One to Buy: 3 x race winning 2000 Ferrari 550 Maranello Prodrive
/
Although Ferrari’s partner outfit Michelotto developed the 360 Modena into a GT2 class winner, it was the renowned Prodrive outfit from Britain that took the Prancing Horse back to the top or the premier Grand Touring car class after a prolonged absence.
Back in the early 1970s, Ferrari’s own customer competition department had created the thunderous 365 GTB/4C ‘Daytona’ which went on to dominate at high speed tracks like Le Mans. Nearly 30 years later, it was the Daytona’s spiritual successor, the 550 Maranello, that Prodrive used to return Ferrari to the pinnacle of international GT racing.
Unlike the 365 GTB/4C, Prodrive’s 550 Maranello-based GT1 programme came to fruition without any factory involvement having instead been independently funded by French gentleman driver, Frédéric Dor and his Care Racing Development operation. Despite this lack of works support, the Prodrive 550 delivered a hat-trick of FIA GT Championship Team and Driver titles between 2003 and 2005, back-to-back Le Mans Series titles in 2004 and 2005 and a class win at the 2004 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Currently on offer with Fiskens in London is one of the ten cars campaigned by Prodrive during that famous period in the early 2000s: chassis CRD01, the first example built.
During its first year of racing in 2001, CRD01 took victories at the A1 Ring and Jarama 500km races. Care Racing Development then took on preparation of the car for the next three seasons, during which it recorded a further nine podium finishes.
In 2005, CRD01 was run by the MenX Racing Team and most notably collected its last GT1 victory at Silverstone along with a fourth in class at the Le Mans 24 Hours. The car was then returned to Care Racing Development where it remained until 2022. Since then it has been restored by the many ex-Prodrive staff at Venture Engineering.
