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Modern Ferrari Breadvan Is a 550 Maranello "Wagon", Has a Gated Manual

Recent years have seen the nearly-lost art of coachbuilding returning under the spotlights and the examples range from Bentley's Mulliner to independent companies such as Dutch specialist Niels van Roij Design, which is currently building a modern-day version of the infamous Ferrari Breadvan.
Modern Ferrari Breadvan Is a 550 Maranello "Wagon" 15 photos
Photo: Niels van Roij Design
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The original Breadvan is a racecar that was built on the chassis of a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB and its birth can be linked to an Enzo-Ferrari-against-the-world tale that's almost as famous as the one that led to the creation of Lamborghini.

As for the said coachbuilder, you might be familiar to its name, since the company has already delivered high-profile projects. For one, the specialist picked up where Land Rover left off with the Range Rover SV Coupe: the automaker never built the two-door RR it had promised, so the said company did.

Then there's their Shooting Brake version of the Tesla Model S, which, by the way, was recently listed for about twice the price of the "donor car".

Returning to the Breadvan homage, this is a customer commission , a project that's been in the works for months now. Of course, we're all eager to see the finished machine and the company has explained the new-age Breadvan is coming by the end of the year, possibly this summer.

Meanwhile, you'll be able to check out the aim for the final design thanks to the sketches delivered by the specialist, which you can find in the image gallery above.

The 550 Maranello seemed like the obvious starting point, since, like the 250 GT, it mixed a front mounted V12, a manual transmission and two seats.

Looking past the obvious roof and tail transformation, the front end is also being shaped into a form mimicking that of the original, right down to the transparent hood section allowing us to take a peek at the 5.5-liter naturally aspirated V12 of the 550.

Keep in mind that Ferrari only built a little over 3,000 units of the 550 Maranello between 1996 and 2002, so purists might not approve of this extra-accommodation transformation. Then again, the opinion-splitting nature of the contraption only brings this closer to the original.

Meanwhile, you can check out the video below, which was released earlier today and sees the coachbuilder walking us through the project.

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About the author: Andrei Tutu
Andrei Tutu profile photo

In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist.
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