cheerag Arya, an Indian-born industrialist whose family runs a successful chemical company, already has a garage with a passel of the best cars from Ferrari, from an F40 to an Enzo and a 599XX maintained in Italy. For his special car, Arya asked Ferrari to use the bones of the 599 GTO, with its 670-hp V-12 left unchanged for the most part. According to Ferrari magazine, Arya asked Ferrari designers to imagine something new, then presented him with 12 potential designs, from which he picked bits and pieces for the car itself.

As of March, a clay model of the SP Arya existed in Italy, with no date placed on the final production. Unlike the McLaren X-1 and some other wild one-offs, the SP Arya does not look so far out of place from the current Ferrari lineup; it's busier than most designers would prefer, but stil menacing and identifiably Ferrari, without resorting to retro touches like Eric Clapton did with his custom car, the $4.75 million SPC-12. But if you want to see it in person, you'll need a plane ticket to Dubai and some luck.