Revealed: the one-off, Ferrari 550-based ‘Breadvan Hommage’

This is a ‘new’ Ferrari. By which we mean, it’s an old Ferrari, recast and reformed to commemorate a really old Ferrari. Welcome to one of the most spectacular shooting brakes you’ll likely ever see.

Dubbed the ‘Breadvan Hommage’, it’s the work of Niels van Roij, a man with a keen enthusiasm for sporty estates and one tasked with commemorating Ferrari’s iconic 250 GT racer by “a true admirer of an Italian car manufacturer”.

Underneath sits the bones of a Ferrari 550 Maranello. So: big, 5.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 and somewhere in the region of 480 horses, open-gate six-speed manual, rear-wheel drive.

After much rendering and sketchwork, the team installed a clay framework over the base car and began working out the intricacies of a boxy body saddled atop a really very powerful Italian supercar.

“Like sketching, the clay modelling process is iterative and the Breadvan Hommage was reshaped many times, to get it spot on,” van Roij explained. The 550's unmistakable face remains, here refashioned to be more aggressive via all-important vents. The 'van' aspect too, is a faithful recreation of Ferrari's classic. Clay modelling complete, the body was hand beaten into shape by Niels’ colleague Bas van Roomen.

Special attention was afforded to the suspension, too. We’re told the original Ferrari Breadvan used KONI adjustable shocks, and thus, Neils enlisted KONI to develop a one-off set of shock absorbers for his Hommage. They feature KONI’s ‘double-adjustable 8211-series’ technology as a base – already used in F1 – and proves “relatively comfortable around town, but a true ‘performer’ on the racetrack”.

Special tyres, too – Vredestein supplied a high-performance summer tyre that was designed with the help of ItalDesign Guigaro. There’s plenty of special work inside: carbon-fibre backed seats wrapped in Alcantara, milled aluminium switchgear, quilted black leather, and little touches like an embroidered outline of the car on the seats, and a little Italian flag.

“We see it as a great privilege that we can celebrate the 1962 Breadvan through this Hommage commission,” said van Roij. “We intended to be inspired by the original, but ensured we were not limited by it in our creativity.

“The Breadvan Hommage is a new original,” he added. See? A ‘new’ Ferrari.