Thinking about building a "Tribute" car | FerrariChat

Thinking about building a "Tribute" car

Discussion in 'Recreations & Non-Period Rebodies' started by RivMan, Jul 8, 2014.

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  1. RivMan

    RivMan Rookie

    Dec 2, 2013
    18
    Hey guys, just throwing this out there because it's been on my mind recently.

    My Grandpa once owned the 212 Ghia Cabriolet that Tom Shaughnessy is in the process of restoring back to it's original glory. Since I was a kid looking at the photo of that car on my Grandpa's wall, I've always dreamed of owning it. There's no way I'll ever be able to buy anything on the level that my Grandpa's car will be on once it's done, so I have to look into other options.

    It's completely against what the vintage Ferrari market looks for, but I've always loved the idea of a Stock looking period Ferrari, with a modern, reliable, powerful drivetrain. I'm considering building a "Tribute" car in the spirit of my Grandpa's car, with an original Ferrari body.

    There seems to be a few available due to the popularity of re-bodied competition cars, something along the lines of:

    Partial Perfection: 1952 Ferrari 212 Body
    or
    1961 FERRARI 250GTE - BODY

    Any opinions?
    My plan would be to build either a custom tube chassis, or re-purpose a Corvette or similar chassis / drivetrain
    LS1 based Small Block
    ect...

    -Rob
     
  2. ArtS

    ArtS F1 Veteran
    Owner Silver Subscribed

    Nov 11, 2003
    8,880
    Central NJ
    If you are not destroying a car or damaging original parts in creating your masterpiece, I say go for it! That said, a corvette drivetrain is overkill. A 2.4 Dino motor or an Alfa motor would suit the resulting car better. You could buy the body as a piece of art and display it on the wall, wait until the bubble bursts and then buy the rest of it and put it back together :)

    Regards,

    Art S.
     
  3. RivMan

    RivMan Rookie

    Dec 2, 2013
    18
    Thank you for the input! I see it as preserving an original body as well.

    I'm really leaning towards the Corvette drivetrain since my Grandpa's car sported a 350 Tri-Power Corvette motor and Ford 9" rear end at the time he owned it.

    [​IMG]

    -Rob
     
  4. TZ 750

    TZ 750 Formula Junior

    Jul 18, 2009
    912
    Using Chevy parts has a long and storied history
    in producing "replicas and Tributes."

    Why not use this car as a base,

    1975 Ferrari 365 GT/4 2+2 Spyder Conversion

    and have ALL FERRARI.

    Bigger outlay, but at least a possibility
    of getting your money back.

    I suspect that the 250 body will be close to fitting,
    and having 365 power will make the resulting car
    much more enjoyable.....
     
  5. peterp

    peterp F1 Veteran

    Aug 31, 2002
    6,509
    NJ
    Full Name:
    Peter
    I'm not sure how much wheelbase differences will be an issue, but the above seems like a great idea. Normally recreations are destructive, but in this case it would at least partially rescue one car (the 365 GT/4 rebodied above) and one body shell (which tend to exist from GTO "conversions").

    The best fate for the 365 GT/4 would be to restore the original body IMO, but economics probably will prevent that from being a possibility, so fitting a proper discarded body would seem be the best option from a custodial perspective in addition to creating a cool car.

    Separately, there was a thread on Fchat a while ago about somebody who had taken a Corvette motor that was installed in a vintage Ferrari and they modified it to look like an original V12. The concept probably sounds questionable, but it was really, really well done. Probably can't do much to make it sound like the V12, but those mods did a lot to make the V8 look very much at home in an old Ferrari. I can't remember which car or thread it was, but I think it was in the recreations subforum.
     
  6. Pass

    Pass F1 World Champ
    Silver Subscribed

    Feb 29, 2008
    12,440
    Salida Colorado
    Full Name:
    Mark Passarelli
    From my perspective; I say make an attempt to replicate as closely as possible the original frame and drivetrain by using spares from a salvage yard and/or fabricate from scratch.
     

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