456 M pop up headlights conversion

You are going to make many folks here throw up with such talk.

 

I've seen pics of a car that had it done.... no idea why or how much.

Easiest get rid of the pop up headlights on a 456, is to go to the ferrari dealer and trade it in on a 575/550 or a 612.

 

LOL, also exchange children for smaller ones to facilitate storage on the rear shelf

 

The greatest strength of the 456M's design IMHO, is the clean, elegant simplicity and integration of its component forms. I don't know whether the slope of the nose is even steep enough to accomodate the changeover from pop-up to covered headlamps without cutting out more of the carbon fiber hood, but that probably would add complexity (or variety, depending on your point of view) to the hood design. BTW, I don't find the 550's hood with its lights and scoop to be one of that design's strengths. I also have a hard time imagining what "an aftermarket body kit" for a 456M might look like. Fender flares? Hood scoops? If you feel a strong need to personalize the car (I've done that a lot with my Porsches) I'd recommend getting different wheels and tires with a distinctive tread pattern. Unlike body modifications, those items won't affect the long term value of the car in a negative way.

 

Come come come - its just a car and not a particularly appreciated one either. So much so that not even the Japanese have seen fit to engineer a body kit and a wing for it. Just like there are guys going to stuff small blocks into Hondas or Porsches, there are going to be the same genrethat want flares and spoilers on this boring old Pininfarina shape. All things are possible and I would suggest that given the cost of doing these mods is the same whether you are doing it to a Dodge Hemi or an F-Car, why not look at some of the web sites on Chop Cut Rebuild or one of the Bling Valley shops in CA. They can also do Nickel plated coffee can exhausts and replace the entire trunk with a custom shaped woofer that changes frequency in synch with the transaxle. Subtle but it makes a statement that goes along with the supercharger - which is actually a first. After figuring out how to do that, you should have no problem in engineering a body kit - hey, I know, why not do a Spider conversion?

 

I wholeheartedly agree with the naysayers above. However, I too understand that it is YOUR car and you're entitled to do whatever you want with it.

Being a bit computer challenged..I don't exactly know how to transfer image(s) from there to here.. therefore, if you want to see what 550 lights look like on a 456, go to the ASIA section, under " Any Malaysian Ferrari Owners..?", page 53...and there you can see a couple of photos of a Rosso Corsa 456 with the 550 light units grafted on, with the 456's original bumper and bonnet in place and running on Cargraphic's 19" 'racing' wheels. It's a cut jub on the bonnet or hood to accomodate the lights but it seems that the curvature of the hood doesn't exactly conform to the lights' shape or vice-versa...therefore you might need some thick gasket made up to have a tight fit.

The owner of the said 456 is a Ferrari and Porsche 'tuner/racer' in Malaysia and his previous ride was a 348 with a full on 355 body, right down to the rear quarters and lights. He's a heck of a driver but might have questionable tastes and/but modding Ferraris seems to float his boat, so...to each his own..

Edit : Cargraphic in Germany does have a 456 in their advertisement having a sealed quad lights set up in lieu of the original pop-up units. Not a modded 550 unit and cut hood but looked like custom made units that replaced the whole original lights and their buckets assembly. Was a black unit IIRC wearing the CG wheels.

 

I think Pininfarina did a few for the Sultan of Brunei.

And, yes, it is "just a car," but I was talking about aesthetics, which are of course subjective and personal. Customizing is the automotive equivalent of a tattoo. And, like I've said elsewhere, "a tattoo works on Jessica Alba; a tattoo does not work on Botticelli's Venus," or, for a more modern example, Nicole Kidman. To each his own.

 

Pics of the conversion as mentioned above.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=106479&page=53

imo it looks better than i had imagined, though need more pictures to really see how it looks. Anybody wish to annoy that owner for more pics to the benefit of our curiosity?

 

How much does the conversion cost? Does it get as much light on the road? M

 

I think it's conversion from Novitec (http://www.novitecrosso.com/ - but they don't have 456 on their new site)... Please, show us some photos of your car

 

Reminds me of the BMW Z1...interesting!

 

From wikipedia "Powered hidden headlamps were pioneered in GM's Buick Y-Job concept car of 1938 and were used briefly on Chrysler Corporation's 1942 production DeSoto. The feature's popularity has waxed and waned over time. Hidden headlamps regained popularity in the late 1960s, particularly in the US market where aerodynamic headlamps were not permitted. A relatively large variety of cars incorporated hidden headlamps in the 1970s, '80s, and early 1990s. Currently, hidden headlamps have fallen out of favour.
Numerous car manufacturers used hidden headlamps to get around the headlight height regulation in the United States, for instance Toyota exported their retractable headlight version of the AE86, known domestically as the Sprinter Trueno in favour of their Corolla Levin as the former had higher headlamp height, enough to satisfy US regulations rather than raise body height which affected handling.
US laws now permit aerodynamic headlamps, relative to which hidden headlamps represent added cost, weight, and complexity as well as reliability concerns as cars age. Internationalized ECE auto safety regulations have also recently incorporated pedestrian-protection provisions restricting protuberances from car bodies, making it more difficult and expensive to design compliant pop-up headlamps."
Erik

 

OUCH!

 

This is what Ferrari will do to your car if dare modify it

http://www.automotoconso.com/leblog/IMG/infos4/ferrari-456-gt-3.jpg

 

Of no particular help, but I think it's a great idea. Best of luck in your search and if you do find a solution, please post it up. The Novitech lead didn't pan out?

As for the rest of the monkeys - who cares? His car, let him do what he wants. You may not like it, but unless he steals your car and modifies it, what difference does it make?

As for it being the greatest GT car? Uhm, not a chance in hell - the maranello exists!

 

the black car pictured looks excellent with the conversion, as if it came that way originally; the red car in the Asian section looks just awful as they totally destroyed the metal in their version.