GTO Engineering has christened its all-new, ground-up homage to V12 Ferraris of the sixties as the Squalo. The product of Project Moderna has also been revealed in new, fully representative renderings, which include an image of its custom quad-cam V12. Perhaps we should have opened that sentence with a NSFW warning because knees will now be weakened. Certainly, we can all agree that it looks to be a strong way to celebrate the alignment of two banks of six cylinders in a Maranello-inspired way, even without knowing the capacity and output yet.
The car to surround it appears fully deserving of such an exotic motor, with GTO’s designers unashamedly borrowing lines from glorious vintage Ferraris, namely the 250. But there’s also a small amount of modernisation in the form, too, emphasised by 18-inch wheels and grille-mounted day-running lights. They’re nicely integrated. The look speaks of the modern mechanical setup beneath, where a classic theme is expressed with 21st century engineering, build quality and performance. In a package that is a 100 per cent bespoke creation.
As far as the technical stuff goes, all we know at this stage, aside from the number of cylinders, is that the Squalo will weigh less than 1,000kg and have a manual gearbox. Arguably that’s all anyone with pockets deep enough to access such a masterpiece will need to know. Although GTO Engineering, the Berkshire-based Ferrari expert that PH visited last year, has promised performance figures and more in the coming weeks, presumably once they’ve been estimated as development progresses. The original 250 had 300hp at 7,500hp, something the new car will almost certainly surpass.
Same goes for the overall performance, actually, which should include lots of grip thanks to what GTO has called a bespoke specification of tyre for those gorgeous 18-inch rims. With three pedals and twelve naturally aspirated cylinders to play with, something tells us that it won’t be too hard to overcoming that mechanical limit with a heavy right foot. We’re obviously sold on the prospect of that ten times over – as, no doubt, are you. More details when they’re released, before deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2023.
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