Much like the Daytona seen in the TV series Miami Vice, one of the silver screen's most famous Ferraris isn't really a Ferrari at all. The 250 GT California lookalike seen in Ferris Bueller's Day off was originally a custom replica, and now it's on display at the AACA Museum courtesy of the Historic Vehicle Association. Pretty good for a kit car.
Underneath the gleaming red fiberglass body is a custom tube frame, and the engine is a '74 Ford 302 mated to a C-4 automatic transmission. Modena Design & Development, the builders of the replica, wanted to get the car looking as right as possible, and on-screen it passes for a Ferrari pretty well, despite featuring inventive partsbin usage such as a Fiat 124 Spider windshield, Volkswagen Type 3 taillights, MGB trunklid, and other bits and pieces.
By 1985, Modena had built a good enough proof-of-concept vehicle to catch the eye of movie director John Hughes; sadly, that particular car was a customer order and couldn't be used for filming. Instead, Modena and Hughes struck a deal that another replica would be leased to the studio along with a partially completed car and a rolling shell. The tight timeline meant the company had to burn the midnight oil to get the replicas ready for filming, but they made it. The rest is cinema history – and the sorry fate of the story car perhaps suits a rolling replica shell better than a real California.
The running "hero" car wasn't spared either, as the famous jump scene had damaged it considerably. Despite that, the car was repaired and sold on. The current owner bought it from a Bonhams auction in the UK, and had it restored in 2010. In early April, the car was shown in Washington DC by the Historic Vehicle Association, and now HVA has arranged for it to be displayed at the AACA Museum in Hershey, PA until the end of October.
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Underneath the gleaming red fiberglass body is a custom tube frame, and the engine is a '74 Ford 302 mated to a C-4 automatic transmission. Modena Design & Development, the builders of the replica, wanted to get the car looking as right as possible, and on-screen it passes for a Ferrari pretty well, despite featuring inventive partsbin usage such as a Fiat 124 Spider windshield, Volkswagen Type 3 taillights, MGB trunklid, and other bits and pieces.
By 1985, Modena had built a good enough proof-of-concept vehicle to catch the eye of movie director John Hughes; sadly, that particular car was a customer order and couldn't be used for filming. Instead, Modena and Hughes struck a deal that another replica would be leased to the studio along with a partially completed car and a rolling shell. The tight timeline meant the company had to burn the midnight oil to get the replicas ready for filming, but they made it. The rest is cinema history – and the sorry fate of the story car perhaps suits a rolling replica shell better than a real California.
The running "hero" car wasn't spared either, as the famous jump scene had damaged it considerably. Despite that, the car was repaired and sold on. The current owner bought it from a Bonhams auction in the UK, and had it restored in 2010. In early April, the car was shown in Washington DC by the Historic Vehicle Association, and now HVA has arranged for it to be displayed at the AACA Museum in Hershey, PA until the end of October.
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