Ferrari has taken the covers off a mobile laboratory here at the Geneva Auto Show – exclusively for the super-rich. The Laboratorio Tecnologico 599XX is a special version of the 599, showcasing the company’s ongoing research programs.

Just 30 lucky customers will get into this Ferrari, and they won't just be anyone. You'll need the aptitude to take part as a "client test driver," providing feedback on your car and the way it performs at one of half a dozen bespoke track days. Ferrari wants F599XX customers to help develop new technology for future road cars. Not that you will be able to drive it on the road, for this is the ultimate track-day-only machine.

It features a 700-horsepower V12, a whole host of technology first seen in the F430 Scuderia, and incredible active aerodynamics. There are even fans in the trunk that channel air from under the car and out through two grilles by the taillights. Coupled to the winglets by the rear windows, this Ferrari develops almost 1,400 pounds of downforce at 186 mph, four times that of the regular F599.

This is the beauty – and relevance – of small supercar makers such as Ferrari. Because there is less need to make future technology economically viable, they can bring out features that have significant ecological gains far more quickly than mass-market makers such as Ford or Volkswagen.

It means that supercar drivers are, in one sense, actually driving the cars of the future. We’ve seen it in the past, with lightweight materials, paddle-shift gearboxes and emissions-reducing direct fuel injection. The Laboratorio Tecnologico 599XX is the next step along the development of the automobile. If you are rich enough (it has a price tag of $1.5 million), of the right passion and integrity as a person, and can get out to Geneva quickly enough, you might just get one of the 30 cars to be built.

But if you are simply normally wealthy, you can get into a new package that Ferrari is offering for the 599GTB Fiorano. The Handling GTE Package is a series of chassis upgrades that enhance the abilities of a car developed, remember, by Michael Schumacher. The objective says Ferrari is to offer tighter, more dynamic handling with sharper cornering and improved responsiveness. Given the standard car’s brilliance, we can’t wait to get behind the wheel of this beauty.

Needless to say, last year’s F1 car is also on proud display. Thing is, so advanced is the Laboratorio Tecnologico 599XX, it makes even this title-winning machine seem just a little dated and old-hat now.