Category: modern coachbuilding articles

Remember the day the 2005 Bugatti Veyron was the first car breaking the $1.000.000 barrier? Insane we thought. Who could predict however that nowadays a completely new ultra-segment is born, offering hypercars, limited series and special projects/one-offs at prices up to 5 to 15 million dollar? If you have the money to spend: welcome to the candy store.

It also means that these exceptional sales prices significantly lower the threshold to enter low-volume manufacturing. This not only creates feasible business models for resto-mods and 'continuation series' but it also enables classic brands to be revived and new brands to emerge, jumpstarting their ventures by offering high-priced limited series. Hello world: Apollo, Aria, Aspark, ATS, Boreas, Brabham, Corbellati, De Tomaso, Drako, Ecurie, Falcon, Fittipaldi, Genty, SCG (Jim Glickenhaus), GMA (Gordon Murray), Hennessey, Hispano-Suiza (double!), M.A.T. (Paolo Garella), Mazzanti, NIO, Piëch, Puritalia, RIMAC, Spania, SSC, W Motors, Vandenbrink, Zenvo. Wonderful times we think. 

We have therefore added new categories in our MARKETPLACE: One-offs, Bespoke cars, Limited Series, Ultra-collectibles & Hypercars. This differentiation makes our Marketplace unique. Though 'hypercars' usually do not qualify as 'special coachbuilds', we felt that adding these categories makes sense as many of them are created by new or (revived) classic design and manufacturing companies like ATS and Pininfarina. Some cars are even a mixture of classic and new, like the 'continuation' series (e.g. Aston Martin), resto-mods (e.g. Jaguar) and special homages (e.g. De Tomaso P72 and Vandenbrink GTO). Most of these cars in the 'Nouveau Niche' (as we call it) deserve a place in our archives as they appeal to the heart of aficionados like you and us!

Check our Marketplace for a first overview.

Created: 27 August 2019

Category: modern coachbuilding articles

Vandenbrink Design from The Netherlands presented the first 'Vandenbrink Shooting Brake'. The car is based on the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti. 
See article and press release on www.vandenbrinkdesign.com. See also the Encyclopedia: Vandenbrink.
The company is now taking orders for a limited-series production of 12 bespoke Shooting Brakes.
Vandenbrink quotes a price for conversion of your Ferrari 612 to Shooting Brake of €225.000,- (ex taxes, ex works).

RESERVE YOUR CAR

The Vandenbrink Shooting Brake is received very well by the press. Some quotes:

"Dank je, The Netherlands, for this Ferrari 612 Shooting Brake. We consider them well and truly on our radar now, thanks to this." Topgear.com

"Ferrari 612 Scaglietti Shooting Brake Is A Timeless Beauty. Vandenbrink’s vision is finally realized, and the 612 never looked so good. A work of art.” Motor1.com

"The result is a gorgeous shape with a roof so well-blended into the rest of the body that it looks like the 612 was designed as such from the start." Wheels.ca

"The Dutch firm has really raised its name for this achievement and it must be said that the results are completely worthy of the perfect design.” Autopro.com.vn

"Vandenbrink’s Ferrari 612 Shooting Brake Is The Ultimate V12-Powered Wagon." Carscoops.com

"This Vandenbrink Shooting Brake is a coachbuilt beauty. A Dutch company has built a completely stunning reimagination of a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti as a shooting brake, a design the Modena brand never produced in-house. We can finally confirm: long-roofs are back, baby!” Driving.ca

“A hunting station is elegant, refined and sporty. With the conversion of the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, the Dutch designer Vandenbrink achieves a real tour de force where we did not expect it.” Automobile-magazine.fr

"The execution looks to be Ferrari factory quality." Forcegt.com

"The quality of the execution is flawless." Classicdriver.com

“[The GTC4 Lusso] is much more common and will depreciate like an anvil falling off a cliff. We know where we’d put our money.” Onlymotors.com

"Le résultat est tout simplement grandiose." Rpmweb.ca

"A well-engineered one-off custom, this is one of the most unique custom Ferraris ever." Uncrate.com

“A functional piece of art. The Vandenbrink Shooting Brake is a future classic.” Drivetribe.com

"A new limited edition Shooting Brake style for the Italian sports car that multiplies several times its value." Planetcarsz.com

Created: 07 June 2019

Category: modern coachbuilding articles

The Ferrari Special Projects programme (a.k.a. 'Portfolio Coachbuilding Programme') is an extensive personalization program initiated by Ferrari that allows customers the opportunity to commission established Italian design houses such as Pininfarina, ItalDesign, Zagato, Fioravanti and Touring to create one-off redesigns of their automobiles with full factory support and recognition.

The program was conceived in the wake of millionaire stockbroker James Glickenhaus' commissioning of his P4/5 based on a Ferrari Enzo, and Giorgetto Giugiaro's GG50 to celebrate his 50th anniversary in the design business as well as the Sultan of Brunei's massive and legendary collection of one-off Ferrari Supercars and Shooting Brakes amassed in the 90's and Zagato's rebody of the Ferrari 575, the Ferrari 575 GTZ. 

At the same time there was a general revival of public interest in the old coachbuilding tradition employed by exclusive manufacturer's in the 1920's and 1930's. The vision was to allow wealthy customers the ability to utilize existing Ferrari platforms in order to bring their dream Ferraris to life while at the same time extending full support and recognition from Maranello. 

The One-Off programme produces a maximum of three cars per year. No one can buy an invitation to participate in the One-Off programme and Ferrari doesn’t promote it. Creating your own Ferrari can take between 18 and 24 months and includes regular consultations with the engineers and designers at Maranello. Ferrari's commercial director Enrico Galliera: “We have a big problem, which is that we are sold out until 2021. It has to remain something extremely limited. So even though we have a long list of clients, we are trying to cap it. And that’s the problem that we have so far: that we still have a lot of requests that we cannot satisfy. The price depends on which chassis you are using and what kind of project you want, but the price can be around three million euros.”

The following is a list of Special Projects cars that have been made public.

Ferrari also released some specials / limited series, which are not considered to be part of the Special Projects commissioning program. They are also listed for reference.

On September 18 2018 Ferrari announced the new "ICONA" limited edition special series, introducing the Monza SP 1 and Monza SP2. 

Created: 29 January 2018

Read more: Ferrari Special Projects - all cars listing

Category: modern coachbuilding articles

Created: 18 October 2017

Category: modern coachbuilding articles

Wonderful. This takes guts. Why not produce it in limited series?

 More info on website Mercedes-Benz. 

Created: 21 August 2017

Category: modern coachbuilding articles

Ken Okuyama launched his new design at Pebble Beach 2017: the Kode 0. The car is based on the Lamborghini Aventador. The design was received with mixed feelings. Nevertheless Okuyama deserves praise for his audacious projects. See Okuyama in our Encyclopedia.

Created: 21 August 2017

Category: modern coachbuilding articles

Prices are rumoured to be:

Zagato Aston Martin Vanquish Coupe 2016: $650.000 (all sold)
Zagato Aston Martin Vanquish Volante 2016: $850.000 (all sold)
Zagato Aston Martin Vanquish Speedster 2018: $1.300.000 (all sold)
Zagato Aston Martin Vanquish Shooting Brake 2018: $850.000 (all sold?)

Created: 16 August 2017

Category: modern coachbuilding articles

Created: 28 May 2017

Category: modern coachbuilding articles

Created: 15 September 2016

Category: modern coachbuilding articles

Created: 21 August 2016