Fresh off winning the 1986 World Cup with Argentina and leading Napoli toward historic glory, Diego Maradona decided he wanted a new sports car. He gave his legendary manager, Guillermo Coppola, a seemingly impossible instruction: “I want a Ferrari, but it has to be black.”
The problem was that Ferrari’s founder, Enzo Ferrari, famously maintained that a true Ferrari must be red. At the time, the factory in Maranello strictly rolled the iconic Testarossa off the assembly line in Rosso Corsa (racing red). When Coppola originally made the request, the brand reportedly scoffed, stating that a factory-black Testarossa simply didn’t exist.
However, Maradona was the biggest celebrity on Earth. Ferrari eventually relented, making an exception that had previously only been granted to actor Sylvester Stallone. They built a custom model finished in a specific dark hue (often referred to as Glasurit Nero Met 901/C), making Maradona one of the very first people to own a factory-certified black Ferrari.
Coppola didn’t just break Ferrari’s rules; he also used the car to orchestrate a brilliant piece of business with Napoli’s president, Corrado Ferlaino. The car itself initially cost around $430,000. Coppola went to Ferlaino and convinced him that gifting this ultra-exclusive vehicle to Maradona would ensure the superstar stayed happy and committed to the club. Ferlaino agreed to foot the bill but ended up paying heavily for it. According to Ferlaino, the final expenses nearly doubled after adding a hefty $130,000 surcharge for the custom paint job, alongside other logistics.
The absolute best part of the story happened when the vehicle was flown to Naples and delivered straight to the tarmac. Maradona and Ferlaino walked up to the pristine, menacing black Testarossa. Diego was thrilled, until he opened the door and sat inside.
Maradona looked around the stark white leather interior and suddenly frowned. He turned to Coppola and asked, “Where is the stereo? And where is the air conditioning?” Coppola explained that because it was a lightweight, high-performance purist sports car, those amenities were stripped out. Coppola famously tried to logic with him: “Diego, this is a racing car. It doesn’t have it.”
Without missing a beat, a furious Maradona retorted, “Well, then they can shove it up their...! I’m not taking it.” Ferlaino stood by in complete disbelief after spending over half a million dollars. To save the situation, Coppola immediately had the car taken back to have a premium sound system and AC unit custom-fitted within 24 hours.
Once the comforts were installed, Maradona fell in love with the car. Because he was utterly mobbed by adoring fans every time he stepped outside in Naples, he routinely used the black Testarossa to zip through the city streets late at night when the roads were empty.
He kept the car throughout his historic run at Napoli. It eventually changed hands over the decades, spending time in a Spanish collector’s hands before selling at an auction in 2014 for around €250,000 with just over 20,000 kilometers on the odometer. Today, it remains a permanent symbol of the era when Maradona didn’t just bend defenders to his will, he bent the rules of Ferrari, too.
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