250 SWB Revival - recreating a legend

By Stewart Longhurst

Photos courtesy GTO Engineering

As David Wheeler pointed out in his latest book Ferrari 250 GTE - the family car that funded racing, nearly two hundred Ferrari 250 GTE chassis are known to have been rebodied to recreate lookalikes of the more glamorous and higher-value 250s such as the SWB.

Having been responsible for a number of such recreations, GTO Engineering - who are based near Twyford just south of Henley-on-Thames - recently released details of their latest 250 SWB Revival product.

The team at GTO Engineering have used their 200 plus years’ combined experience working on Ferraris to create a more usable interpretation of the Ferrari 250 GT SWB, applying their up to date engineering experience and giving the 250 SWB Revival extensive road and track customisation options.

“From chassis to cockpit, every element of the 250 SWB Revival has been strictly enhanced, improved or rebuilt using our extensive experience, historical technical drawings and industry insight,” explains GTO Engineering boss Mark Lyon. “Our 250 SWB Revival is a ‘best of’ recreation, with an added usability, driveability and the option to make it as road or race-focused as you’d like.”

Each 250 SWB Revival is created as a bespoke build and has a hand-built tubular frame underneath a hand-beaten aluminium body. Power comes from GTO Engineering’s own Columbo V12 engine, which takes them over 300-man hours to build and is offered in 3.0-litre, 3.5-litre and 4.0-litre specifications fed through triple Weber carburettors. Transmission options are a four or five-speed manual gearbox, designed for better usability and to give a precise shift that works equally well in traffic as well as at high-speed.

The exterior of the 250 SWB Revival can be painted in a range of traditional competition colours, iconic liveries, paint schemes or even bespoke non-period colours.

The interior comes with full leather-trimmed seats as standard and optional leather-trimmed headrests - also in a range of colours to match a customer’s specifications. Modern conveniences like air-conditioning, stereo, sat-nav and USB charger sockets are also available as optional extras, all of which are carefully designed to preserve the originality of the dashboard set-up.  

So far GTO Engineering say that they’ve signed up over 30 buyers with each build expected to take between a year and 18 months depending on specification. Whilst a period donor car still needs to be sourced or provided, such as a 250 or 330, the chassis can be in any state of repair and is only required in order for the finished recreation to be legally called a Ferrari.

Articles by Stewart Longhurst