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words - Gautam Sharma
US customiser conceives an eye-catching one-off that pays tribute to one of the prancing horse’s rarest cars

We’ve seen some outrageous rebodied Ferraris over the years, but this one takes the cake. The car pictured alongside was created by US customiser Gullwing America, and it’s dubbed the “Ferrari 340 Competizione” as it pays tribute to the 1952 Ferrari 340 Mexico.

The 340 Mexico is one of the rarest Ferraris ever made, as just three examples were built specifically to compete in the gruelling Carrera Panamericana, a classic border-to-border sports car race held from 1950 to 1954 on open roads in Mexico – similar in concept to Italy’s iconic Mille Miglia and Targa Florio.

Getting back to the 340 Competizione, its basis comes from the Ferrari 456 – a front-engined GT built from 1992 to 2003 – and it retains the donor car’s 325kW 5.5-litre V12 and six-speed manual transmission.

However, the GWA mob allegedly upgraded the brakes and suspension before cloaking the lot in the voluptuous aluminium bodywork pictured alongside. And although it doesn’t look particularly aero efficient, the team reportedly paid close attention to optimising its aerodynamics.

The interior is a pure retro feast, but among the few concessions to modernity is a pair of carbonfibre seats.

Going on the accompanying images, the attention to detail appears top-class, and we applaud its creators for coming up with a bold design that recaptures the essence of the car it was inspired by. We like what we see, except for those ridiculous oversize front-fender fins.

GWA plans to produce just one example, which allegedly remains a work in progress. Wonder what the folks over at Maranello think of it…?

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Powered By Motoring.com.au Published : Monday, 26 September 2011


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