{"id":53060,"date":"2019-01-09T10:56:20","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T10:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.influx.co.uk\/?p=53060"},"modified":"2022-06-14T11:07:08","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T10:07:08","slug":"ferrari-550-breadvan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/cars\/ferrari-550-breadvan\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferrari 550 Breadvan"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1962 a very swift breadvan competed at Le Mans.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was unofficial in many ways. It wasn’t raced by Ferrari, the company which built the 250 GT on which it was based, and it wasn’t actually called a breadvan by the team (Scuderia Serenissima) – that name was apparently given by sneering Brits.<\/p>\n

However, this one-off adaptation of a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT was a bit of a revelation, being slightly lighter than a standard 250 GT and (despite having fewer gears than the official Ferraris) the breadvan held its own at Le Mans against the works cars – at least for the few hours before it retired.<\/p>\n

\"Breadvan<\/a><\/figure>\n

The car went on to race a couple more times and took semi-retirement, until being reawakened decades later as a classic racer. It continues to race now, and even crashes occasionally, despite a valuation in the tens of millions of Dollars. An exact figure is hard to state unless the car was to go up for auction. When it races, it’s still competitive and onboard footage<\/a> from the 2018 Goodwood Revival was released showing just how hard Emmanuele Pirro was driving it.<\/p>\n

The car is now due to get a successor – a one-off vehicle using the ‘breadvan’ formula and applying it to a ’90s Ferrari – a 550 Maranello.<\/p>\n

The 550 Maranello shares a lot of common elements with the original 250 GT – a V12 engine at the front driving the wheels at the back, and so the task or converting it is a fairly straightforward procedure. Well, it is if you really know what you’re doing. And the team behind this new conversion certainly do.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/figure>\n

London-based Niels van Roij Design recently converted a Tesla Model S into a ‘shooting brake’ for passionate Dutchman Floris de Raadt for RemetzCar (see that here<\/a>), and are the team tasked with making a success of the 550 conversion, too.<\/p>\n

A series of potential designs has been released and shows a great marriage between the iconic elements of the original, chiefly that rear end, but also the vents at the front of the car and see-through bonnet window.<\/p>\n\n\t\t