Prodrive to sell customer Ferrari GT cars

Work started on the project on January 2 and, in just 16 weeks, Prodrive has designed, built and run the new car.

"The team here at Prodrive has literally been working non-stop since the New Year to get this car ready," said engineer George Howard-Chappell, who has masterminded the project. "The initial tests have been very promising, but I do not expect us to be on the pace at very first race. By the middle of the season, we should be far more competitive and beginning to secure some good results."

Due to time constraints, Prodrive will be using the first two races as an extension to the development programme. Peter Kox handled the shakedown run in Britain and has tested again at the A1-Ring this week.

The car is based on the original 550 Maranello road car's monocoque chassis, but with almost every component modified. Despite this, Prodrive designer, Peter Stevens, has kept the styling of the racing car faithful to the original Pininfarina design, while ensuring that it will still perform on the track.

The road car's original 1690kg has been trimmed down to 1100kg thanks to extensive use of carbon fibre bodywork and lightweight components, while Prodrive has redesigned the V12 engine to increase power output from 485bhp to more than 600bhp. This gives the racing car double the power-to-weight ratio of the road car, at around 550bhp/tonne.

Rickard Rydell will drive the Prodrive Ferrari 550 GTO Maranello in this year's FIA GT Championship. Reigning BTCC champion Alain Menu will partner him at Silverstone and then in three further rounds, with ETCC Super Production championship leader Kox standing in for the other three due to Menu's DTM commitments.

"We plan to continue development throughout the year and introduce a second car at round seven in Hungary," said Howard-Chappell. "Following this, customer specification cars will be available, that can be run in the FIA GT Championship, as well as potentially the American and European Le Mans series and the Le Mans 24 Hours.

"It would be possible to build one or two [for customers] before the end of the year. We could take an order before that, but couldn't commit to a delivery date," he added.