Autoblog

What do the Ferrari 360 Modena and the Peugeot 406 have in common? Well, aside from the fact that both are Pininfarina designs and both have two doors, nothing. The 360 is one of the great sports cars of all time, and the 406 is an attractive, but otherwise ordinary 2+2 coupe.

Ordinary, that is, until Extreme Sportscars has their way with it. Extreme, you see, specializes in the creation and installation of conversion kits that allow you to turn a pedestrian Peugeot 406 Coupe into a shockingly realistic Ferrari 360 clone. Extreme, who also makes an F355 conversion kit for the MR2, chose the 406 Coupe because it is proportionally similar to the Ferrari and is available with decent V6 power. It also offers the added bonus of being a true 4-seater, so the poseurs who actually drive one of these creations have the option of carrying two backseat passengers or flipping the seats down for additional cargo capacity.

Extreme offers the parts a la carte, but if you were to select every possible conversion piece they make, your wallet would be £11,655 lighter. They recently sold a turnkey customer car (with what appears to be a mockup engine displayed under the rear glass) for £26,000. That seems like an awful lot for a used, rebodied Peugeot.

There's no arguing the quality of the conversion kits. The cars look quite amazing. Still, the whole thing leaves us cold. While the Extreme Sportscar kit gives a 406 the look of a 360, in the end it's still just a Peugeot -- a V6, front-wheel-drive, 4-seat Peugeot. It may be wearing Ferrari badges, but it sure isn't worthy of them.

[Source: Extreme Sportscars]

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