Today’s featured Ferrari is a Replica ’64 250 GTO notchback seen at Sherbourne Castle a couple of years ago.
The ever growing demand for real classic Ferrari’s drove up prices massively in the late 1980’s and saw some seek a cheaper alternative by commissioning replica’s usually based on a Ferrari 250 GT/E chassis.
By shortening a 250 GT/E chassis a passing likeness to the more desirable 250 GT SWB, GTO, and TR models could be achieved at a cost of $300,000 plus a 250 GT/E donor car.
While the exterior likeness might pass muster shortening a 250 GT/E chassis meant that often the gear shift was not in the correct place and or the seats beeing too far forward as a result of the 250 GT/E suspension being bulkier than that on the model being copied, also the steering geometry for a long wheel base GT/E was not the same as for shorter models.
It appears that today’s featured Replica was built by Piet Roelofs, on the eastern outskirts of Arnhem in The Netherlands, who is reckoned to be one of the better Replica manufacturers by Micheal Sheehan an exotic car broker who tracks over 200 replica Ferrari’s.
My thanks to El Wayne at Ferrari Chat for pointing me in the direction of the manufacturer of today’s Replica.
Thanks for joining me on this “Roelofs Replica” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at another 500cc Formula 3 Car. Don’t forget to come back now !