Japanese designer Ken Okuyama revealed the Kode57 in California some 13 months ago and recently gave Jay Leno an in-depth tour of the car and allowed the former talk-show host to jump into the driver’s seat.
The Kode57 was commissioned by a wealthy collector and over the course of two years, brought to life by Okuyama, the former Pininfarina designer who created the Ferrari Enzo. Following its premiere at Monterey Car Week in 2016, Okuyama received four more orders to bring the production run up to five examples.
The design of the supercar takes inspiration from classic race cars like the Ferrari 250 Testa Rosso and Jaguar XKSS. Additionally, Okuyama explains that the man that commissioned the first car actually asked for him to re-create the Ferrari Rosso, a design car created by Pininfarina. However, he said that Ferrari and Pininfarina owned the rights to that car and therefore started work on a new design that bears a striking resemblance to the Rosso.
At the heart of the Kode57 is a Ferrari-sourced 6.0-liter V12 engine that’s been tweaked by German tuner Novitec to produce 692 hp.