Zagato builds new body for 575M

Unique commission references Ferrari 250GTZ

By PH Staff / Monday, 3 April 2006 / Loading comments

One-off Zagato-bodied Ferrari 575M

A Japanese car collector has commissioned a one-off Zagato-bodied Ferrari 575M in the style of the famous 250GTZ Berlinetta. The picture (right), is an expanded version of the only picture, just 150 pixels wide, currently released to the public.

Collector Yushiyuki Hayashi owns numerous cars of great historical value, including several Ferraris such as the 166MM, the 250 Spider California, two Daytonas – a coupé and a spider – and the Enzo. In the tradition of the keen purchaser of exclusive cars who stimulated the creativeness of Italian coachbuilders in the 1950s and 1960s, Hayashi asked Zagato if it would be possible to create a new body for his 575M.

Zagato then told Ferrari and Modena thought it would be a good opportunity to celebrate the model's anniversary, and created a car built around the Ferrari 575 that harked back to the 250GTZ. Like its forebear, the 575 GTZ has an all-aluminium body.

According to Zagato, "like the 250GTZ, it sports two-tone paintwork with styling cues and volumes that explicitly refer back to the 1950s, and sublimates the character of the many cars built by Zagato to clothe original engineering, with the pure style of traditional sports cars." Zagato said that the project represented an opportunity to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Ferrari 250GTZ of 1956, one of the most outstanding GT cars -- and one of the most expensive, ever. It's won numerous competitions and concours d’élégance, and experts and fans alike have, over the years, voted it one of the most beautiful cars in the world.

Just as in the 1956, the 250GTZ was showed at the most important concours d’elegance, 50 years later, the 575GTZ will be presented for two days at a world premier at Villa D’Este Concours D’Elegance, Cernobbio, Italy starting on 22 April 2006.