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by Richard Dredge (05 Jul 06)
That's just the scenario in which Japanese car collector Yoshiyuki Hayashi found himself last year. Owner of several squilllion pounds' worth of historic cars, including numerous Ferraris, he wanted to revive the association between Ferrari and Italian coachbuilder Zagato. With this alliance going back nearly 60 years, and with Zagato not having rebodied a Ferrari since 1993, the time was right to try something new. That's why Hayashi approached Zagato last year and asked if his 2004 Ferrari 575M could be rebodied. He wanted a V12-engined grand tourer, and when Zagato agreed to his request, the coachbuilder began talks with Ferrari. The suggestion was then made that as Hayashi's 575M would make its debut in 2006, how about basing the new car's design on the fabulous 250GTZ of exactly half a century earlier? The 250GTZ was one of the earliest Zagato-bodied Ferraris, while the rebodied 575M (known as the 575GTZ) is the thirteenth in the series. Although Hayashi's car would be heavily inspired by the 1956 car, Andrea Zagato didn't want the rebodied 575 to look too retro. It had to evoke the same kinds of emotions as its predecessor, but Zagato was adamant that it had to look to the future as well as the past. Of course the car's hard points ensured the design had to progress in a certain direction, with things such as the bonnet and roof lines being dictated by the structure of the original car.
The design was entrusted to Noriko Harada, and while Hayashi followed the project closely from its inception to completion, he didn't have much of a hand in how the car would look. When you see the car in the metal, you instantly realise that the task of producing a latter-day 250GTZ was far more difficult than it sounds, and Harada has carried it off brilliantly.
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