Ferrari didn't intend to start a program for the development and construction of a 550 Maranello competition model as it was totally concentrated on the Formula 1 championship and maybe they weren't even confident on their car's potential. Luckily, there were people that did believe the 550 could have been a great racing car. 3 years later its debut, several teams tried to develop a 550 race car but not successfully. Things changed when Frédéric Dor's company Care Racing Development commissioned the development of a 550 based race car to Prodrive in order to be raced in the major GT series and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Initially known as 550 GTO (then renamed 550 GTS) of which a total of ten cars would be built over the next four years and campaigned by the Prodrive team as well as privateer customers. These 550 GTO/GTS were entirely built by Prodrive without any support from the Ferrari factory.
The engine was a heavily modified version of the street legal 550 Maranello, but increased in displacement from 5.5 to 6.0-liter, linked to a a six-speed XTrac sequential gearbox. The car is producing around 600hp with mandatory intake restrictors. Compared with the road car, Prodrive managed to shave off around 550 kg to ensure the GT1 racer met the 1100 kg minimum weight set for the class.
The 550 GTS Prodrive in this video is chassis 117110 and it was built in 2004 ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans of the same year, where it managed to finish in 4th place of the GTS class. It was then raced until 2008 in various FIA GT and ALMS rounds. I saw this particular chassis, now managed by Legend Racing Service ( / legendracingservice ), last July at the Dix Mille Tours by Peter Auto at Circuit Paul Ricard and for a second time during the 2020 Challenge & GT Days, a track day mainly for Ferrari GTs and Challenge race cars, at the Red Bull Ring in Austria (from which the video comes). Enjoy some on board laps and a couple of outside shots (a longer, full video with only external clips will come in the future)!
0:00 - 2:36 Mix External + OnBoard
2:37 - 7:12 OnBoard Stint 1 - Driver 1
7:13 - 8:41 External Scenes
8:42 - 12:07 OnBoard Stint 2 - Driver 2
12:08 - 13:56 External Scenes
#Ferrari550GTS #Ferrari550GT1 #Ferrari550GTSProdrive
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Camcorder: Canon Legria HF G30 & GX10 + Canon DM-100 Microphone, Sony FDR-X1000VR Action Cam + Sony Microphone
Event: Challenge & GT Days 2020
Where: Red Bull Ring, Austria
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