1993 Ferrari Conciso is a One-of-One Business Card on Wheels
There are a lot of limited-edition Ferraris, but they don’t get any rarer than the Conciso concept car. It’s the first – and only one – of its kind.
Over the past several decades, Ferrari has made cars with names that have become part of the automotive enthusiast community’s vocabulary. Even if you don’t know how to ask a basic question in Italian, you probably know the words Berlinetta, Stradale, and Barchetta. But what about Conciso? Probably not because it’s a one-off concept car.
Jay Leno recently got the chance to drive the ultra-rare machine. It started life as a 1989 Ferrari 328. German automotive designer Bernd Michalak got his hands on it and used it to bring his idea of a light and fast track-capable car to life in 1993. As the Conciso’s owner, Franco Valobra, puts it, Michalak wanted the end result to be his three-dimensional business card. He turned to Bacchelli and Villa, the shop behind many custom Ferraris and the restoration of several classic prancing horses, to craft it out of aluminum.
So what does Conciso actually mean? What it sounds like. Valobra tells Leno, “Conciso in Italian means concise. The minimum necessary. Take away all of the superfluous.” That meant completely re-bodying the 328, cutting the windshield down to a sliver, eliminating the doors, and shaving off almost all of the rear overhang. All of those reductions resulted in a car that weighs less than 2,000 pounds – more than 800 pounds lighter than a 2,784-pound 328 GTB.
One thing Bacchelli and Villa didn’t downsize was the Conciso’s powerplant. It uses the 328’s 270-horsepower 3.2-liter V8, which sits under a massive flip-up engine cover. That’s connected to the 328’s manual gearbox and even its gauges.
There’s an obvious trade-off to the Conciso’s minimalism: the difficulty of getting in and out. Leno and Valobra have to step over the sides of its body, then slide down into its seats.
Out on the road, Leno learns how simultaneously comfortable and go-kart-like the Conciso is. He also gets another lesson about the unusual machine. Prior to Valobra’s ownership, the Conciso was a giant decoration in a Belgian family’s living room for more than 20 years. It eventually went on the block at a Sotheby’s auction…and nobody raised their paddle for it, according to Valobra. “We were the only bidder and we got it right away” for a steal. He attributes his luck to the possibility that other potential bidders didn’t know what the Conciso was and assumed it was a fiberglass oddity. “They didn’t realize it was made by, arguably, the best Ferrari body maker today.”
Leno proves the Conciso’s Ferrari-ness in the quickest and easiest way he can. He puts his right foot down and blasts ahead, leaving the 328’s raspy wail hanging in the air.
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