By James Taylor
2025 review by Peter McFadyen
It would seem like a nice problem to have. Anthony – now Lord – Bamford, while an engineering apprentice with Massey Ferguson, France had first seen the Ferrari GTO at a Le Mans test day and was smitten, especially by the sound they made. In years to come, he would own several GTOs among his collection of Ferraris but, as the book explains, much as he would relish driving one of them down to the South of France, massive increases in value since the 1980s have made such cars far too precious to use on the road.
Fortunately, he had the means to solve the ‘problem’. He would design and construct his own Ferrari of more modest value but with the style of the 1960s cars and, as a bonus, one with the benefit of some of the ‘driveability’ features introduced in later models. Gary Major, then a Junior Industrial Designer at JCB, grasped the opportunity to produce some styling ideas with cues from 250GT SWB and GTO and company photographer and friend of Bamford, Michael Lee was put in charge of the project. Lee sourced a suitable ‘donor’ car, a 1981 400i with 50,000 miles on the clock and with various specialist companies brought in to carry out the work, the result was a unique Berlinetta, Ferrari through and through, registered 4HP.
A hankering for an ‘open GTO’ resulted in a similar process to produce an all-Ferrari ‘spider’, again based on a donor 400i. The third of the Bamford Specials was rather different in that it consisted of a rather more desirable right-hand-drive 250GT coupé which would retain its original bodywork but be sympathetically modified both cosmetically and mechanically.
In describing in detail the processes by which these three very special Ferraris came about, the book is very well illustrated with many of the photographs having been taken by Michael Lee and the author James Taylor, with some 150 titles already to his credit, tells the detailed story behind the cars’ construction very well indeed. Altogether an interesting and affordable account of three Ferrari Specials or, if you prefer, special Ferraris.
Publisher: Porter Press International https://porterpress.co.uk/
Price: £40.00 plus postage.
Description: 128 pages, hardback in dust jacket, 24.7cm x 28.5cm. Over 160 illustrations in black & white and colour.
ISBN: 978-1-913089-12-2
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