Prodrive creates 'Legends' restoration service
Have a Prodrive racer? Now it can be authenticated by its maker, and restored as well...
Name your favourite Prodrive race car. Everyone has one, naturally, because the Banbury-based outfit has been so prolific for more than 30 years in top-class race cars. Us? Has to be the GT1 Ferrari 550 Maranello. Or maybe it's the last Super Touring Mondeos. Or perhaps a V12 Vantage GT3. That's before mentioning the Imprezas... It's a difficult, if entertaining, conclusion to come to.
Anyway, point of the discussion is that today sees the launch of Prodrive Legends, a "new operation dedicated to the authentication, restoration and support of these cars." Because, put simply, there have now been more than 1,000 Prodrive cars built, and those with genuine Prodrive provenance will have greater significance - and an increased value in a seemingly strong market - than those that don't.
So the PL programme features a fixed price authentication element, to verify whether the car is a genuine Prodrive chassis, then a range of upgrades for those wishing to rejuvenate their car. The press material describes that as "factory specification engine rebuilds" in a new powertrain centre, preparing a car for competition and going all the way to "ground-up restorations", bringing the cars back to their original spec. All the work is carried out in Banbury.
It sounds a compelling proposition for those in the fortunate position to own a Prodrive racer. Head of motorsport operations Paul Howarth said: "Quite simply, there is nobody in a better position to rebuild a Prodrive car - we literally know them inside out and many of the people we have on the Prodrive Legends team built the cars originally." Moreover, Prodrive has original build data for vital components, plus a network of contacts built up since 1984.
The company also maintains that the Legends service will benefit all kinds of customers, be they collectors or competitors. Howarth added: "Some owners choose to run their cars in less demanding exhibition events or merely show them, but any car that leaves us will be turnkey and ready to run competitively."
Which makes it all sound mightily tempting for Prodrive owners, be that one of the 700-plus (!) Subarus, 40 E30 M3s or more than 200 Aston Martins. It's easy to imagine the cars becoming more desirable, in a similar way to Ferrari Classiche vehicles, with factory authentication. While prices haven't yet been announced, interested parties are invited to check prodrive.com for more details. And, well, just because we can, here's that incredible Snijers performance on the Manx in the Bastos M3. Take it away, Patrick...
I know it wouldn't be worth as much without the paperwork/history etc to collectors/investors.
But if the fun of owning is also in the driving experience then perhaps they will have a far wider market/appeal along the lines of singer/jaguar and so could/should seriously consider also the idea of reproducing a clone service for the gentleman racer that could be hurled down a forest stage or a more conventional track without the worry of writing off a one of kind car.
Unfortunately I'm not in the target markets range of disposable income but local enough to be available for test drives should this idea prove fruitful ;0)
I know it wouldn't be worth as much without the paperwork/history etc to collectors/investors.
But if the fun of owning is also in the driving experience then perhaps they will have a far wider market/appeal along the lines of singer/jaguar and so could/should seriously consider also the idea of reproducing a clone service for the gentleman racer that could be hurled down a forest stage or a more conventional track without the worry of writing off a one of kind car.
Unfortunately I'm not in the target markets range of disposable income but local enough to be available for test drives should this idea prove fruitful ;0)
of them........
Was mulling the whole restoration scene this morning thinking 'general restorers' do more harm than good as do not know detail on a specific car. My thought process started with Ford Escort wings and back in the day you could tell a crashed car from way front wing attached to car. Can't remember specifics, but the point is cars are built in a specific way and a restoration should really reflect this.
Hats off to Prodrive.
"Care Group' Switzerland and sold them everything - plans, IP everything - I have the bodywork from one of the cars and asked for help - unfortunately - just got turned away....
I had a '97 WRC shell refurbished (after it'd suffered years of abuse on stage and then it was heavily damaged in an accident) by their chosen bodyshop some years ago, the sills weren't available and had to be custom fabricated. It took many months to source the required parts.
The bill was eye watering, but the end result was stunning :
The tooling (rubber faced as I understand it) for the rear quarter panels and front wings was designed to produce limited numbers of pressings. Once the tooling was unusable, it was scrapped and the pressings became impossible to source.
When my shell was media blasted, care was taken to avoid blasting the rear quarter panels and the honeycomb fireproof bulkhead between the cabin and boot area.
Most of them have been scrapped now (only 330 left on the road) due to rust but I guess it's not going to be cost effective considering how much they are worth at this point in time, perhaps in a decade.
"Care Group' Switzerland and sold them everything - plans, IP everything - I have the bodywork from one of the cars and asked for help - unfortunately - just got turned away....
I did hear a rumour a while back that most of the Prodrive Ferrari’s sit in a warehouse somewhere in France. If true that would explain a bit and would be a bit disappointing too.
The Care Group at a guess would be Frederic Dor’s company who started the project in the first place otherwise known as Care Racing.
If I may ask how did you come across the bodywork and what plans did you have for it?
A sea of fully restored Legacy, Impreza 555 and Impreza WRC cars in their period correct liveries would be beautiful to behold, especially if they're then to be demonstrated on Rallye Legend type events or at Goodwood.
Slippydiff, thank you for sharing the Impreza WRC porn above. Have you got any of the finished car liveried up or has it remained simply blue like the above photos?
By the way, if you like that M3 footage, have a search for footage of Betie Fisher in his M3 on the Manx in 1990.
The car had been fettled by Prodrive, and at full chat on the Manx roads it sounded amazing.
To save the typing, here’s a quick video: Bertie Fisher - BMW M3 - Manx Rally 1990
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