SUBSCRIBE TO THE
MAGAZINE NOW
Facebook-f Instagram
Search
Close this search box.

A take on perfection: Peter Giacobbi’s unbelievable home built Ferrari

21 July, 2015

As a child, Peter Giacobbi was an avid fan of motorsport who admired legendary drivers like Juan Manuel Fangio and Wolfgang von Trips. He also admired their weapons of choice, holding Ferrari’s beautiful 250 Testa Rossa above all others.

Image: Petrolicious

So when he found a handmade, all-aluminium Testa Rossa body in Italy, it didn’t take him long to arrive at an ultimate conclusion that would see him embark on one of the most memorable and emotional restorations we’ve ever seen.

“I looked at it, and I said ‘I have to do it,’” Peter says.

The team at Petrolicious met up with Peter and his car to produce this amazing video, titled Building a Dream.

Image: Petrolicious

Weighing in at 2300 pounds, or just over one tonne, Peter’s near-authentic creation makes use of a 4.4-litre engine from a Ferrari 365, capable of 400hp. While the engine may not be original, it has similar aesthetics to the original, and is faster.

Only when he was finally able to get behind the wheel of his own comparable beast was Peter able to fully comprehend the challenge his childhood heroes faced every time they got behind the wheel.

“I discovered it after driving it and racing it several times. They’re not only heroes — they’re supermen.”

“It’s the most fun and the most rewarding project that I’ve ever worked on. If somebody offered me a real one in exchange for it, I don’t think I would take it. Because this is what I want.”

Image: Petrolicious

This isn’t just a case of ‘built not bought’, this is a passion for cars and motoring at its most raw. Bravo, Peter.

Almost mythical pony

25 July, 2024

The Shelby came to our shores in 2003. It went from the original New Zealand owner to an owner in Auckland. Malcolm just happened to be in the right place with the right amount of money in 2018 and a deal was done. Since then, plenty of people have tried to buy it off him. The odometer reads 92,300 miles. From the condition of the car that seems to be correct and only the first time around.
Malcolm’s car is an automatic. It has the 1966 dashboard, the back seat, the rear quarter windows and the scoops funnelling air to the rear brakes.
He even has the original bill of sale from October 1965 in California.

Becoming fond of Fords part two – happy times with Escorts

17 July, 2024

In part one of this Ford-flavoured trip down memory lane I recalled a sad and instructive episode when I learned my shortcomings as a car tuner, something that tainted my appreciation of Mk2 Ford Escort vans in particular. Prior to that I had a couple of other Ford entanglements of slightly more redeeming merit. There were two Mk1 Escorts I had got my hands on: a 1972 1300 XL belonging to my father and a later, end-of-line, English-assembled 1974 1100, which my partner and I bought from Panmure Motors Ford in Auckland in 1980. Both those cars were the high water mark of my relationship with the Ford Motor Co. I liked the Mk1 Escorts. They were nice, nippy, small cars, particularly the 1300, which handled really well, and had a very precise gearbox for the time.
Images of Jim Richards in the Carney Racing Williment-built Twin Cam Escort and Paul Fahey in the Alan Mann–built Escort FVA often loomed in my imagination when I was driving these Mk1 Escorts — not that I was under any illusion of comparable driving skills, but they had to be having just as much fun as I was steering the basic versions of these projectiles.