550 LM -From Evo----------------------------

Ferrari 550LM


My carefully practised nonchalance evaporates the second I open the door to the photographic studio. There, in the middle of the studio floor, is the very first 550LM road car, its paint barely dry after leaving the paintshop only a few hours earlier. Under the full glare of the studio lights, the shockingly vibrant scarlet paintwork fizzes with energy as individual spotlights are trained on its voluptuous curves and extravagant vents. Its fabulous snout pouts back at the photographer with all the confidence of a supermodel. Bloody hell, talk about wow factor, I've never seen a car with such a generous helping of the stuff.

I find myself morphing into a balding, slightly creased version of a giggling schoolboy who should know better. I'm supposed to be talking to photographer Hayden about the shoot-list, but I'm not making much sense. All I want to do is snatch the keys, clamber in and elope with my new-found mistress, never to be seen again. Yet behind the lights and the gleaming curves, there's a huge feeling of relief for everyone concerned. Because this fabulous roadgoing replica of the 2003 Le Mans GTS class-winning Ferrari very nearly didn't happen at all.

The idea for the car came from Frederic Dor, owner of Care Racing, whose Prodrive-developed 550 Maranello it was that won the GTS class in the 2003 Le Mans. After the race, Frederic approached Prodrive about developing a roadgoing replica but, after investigating the concept, Prodrive declared that it just couldn't be done economically.

Frederic, however, is not a man to be deterred and earlier this year he teamed up with Roland Hall from ES Motorsport to take one more look at whether the project could be made viable.

News of the proposals reached Evo Towers and we ran a world exclusive news story in issue 67. Care Racing were initially seriously annoyed at the leak, but this soon evaporated as ES Motorsport began to report an amazing response from evo readers around the world, desperate to know more about the car. In fact, it soon became clear that there would be more than enough buyers willing (but more importantly, able) to put down deposits, and ES Motorsport announced that it would go ahead with plans to build 50 cars.

Bill Harris (whose last road-car project was the McLaren F1) was recruited into the team and given the job of making the 550LM concept a production reality. His first, and biggest hurdle, was to sort out exactly where the unique carbonfibre bodywork was going to come from.

Prodrive was still the obvious choice to do it, since the Banbury-based company had initially developed and built the racecar's bodywork, but again they were adamant that it wasn't a viable proposition as a road car. Furthermore, Prodrive had already started work on turning the DB9 into a Le Mans racer for Aston Martin so it wouldn't really be politic to be working on the Ferrari at the same time as the new Aston.

Then a small company called GTR Ltd came into the equation after being highly recommended by various associates of Hall's. With a reputation for working miracles with carbonfibre for a number of big-name F1 teams in double-quick time, they seemed to be the perfect choice.

A racecar from Care Racing's Swiss base was dispatched to GTR's workshop, hidden away down a small lane on the outskirts of Fontwell, a few miles south of Goodwood. GTR's craftsmen began to assess the work involved to produce a carbon copy of the bulging, vented bodywork - with a few tweaks to make it a bit more 'roadable'. This time around, ES Motorsport struck lucky; GTR agreed it was a goer and they would even be able to produce the moulds for the fourteen body panels within the limited time available before the racecar had to be returned to Switzerland. Fortunately, GTR's workload tends to be lower during the summer months, as F1 work doesn't peak until the winter.

Before the previously pristine four-year-old 550 Maranello donor car was sent to GTR, much of the conversion work had already been done by ES Motorsport. All of the body panels that were to be replaced with the new carbon items had been removed, along with most of the sound deadening in the car, mainly from the areas around the front and rear bulkheads. Items like driver and passenger airbags had been removed too, along with the original stereo system, which was replaced with a lightweight Becker Indianapolis radio/sat nav system linked to an i-pod hidden in the glovebox. The original carpets remain, though, as it was always the intention with the 550LM that it should be civilised enough to use on a daily basis.

The 5.5-litre V12 had been fettled to increase the power by 55bhp to a heady 540bhp, chiefly by remapping the ECU and adding some electronic sensors from the Enzo, which enable the engine to inhale a richer petrol/air mix at higher revs. The brakes will be seriously uprated, too, with a similar AP set-up to the racecar currently being developed, the 385mm front discs making the most of the increased space available inside the bigger, 19in wheels.

It was at this point that I popped down to GTR to see how the first car was coming along. When I arrived I was directed to a building known as the 'Rocket Shop', so called because it was in this nondescript workshop that GTR built and developed the rocket-powered Thrust SSC project for a certain Richard Noble. It's amazing what goes on in quiet corners of the English countryside...

Today, though, the workshop is home to the impressive sight of the partly built 550LM, its bodywork a patchwork of dark grey carbonfibre and original red bodywork. GTR's fabricators have been working 24 hours a day for sixteen days now to get the car this far and tonight it'll be ready to go off to the spray-shop. It's an astonishing achievement when you think about it, but it just goes to show what can be done when the chips are down.

The weight savings achieved by GTR with the newly finished carbonfibre panels make spectacular reading. Take the front bumper, for example. The original weighed in at a chunky 28kg, but the new front section, including the much lower airdam and all-new front splitter comes in at an astonishing 4kg. It's the same story at the rear of the car, where the standard rear bumper weighed in at 35kg; having been re-fashioned in carbonfibre, it now weighs 5kg. Meanwhile the carbon bonnet saves a further 17kg over the original aluminium alloy version.

The standard electric seats have
gone too, swapped for a pair of beautifully trimmed, carbon sports seats, which are adjustable for tilt and reach and come complete with a Ferrari crest embossed into the black leather on the headrest. They're terrifically comfortable too, yet together they bring a combined weight saving of nearly 50kg over the original equipment.

Another big saving comes from the new exhaust system. ES Motorsport was amazed to discover that each rear 'box weighed a massive 19kg; now though both have been replaced by straight pipes weighing a paltry 2kg each. In fact, two exhausts systems will be offered; this car has the noisy one fitted, with a deep bass crackle that'll probably be too much for most people; a slightly quieter one is also being developed.

The overall weight saving adds up to just over 270kg but the target weight saving was originally 300kg and the current thinking is that some of the glass could be swapped for Perspex to bring the final target kerbweight of 1400kg within reach. With the 540bhp on offer from the modified engine, that'll mean a power-to-weight ratio of 392bhp per ton compared with 287bhp per ton for the standard car. Which certainly makes the ambitious performance claims more believable, although we're promised that the most amazing sensation when we finally get to drive the car will be the huge amount of down-force the car will be producing at speed. No figures are available, as the road car hasn't been near a wind tunnel yet, but expect to see at least 200kg being generated at 180mph.

Back in the studio, I'm still mesmerised by the lines of this car. It really has no right to be this good-looking. OK, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but if you idolise cars like the Lancia Integrale Evo for its raw aggression combined with a beautifully purposeful design ethic, in that instance driven along by the rally programme, then this 550LM is the Zenith of the art.

It helps, of course, that the Pininfarina-penned base car is so majestic in the first place, but you have to keep reminding yourself that it was never conceived to be a racecar. The engineers at Prodrive who first developed the racer could so easily have messed-up the design, yet form follows function quite beautifully. The only jarring note, perhaps, is that enormous rear wing, but on the final production cars it'll be optional anyway. If it is fitted, it'll have a cunning hinge in its supports so that it pivots forward, allowing the boot to open normally.

Straight after our shoot, endurance racing legend Andy Wallace will be starting the road development programme, with the specific aim of making the 550LM a very useable supercar, so excellent ride quality will be a top priority, as will feedback to the driver; Frederic Dor and ES Motorsport are adamant they don't want to lose the 550's natural characteristics, just enhance them.
And evo will be helping with this chassis tuning along the way, too.

All this bespoke work costs serious money, of course. ES Motorsport is quoting around £90,000 plus the donor car. With good Ferrari 550 Maranellos changing hands for as little as £60,000, you're going to end up with a final build cost of £150,000 for a finished car. There's no chance of building one by buying the components either, because ES Motorsport is insisting that it won't sell parts. Only complete cars will be built and, once the production run is finished, that will be it.

Some will argue that in an ideal world you would want to buy such a car directly from Ferrari, but on the other hand it's the Care Racing 550 that has the Le Mans class-winning pedigree, and that's something that could be important for future values of the road cars. And imagine the price Ferrari would charge for such a limited-production, carbonfibre-bodied car. I'd expect it would be around double the price of this 550LM.
Ferrari 550LM

The 550LM will be a genuinely different alternative to the obvious supercar contenders, but well able to match all but the most extreme of them in terms of performance and street theatre. Of course, any verdict will have to wait until we drive the first car in a couple of months' time, but given that we have already made the Ferrari 550 Maranello our favourite car of the last ten years (Car of the Decade, issue 066) the signs are very promising indeed. I, for one, can't wait.


Ferrari 550LM



Engine: V12



Location: Front, longitudinal



Displacement: 5474cc



Cylinder block: Aluminium alloy, dry sumped



Cylinder head: Aluminium alloy, dohc per bank, four valves per cylinder



Fuel and ignition: Electronic distributorless engine management, sequential multi-point fuel injection



Max power: 540bhp @ 7000rpm



Max torque: 438lb ft @ 5000rpm



Transmission: Six-speed manual (transaxle) gearbox, rear-wheel drive, helical limited slip differential



Front suspension: Double wishbones, coils springs, dampers, anti-roll bar



Rear suspension: Double wishbones, coil springs, dampers, anti-roll bar



Steering: Rack and pinion, power-assisted



Ferrari 550LM



Brakes: Cross-drilled and ventilated discs, 385mm front, 355mm rear, ABS



Wheels: 9 x19in front, 11.5 x 19in rear, aluminium alloy



Tyres: 295/35 ZR19 front, 345/30 ZR19 rear, Michelin



Weight kerb: 1400kg (tbc)



Power to weight: 392bhp/ton (tbc)



Insurance group: 20



Max speed: circa 200mph (claimed)



Basic price: Donor car plus £90,000



On sale: Autumn 2004



0 to 60 MPH: 3.9sec (claimed)