The Man Who Designed The Ferrari Enzo Just Built His Own V12 Supercar

What happens when the man who designed the Ferrari Enzo decides to build his own supercar? You get the Kode89, a wild open-top machine with a V12, a manual gearbox, and styling straight out of the 1980s. But there’s a twist.

This time, Ken Okuyama didn’t base it on an existing Ferrari, Lamborghini, or Lotus. He built the car from the ground up.

The Ken Okuyama Kode89 takes inspiration from the era of the Ferrari F40 and Lamborghini Countach. It has a low body, sharp lines, flat front fenders, and a fixed rear wing. The side profile also has clear Enzo influences, especially around the cabin and air intakes. That makes sense because Okuyama helped design the Enzo while working at Pininfarina.

The bigger story sits underneath. Okuyama’s earlier Kode models used existing cars as their starting point, but the Kode89 gets its own aluminum spaceframe. Buyers can choose naturally aspirated V12 engines with a six-speed manual. The 5.4-liter makes 540 hp, while the 5.9-liter produces around 750 hp. The company has even explored a hydrogen-burning engine.

Only eight Kode89s will be built, and the first batch has already sold out. Okuyama drove the car at California’s Tour d’Elegance before its Pebble Beach debut. He even suggested the Kode89 might be “more Italian than the cars from Italy itself.” That’s a bold claim, but the man behind the Enzo has probably earned the right to make it.