by Wallace Wyss –
One of the great Ferrari experiences of my life was a spirited ride in the Ferrari “Breadvan” when it was owned by Matt Ettinger. He had it all tricked out for racing including a number on the side. And he drove it like a bat outa hell! I especially enjoyed the bubble on the hood with a bunch of intake stacks from Weber carbs.
The original Ferrari Breadvan was built by Count Volpi who once was tight with Enzo but had a falling out and had Ing. Bizzarrini design a custom Ferrari out of a Ferrari 250GT that would blow the factory 250 GTOs out of the water. It was built in ’62 and had some racing success. He was hindered by Ferrari not selling him a five speed for it so it was difficult to match the works GTOs on the straight.
This modern interpretation was drawn by Niel van Roij. I can say the actual modified Ferrari built to his design is close to the design on paper. I’d have to see it in person to say if it’s true to the spirit of the original…
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR Wallace Wyss is writing a book on Tesla vs the Big Three and welcomes opinions.
The Real Ferrari 250 Breadvan at the Ferrari Museum – Photo by Mike Gulett
Both designs are aes based on Reionhard Koenig-Fachsenfeld’s and Wunibalg Kamm’s findings respectively. look at figure 3.
‘What power sure hope not electric! I want to hear twelve cylinders singing out loud!
Agree with Byron, it needs to sing the siren song of the V12 and not be electric
Still has a V12,based ona 550, but there’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip in getting to the as-buitl car. I’ll let you decide….
Really nice to see these ideas revisited in a modern sense, the renders are intriguing and the car pictured that was built is quite lovely, the brutish nature of the original Breadvan softened to create a more street worthy variant on the design…
I for one am a fan of both the new designs… Bold and at the same time very stylish.
I would remind folks of the mostly forgotten Daytona variant done years ago by Panther Westwinds for a client more probably of a shooting Brake than Breadvan… and yet still a similar idea.
I have written that it is possible that the Breadvan influenced the style of the Bizzarrini GT 5300 and maybe the Lamborghini Espada (although rear passenger headroom also accounted for the Espada roof line).
In this photos the cars are from top to bottom: Ferrari 250 GTO, Ferrari 250 Breadvan, Bizzarrini GT 5300 and Lamborghini Espada.
The Breadvan is surely one if the unique race cars, born of Volpi’s necessity plus a thumb of the nose at The Drake.
Something about the original is so determined, so elemental, that I don’t know whether it translates to a modern stylish rendition.
Anyhow, here are my buddy, Jim Stainton, and me examining the innards with Director Christos Vlahos at the Museo Ferrari in Maranello. Very nostalgic experience, going through what was essentially the half-brother of my car, GTO 3223 GT.
I would LOVE to have driven it!
Former Larry Perkins car picured here
https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/chassis/1830/Ferrari-250-GTO-3223GT.html
Read about Larry Perkins’s time with his Ferrari 250 GTO in his book here: https://mycarquest.com/2021/10/book-review-full-circle-a-hands-on-affair-with-the-first-ferrari-250-gto.html