Image © Vandenbrink
Back when motoring was an enjoyable pastime in which only the idle rich indulged, one didn’t simply walk into a showroom and buy a car, one bought a chassis and had an artisan create a body for it.
The experts were, naturally, the Italians and their carrozzerias such as Pininfarina, Touribng, Zagato and Bertone built up formidable reputations for designing and building sculptural bodies on top of chassis from Aston Martin, Lancia, Bentley, Maserati and of course Ferrari.
Image © Vandenbrink
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It seems that the great coachbuilding tradition may be due a revival, and, as before, only seriously wealthy motorists will be able to indulge in the ultimate automotive experience of having a car created for oneself. Recently we have seen the Ferrari Enzo-based Pininfarina P4/5 built for movie mogul James Glickenhaus and the 575 GT Zero built by Zagato for Japanese collector Yoshiyuki Hayashi. Now a Dutch coachbuilder has come up with a modern interpretation of perhaps the most famous Ferrari of all time, the 1962 250 GTO.
Image © Ferrari
The Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano
The Ferrari 599 GTO Mugello is the work of 28-year-old Michiel van den Brink and is based, as the name suggests, on Ferrari’s flagship front-engined two-seater, the 599 GTB Fiorano. This means it gets the same 6.0-litre V12 feeding 620bhp to the rear wheels via a six-speed robotised manual gearbox, good enough for a sub-four second 0-62mph time and a promised top speed on the far side of 205mph. But at those sort of velocities no-one is going to get a decent look at it and that would be a shame.
Image © Ferrari
The original GTO
The styling takes a number of cues from the 1962 GTO original, of which only 33 were built. The Fiorano’s bonnet now has more of an anteater-like droop to it and features three semi-circular vents along its leading edge. Behind the front wheels are a trio of vents, aping those used on the original car to stop heat build-up from the 3.0-litre V12. Other unmistakeable GTO signatures are the swell of the rear wheelarches into the tail, cut-out behind the rear wheel, circular rear-lights and the sharply truncated kamm tail.
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Image © Vandenbrink
Michiel van den Brink was also responsible for a stunning Dino design study which caused a flurry of speculation in the press that it could be the basis for an entry level Ferrari. The young designer also dreamed up a curious 612 Scaglietti based shooting brake. The car will be constructed by the coachbuilder Hietbrink, a renowned Dutch Ferrari restorer. Just five GTO Mugellos will be built and three have already been spoken for. And as with all made-to-measure items, if you need to ask the price, you can’t afford it.
