Daytona Shooting Brake Hommage pays tribute to iconic coachbuilt design

Niels van Roij is renowned for his coachbuilt shooting brake creations, each of which is a unique one-off, created to meet the vision of the client that has commissioned it. The most famous is probably the Ferrari ‘Bread Van’ Homage, but the former RCA graduate enjoys interpreting client ideas new and old, which is where the Tesla Model S Shooting Brake came from.

His latest creation is the Ferrari Daytona Shooting Brake Hommage, a tribute to the iconic Luigi Chinetti Jr commissioned model of 1972. Van Roij’s model is not a recreation though, rather a fulfilment of the client’s imagination, to create a car that is both sporting and practical, the definition really of a shooting brake.

The covers came off it on a blazing hot day at the Royal Automobile Club Concours at the picturesque RAC Club in Surrey, England. The famous ‘Bread Van’ was also in attendance and together they joined some of the most famous models from motoring history, but the spotlight was very much on this latest piece of coachbuilt craftsmanship.

As with all of Van Roij’s commissions, the initial idea came from the client, who asked for a homage to the slightly quirky ’72 Daytona shooting brake in black with a cognac interior. The process began with sketches, before a full-scale clay model was created followed by digital surfacing, CAD engineering and physical prototyping, all to ensure every element met the criteria of the client.

“He’s a keen driver, as are all of our clients,” Van Roij told CDN. “It had to be a car that is not just a trailer queen or a garage queen as he drives his one-offs, as do most our clients. So that was a goal, to make a car that's properly drivable, but also a fully coachbuilt car, so only the windscreen and the door aperture remains OEM and all the other panels are entirely bespoke.”

That includes the entire nose of the car, which incorporates a number of 3D-printed carbon fibre elements. There’s a focus on simple sculpture without any gimmicks, even the extremely thin headlights are discretely recessed to maintain continuity of the graphics around the front of the car. There is of course one major element that has been reinterpreted from the original.

“The ’72 Daytona Shooting Brake has a very strong graphic running around the nose and we wanted to do something with that,” he says. “Initially we thought we could make it into a light bar, but everybody’s doing that, so we decided to do the opposite, to make it about graphics, volumes and surfaces. There’s a bit of jewellery here and there and of course the Daytona lettering.” 

The basis is a Ferrari 599 GTB, but he says its design has been referred to by some as being quite busy, so the approach was an exercise in reduction. That includes a strong shoulder line and hip and impressively, no shutlines all the way from the B-pillar to the rear screen, made possible by a singular piece of hand-beaten aluminium created entirely in-house. The roof has been raised slightly, partly to enhance interior space but also to create a more elegant B-pillar than the ’72 car had. Light-catchers feature on the side profile which tucks in beneath the car to reduce the visual width and height and even the size of the vents have been reduced.

“Where the 599 has a large vent on the side, we wanted to emphasise the dash to axle ratio by showing sheer surface and nothing else, just sculpture, so we strongly reduced the size of the vent,” he says. “It's a very pure, clean side profile and side surface.”

Another element that showcases the approach taken by Van Roij and his team is the fact that from the Daytona lettering on the nose, the surfacing lines clearly flow back over the bonnet power bulge and the roofline, creating a strong visual axis that culminates in the space between the dramatic butterfly doors.

The rear is very much the focal point of the design, which adopts a more curvaceous look than the trapezoidal shape of the original. The shoulders are significantly stronger with a clearer view of the tyres, while any reference points from the 599 donor are completely invisible. The wheels echo those of the original wire wheels, although this time they are polished alloy with brake callipers finished in satin silver to be technical and understated.

Unlike in the ’72 car where the lights were in a chrome panel, for the Hommage they are behind tempered glass. Within the lower valance is a narrow diffuser that runs all the way to the axle. Made entirely of carbon fibre, Van Roij describes it as quite dark so as not to shout too much, but there is a subtle contrast to the body colour. The team take a basic approach to aerodynamics with minimal simulation and no wind tunnels, so the diffuser could not be described as aero-optimised. There’s a more careful approach to the exhaust tips though, four double-barrel shotguns that point upwards combining purity and function, while extending to the absolute limit of homologation rules.

Then there are those butterfly doors, a central piece of the ’72 car that have been reinterpreted for the Hommage.

“The major difference from the ’72 car is that when it comes to the graphics on the lower edge of the doors, they run straight from the B-pillar towards the rear,” he says. “We really shaped them around the hips of the car, giving them a negative curve rather than being straight.”

Another focal point are the door hinges, exquisite pieces of milled metal that emphasise the quality of the engineering. Spring loaded, they can be operated remotely using the key fob. The glazing itself is plexiglass, chosen to avoid being shattered by stones and also to ensure they remain intact when the owner takes the opportunity to drive sideways, which apparently he likes to do.

The interior features many original elements from the donor car, but again to pay homage to the original, the binnacle hood and instrumentation have been moved to the centre of the IP. Everything that was walnut trim in the original has been replaced with carbon fibre to modernise it and to link with the exterior colour. The cognac leather provides a perfect contrast and has been trimmed over the original seats of the donor car, with everything behind the B-pillar being entirely bespoke.

That includes six CNC-machined aluminium runners in the luggage compartment, designed to match the panel of the gear selector while also giving the space an architectural composition. Naturally the boot has been designed to accommodate luxury travel bags, with space for smaller bags on the raised platform above the fuel tank.

Van Roij and his team have again showed the passion for purity, a return to the principles of great design. The Daytona Shooting Brake Hommage is an exquisite and elegant reinterpretation of an iconic piece of coachbuilding history which, like the original, will be admired for decades to come.