Photo: sdesyn / Instagram
Take yourself back to the 1990s and consider this: what type of car are you going to buy if you’re looking for an exotic grand tourer with a lot of power and pizzazz? Certainly not an E31 BMW 8 Series or an R129 Mercedes-Benz SL-Class, right? Those two almost fit the bill, but they are premium products, not exotics.
A person in such a position is simply left with three choices. You either go with an Aston Martin DB7, a Jaguar XK or the Ferrari 550 Maranello, and we all know which of these three is the higher-status car. Sure, maybe you can consider the Porsche 928 GTS, but it would have been seriously outdated, while also missing a glorious soundtrack. As for the Lamborghini Diablo – not much of a comfortable cruiser, is it?
It’s hard to argue against the Ferrari 550 Maranello being THE grand tourer to have during its production run, with superior models only popping up in the early 2000s. The only thing it was missing was a proper track-focused specification.
The first 550 to go racing was the GT variant, followed by the 550 GTS, which actually raced in the 2001 FIA GT Championship. Both of those are fine race cars, but not-so-fine road cars with a focus for the track, which is what this render implies.
Meet the Ferrari 550 Maranello EVO, the brainchild of Shashank Das, same guy who created Darth Vader’s personal Bugatti collection. Widely based on a stock 550 Maranello, this EVO render also borrows some modern race car DNA from the Ferrari P80/C.
What on earth is a Ferrari P80/C, you ask? It’s a bespoke track-only car built for a special customer a few years back. It was based on the 488 GT3, but with better handling and improved aerodynamic properties.
It’s those exact ground effects that look surprisingly good on the 550 Maranello. Everything is designed with a functional purpose in mind, which is to help this car stick to the track by increasing downforce through a series of underbody elements, as well as a large, fixed rear wing.
This car deserves its day under the sun, and it’s so darn good looking from just about every possible angle. I wonder if Ferrari would build this thing if commissioned by somebody with unlimited funds. What a world that would be.
It’s hard to argue against the Ferrari 550 Maranello being THE grand tourer to have during its production run, with superior models only popping up in the early 2000s. The only thing it was missing was a proper track-focused specification.
The first 550 to go racing was the GT variant, followed by the 550 GTS, which actually raced in the 2001 FIA GT Championship. Both of those are fine race cars, but not-so-fine road cars with a focus for the track, which is what this render implies.
Meet the Ferrari 550 Maranello EVO, the brainchild of Shashank Das, same guy who created Darth Vader’s personal Bugatti collection. Widely based on a stock 550 Maranello, this EVO render also borrows some modern race car DNA from the Ferrari P80/C.
What on earth is a Ferrari P80/C, you ask? It’s a bespoke track-only car built for a special customer a few years back. It was based on the 488 GT3, but with better handling and improved aerodynamic properties.
It’s those exact ground effects that look surprisingly good on the 550 Maranello. Everything is designed with a functional purpose in mind, which is to help this car stick to the track by increasing downforce through a series of underbody elements, as well as a large, fixed rear wing.
This car deserves its day under the sun, and it’s so darn good looking from just about every possible angle. I wonder if Ferrari would build this thing if commissioned by somebody with unlimited funds. What a world that would be.
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