Veloce12 Aperta: In This Article
We are deep into the season of summer sports cars and one-off specials, and the Veloce12 Aperta might just be the pick of the year, with its targa roof and clean white paint. My own history with removable roofs began, less gloriously, with a Triumph TR7, a car whose roof you learned to remove only after consulting the weather forecast several times and making peace with your decision.
The Aperta, mercifully, looks a great deal more civilised, its two-piece roof lifting off and stowing neatly inside the car. But the roof, lovely as it is, is not the headline here. The headline is what it is bolted to: a naturally aspirated V12 and, gloriously, a manual gearbox. In 2026, that is close to a miracle.
| Veloce12 Aperta | at a glance |
|---|---|
| Made by | Touring Superleggera (Milan, founded 1926) |
| Based on | The Ferrari 550 Maranello (customer supplies the donor) |
| Body | All-new carbon fibre and aluminium, with a targa roof |
| Engine | 5.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 |
| Power | 503bhp, rear-wheel drive |
| Gearbox | Six-speed gated manual |
| Price | From about €690,000 (roughly £590,000), plus the donor Ferrari |
| Production | Part of a roughly 30-car Veloce12 run |
What Is the Veloce12 Aperta?
This is the work of Touring Superleggera, the Milanese coachbuilder with a reputation as fine as its cars, and, as it happens, one that is turning 100 this year. The Aperta is the third member of its Veloce12 family, joining the fixed-roof Coupé and the wilder, roofless Barchetta, and it sits cleverly between the two. Touring calls it the “Weekender”, a grand tourer built for unhurried, long-distance driving rather than chasing lap times. To mark the coach builder’s centenary, that is a rather fitting brief.
A Targa, the Old-Fashioned Way
The open-air trick is a targa, done the analogue way. Two removable panels lift out and stow inside a dedicated compartment, connected to the car by internal cabin latches. There is nothing automated here, no whirring motors, just you, the panels and a decision about the weather. Behind the cabin sits an elegant aluminium hoop that Touring describes as a kind of crown, framing the rear screen. It is also surprisingly practical for something this exotic: 327 litres of luggage with the roof on, rising usefully once the panels are stowed, complete with bespoke fitted luggage. A grand tourer, then, that you could genuinely tour in.
A Ferrari 550 Underneath
Underneath the new carbon-and-aluminium bodywork sits something increasingly precious: a Ferrari 550 Maranello. Touring has not simply restyled it; the body is entirely new. But the choice of donor is the point. The 550, built from 1996 to 2002, was one of the last of the truly analogue front-engined Ferrari V12s, and Touring’s whole philosophy is to celebrate that era rather than paper over it. There are echoes of the coachbuilder’s golden-age grand tourers in the shapes, along with neat modern touches, such as shark-inspired air curtains channelling air through the front. Buyers supply their own 550, which is then transformed over thousands of hours of hand work.
Manual V12: the Bit That Matters
And here is the part that will make enthusiasts go weak at the knees. The Veloce12 Aperta keeps the 550’s naturally aspirated 5.5-litre V12, gently fettled to 503bhp, driving the rear wheels through a six-speed gated manual gearbox. Read that again: a naturally aspirated V12 and a manual, in a car built in 2026. That combination has all but vanished from the modern world, and Touring has preserved it quite deliberately.
It will reach 62mph in around 4.4 seconds and run on to roughly 180mph, with Brembo 380mm discs and TracTive adaptive dampers keeping the extra chassis rigidity in check. But numbers rather miss the point. This is not a car chasing a lap record. It is a car built around the sound of twelve cylinders and the click of a lever through a metal gate, and there is very little else on sale in 2026 that offers the same thing.
Burgundy Leather and No Screens
Inside, it is exactly as you would hope. The debut car wears an Alba White body over a burgundy braided-leather cabin, with brushed-metal circular dials and a centre console to match. Best of all, and rather on-message given where the rest of the industry is heading, there is not a single touchscreen in sight. The flourishes run deep: the Aperta badges on the B-pillars are milled from genuine 24-carat gold, and the fitted luggage is hand-made to slot precisely into the car. It is old-world craftsmanship, and unapologetically so.
How Much, and How Many?
None of this comes cheap, of course. Touring’s coach building starts at around €690,000, roughly £590,000, and that is before the donor Ferrari, which you provide yourself; a decent 550 will cost a further six figures on top. The Veloce12 line as a whole is capped at about 30 cars across its three body styles, though Touring has not confirmed exactly how many of those will be Apertas. What is clear is that this is collector territory, a car for a tiny handful of people who understand precisely what they are preserving. For everyone else, it is simply a wonderful thing to look at, and to imagine.
Veloce12 Aperta: Your Questions Answered
An open-top, carbon-bodied coachbuilt grand tourer by Touring Superleggera, based on the Ferrari 550 Maranello.
Yes. It keeps a naturally aspirated 5.5-litre V12 paired with a six-speed gated manual, driving the rear wheels.
From about €690,000 (roughly £590,000) for the coachbuilding, on top of the donor Ferrari 550 you supply.
The Veloce12 line is capped at around 30 cars across all body styles; the exact Aperta split has not been confirmed.
A Ferrari 550 Maranello, built from 1996 to 2002, one of the last analogue front-engined Ferrari V12s.
Touring Superleggera, the Milanese coachbuilder founded in 1926 and celebrating its centenary in 2026.
Images: touringsuperleggera.eu
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