GTO Engineering’s Moderna is now available to order

In November 2020, British Ferrari specialist GTO Engineering revealed a few sketches of a car it would very much like to build. It was codenamed ‘Moderna’, and it was to be a bespoke sports car that would celebrate the best of Sixties motoring.

It’s now February 2021, and these past few months have seen interest in aforementioned sketches spike, triggering a response: GTO Engineering has confirmed production of the Moderna, and that it is now available to order. It has also revealed a brand new set of renders.

Praise be, then, because this car will feature a naturally-aspirated, quad-cam V12, hooked up to a manual gearbox driving the rear wheels. If this car were any more of a throwback, it’d play in the NFL.

That engine – built in-house at GTO Engineering – will be sited inside a “traditional” tubular steel chassis, though there are concessions to modern technology, not least because GTO needs to hit a self-imposed weight target of under 1,000kg.

While you mentally toy with the simply wondrous idea of a naturally-aspirated V12 inside a super lightweight base imagining a) much noise, and b) much pointiness, GTO confirmed the chassis will be supported by lightweight aluminium subframes, along with carbon fibre.

The engine and design teams are finalising both the V12’s spec, and outer body surfacing, working around that custom ‘muletto’ chassis, itself placed in the workshop as a daily reminder of what they need to achieve.

“After the exceptional reception from interested owners and fans who would like to own a car such as ours, we’re now making it happen and publicly documenting the development process,” explains GTO boss Mark Lyon. “For our team the engine and the aesthetics are two of the most important parts of any car, especially this one, which is why we were keen to start here.”

While we wait for the next update, click here to read TG's review of another GTO Engineering remake: the Ferrari 250 SWB.