The shooting brake has always lived in the most interesting corner of car culture, somewhere between grand tourer, design experiment and private-client indulgence.
Niels van Roij Design’s Daytona Shooting Brake Hommage leans fully into that tradition, taking the spirit of a famously eccentric 1972 Ferrari and translating it through a modern coachbuilt lens.
It’s a one-off with serious theatre, but the appeal sits in the detail rather than the noise.
At a glance
- Niels van Roij Design has completed a one-off Daytona Shooting Brake Hommage inspired by the 1972 Ferrari Daytona Shooting Brake.
- The car uses Ferrari 599 GTB underpinnings with handmade aluminium and carbon-fibre bodywork, gullwing-style rear access and a reworked Daytona-inspired nose.
- The project took more than 15,000 hours and has appeared at the Royal Automobile Club and the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
A 1972 Ferrari eccentricity reimagined
The inspiration is not the standard Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona, celebrated though that car already is.
Van Roij’s project looks instead to the 1972 Daytona Shooting Brake, a singular machine commissioned by Luigi Chinetti Jr and shaped by Panther Westwinds in Surrey.
That car began life as a US-delivered Daytona before being transformed into something stranger and more architectural, with an extended roof, a black exterior, tan cabin trim, gullwing-style rear doors and a large glass tailgate.
The Daytona itself was already an important break in Ferrari design language.
Pininfarina’s sharper, more assertive body moved away from the softer curves that had defined many earlier front-engined Ferraris, while the public nickname nodded to Ferrari’s 1-2-3 finish at the 1967 Daytona 24 Hours.
Under the bonnet sat Ferrari’s 4.4-litre Colombo V12, with the 365 GTB/4 name referring to 365cc per cylinder and four overhead camshafts.
The Chinetti shooting brake took that foundation and made it far more personal, creating one of the most recognisable oddities in the Ferrari world.
599 GTB proportions with handmade coachwork
The modern Hommage uses the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano as its technical starting point, a choice that makes sense once you step back from the nostalgia.
The 599 has the essential ingredients for this kind of project, with a long front section, a V12 ahead of the cabin and grand touring proportions that can absorb a dramatic rear transformation.
The work goes far beyond a roof extension.
Niels van Roij Design and its team created a bumper-to-bumper redesign with aluminium and carbon-fibre bodywork, reshaping the car into a modern shooting brake while preserving the visual logic of the Chinetti commission.
The front end is one of the clearest links to the earlier car.
A full-width amber light graphic runs across the nose, with bespoke headlights set into matte black housings and a large grille with hand-formed vertical vanes below.
The V12 cover has also been sculpted with dual vents, a direct nod to the graphic language of the Daytona’s bonnet.
At the rear, the vertical glass treatment gives the car its strongest silhouette moment.
The tail incorporates LED lights, a carbon-fibre diffuser and dual twin exhaust outlets, while the rear deck uses butterfly-style covers that bring a useful dose of mechanical ceremony.
Inside the shooting brake cabin
The cabin has been treated with the same level of intervention as the exterior.
The 599 GTB’s origins remain visible in some control placements, including the lighting controls and transmission interface, but the surrounding architecture has been heavily revised.
The gauge cluster has moved to the centre, echoing the layout of the 1972 car.
Instead of leaning into walnut trim, Van Roij chose carbon fibre, giving the interior a more contemporary character without losing the coachbuilt sense of occasion.
Quilted leather covers the seats, while the luggage compartment is finished with leather, carbon fibre and CNC-machined aluminium runners.
That cargo area is accessed through the gullwing-style rear doors, one of the defining features of both the historic car and this modern interpretation.
Details & Specifications
| Label | Value |
|---|---|
| Designer | Niels van Roij Design |
| Model | Daytona Shooting Brake Hommage |
| Donor platform | Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano |
| Layout | Front-engined V12 grand tourer |
| Body material | Aluminium and carbon fibre |
| Inspiration | 1972 Ferrari Daytona Shooting Brake by Panther Westwinds |
| Notable exterior features | Extended shooting brake roofline, gullwing-style rear doors, vertical rear glass, full-width front light graphic |
| Interior highlights | Quilted leather seats, centre-mounted gauge cluster, carbon-fibre trim, CNC-machined aluminium luggage runners |
| Build time | More than 15,000 hours |
| Public appearances | Royal Automobile Club and Goodwood Festival of Speed |
| Production | One-off |
What makes the Daytona Shooting Brake Hommage compelling is its restraint within a wildly indulgent brief.
It could have become a novelty car, but the execution treats the shooting brake idea as a serious design exercise, linking a peculiar chapter of Ferrari history with the modern appetite for deeply personalised grand tourers.
For collectors who value coachbuilding as much as badges, this is exactly the kind of one-off that keeps the discipline alive.
