Tuners have made the Ferrari SP1 Monza even more of a face-rippler

Only Ferrari’s most loyal, trusted customers were invited to buy one of the 499 Monza speedsters. You had to be in Ferrari’s bezzie mates WhatsApp group even to get a look in. And then, just maybe, you’d be offered the ultimate first world problem: choosing whether to buy the one-seat SP1 version, or the more sociable SP2 duo-seater.

You’d imagine that what’s basically a roofless, stripped-out 812 Superfast would qualify as ‘enough’. After all, the Monza twins each develop 809bhp, thanks to their uprated 6.5-litre V12s. They’re good for 0-62mph in 2.9 seconds, and the top speed is limited to 186mph because even Ferrari doesn’t think cracking The Big Two-Oh-Oh is sensible when your Ray Bans are the windscreen.

But no. It’s not enough. And that’s where the likes of German supercar-tweakers Novitec arrive. Carrying a big shiny exhaust, and some spanners.

Novitec says its gold-plated exhaust system offers better heat dissipation and reduced back-pressure versus the standard Ferrari item. Naturally, you can choose between a stainless steel exhaust or lightweight F1-spec Inconel. That’s apparently liberated an extra 34bhp, while torque has climbed 45lb ft, so both totals now stand at 843bhp and 575lb ft.

Weirdly, our friends at Novitec haven’t made much of an effort to describe the noise this uncorked V12 makes. TG can only assume it’s because they’ve all revved themselves deaf.

Meanwhile, Novitec’s dropped the ride height by 35mm so the Monza’s now lowlier than a snake, and fitted a staggered set of Vossen alloy wheels: 21s at the front, and 22s at the rear. After all, there was a real danger you’d pay north of £2m for one of these Monzas and it wouldn’t really grab anyone’s attention. Yep.

Apparently the Novitec’d Monza is a tenth quicker from 0-62mph than a standard car, and the top speed is now delimited and lies ‘well beyond 186mph’. Wonder if anyone will be brave enough to find out just how far ‘beyond’ it’ll go?