It's been nearly a year and a half since Pininfarina unveiled the Sergio at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, and now Ferrari is putting it into production – albeit with a few modifications.

The Pininfarina Sergio, for those who don't recall, was a wildly modified Ferrari 458 Spider with no roof, no windscreen and no glass to speak of whatsoever. Just a completely open top and a forward-canted roll bar that looked like it belonged as much on a speedboat as it would on a car. It was created to pay homage to the late Sergio Pininfarina, and shortly after its debut, reports already started surfacing of its potential production, however limited. Now those plans are going through.

Speaking exclusively with Autoblog, Ferrari has confirmed it is building six examples of the Sergio for private customers. "This extreme limited and exclusive series," said spokesman Matteo Torre, "celebrates 60 years of collaboration between Ferrari and Pininfarina."

To get it on the road, however, it seems that Ferrari has had to make some concessions to reality. Borrowing more heavily from the 458 Spider, the Sergio appears to have gained a proper windscreen as well as side glass. The headlight strip has apparently moved from the edge of the nose further up the hood, and those sculpted side vents seem to be sitting more flush along the flank, with vents opened up in the B-pillar instead. The seats inside the cockpit also appear to have been swapped out for stock, though the wheels look fairly similar to the showcar's.

In the end, if the photos circulating around (which you can see at the source but which Ferrari would not verify as of yet) are anything to go by, it seems the production Sergio is quite different from the concept – a sort of mid-point between it and the 458 on which it's based – but you can bet either way that those six customers have paid a handsome premium for the privilege.

Yesterday, Shmee150 visited H.R.Owen Ferrari in London to go and have a look at the Sergio By Pininfarina concept. Ferrari have announced that they will be making six versions of this concept by Pininfarina. Since then, we have found a picture on the internet released a month ago apparently showing the final production version of the Sergio, which seems to feature windows and a windscreen added to the radical design.

We also notice that the seats in the picture appear to be different from the ones in the concept car at the Ferrari showroom. So whether the picture we found actually depicts the final production version or not cannot be confirmed at the moment.

The first Ferrari Sergio arrives in the UAE

Abu Dhabi, 5th December 2014 – The first Ferrari Sergio has arrived in the United Arab Emirates. It has been delivered today to its new owner, the SBH Royal Auto Gallery in the UAE, at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Circuit, where the Finali Mondiali Ferrari are being staged and which is home to the Ferrari World theme park.

Designed by Pininfarina, just six of this incredibly limited edition roadster are being built. The car was created to celebrate the spirit and core values of the historic Cambiano company in the 60th anniversary year of its collaboration with the Prancing Horse. Needless to say, Sergio was the only possible choice of name for the model, in homage to great Sergio Pininfarina, who sealed the unique, longstanding partnership with Ferrari.

The Ferrari Sergio is a genuinely radical car. It is both exclusive and spare in the sense that every single element aboard is focused entirely on performance. An authentic open-top, it explicitly references the track, underscoring and intensifying its sense of sportiness, fun behind the wheel and the pleasure of design at its purest.

The Ferrari Sergio's performance and dynamics are excellent in the extreme too. It is based on the 458 Spider and retains the latter's technological content as well as all of the functional aspects of its cockpit. It is powered by the latest 605 hp version of Ferrari's naturally aspirated 4497 cc V8 which has won the International Engine of the Year award on three consecutive occasions. This power unit also guarantees the car sprints from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3 seconds.

The Ferrari Sergio has an extremely simple, clear style. Both its volumes and treatments of its surfaces reflect the spirt of Pininfarina's 1960s and 70s creations for Ferrari. Its proportions have been pushed to the extreme with the front of the car seeming to penetrate the rear which itself projects forward. The result is an exceptionally sculptural, three-dimensional take on the classic roadster. The two bodyshell masses are melded together via a longitudinal black insert, the main styling cue of the design. The flank is also characterised by the same black longitudinal element which acts as both a dividing and unifying element between front and rear. The two sections of the car flow effortlessly into one another resulting in sublimely harmonious yet extremely muscular forms.

As with all Ferraris, the Sergio's design was never an end in itself but is a marriage of function and aesthetics. The semi-floating development of the front spoiler beneath the bonnet balances downforce and optimises heat exchange. The roll-bar is a modern take on the classic Ferrari flying buttress and negative rear window. Integrated into the roll-bars are the air intakes for clutch and gearbox oil cooling. Lastly, the rear nolder and rear extractor generate downforce, adding an efficient finishing flourish to the car's design.

At the front of the car, Pininfarina has integrated the headlights in a classic move, turning them into a single transparent transverse element, a signature of the car's extreme formal purity. At the rear, the circular tail lights are another modern nod to Ferrari history. The two-tone theme continues on both the front bonnet and rear deck with the latter featuring the iconic circular air vents seen on other iconic Pininfarina creations from the past.

The cockpit is pared-back and functional in the extreme with the engine compartment actually hugging the backs of the seats. The example delivered to Abu Dhabi has three-layer red exterior paintwork and an extremely sporty cockpit with black leather upholstery with contrasting red stitching, Alcantara seat inserts, and extensive carbon dash and door well trim. It also features Sergio-specific forged wheels, in this instance gold in colour with a diamond finish.

Each one of the six Ferrari Sergios was configured by its owner in dedicated sessions at the Tailor Made atelier in Maranello where clients are invited to personalise their cars to their own individual tastes. The atelier offers enormous freedom of choice in terms of colours, materials and finishes. As a result, every detail is extremely exclusive, thereby continuing the Prancing Horse tradition begun in the 1950s and 60s of creating bespoke cars minutely tailored to each client's wishes.