Ferrari unveils three-quarter-scale 250 Testa Rossa EV replica
The Ferrari Testa Rossa J children’s ride-on was built in tandem with The Little Car Company, and will cost around £79,000 before taxes
Ferrari has teamed up with The Little Car Company to produce a 75-per-cent-scale, all-electric replica of the iconic 1957 250 Testa Rossa racer, designed for children aged 14 and up.
Production will be limited to just 299 examples, each of which will cost €93,000 excluding taxes. That works out at around £79,000, which with VAT added on comes in at just under £95,000. To put that figure into perspective, it’s around the same amount you’d spend on a good, low-mileage (and full-scale) Ferrari F430.
The Little Car Company was also the engineering brain behind the £27,000 Bugatti Baby II, which is another 75-per-cent scale, electric children’s ride-on replica of the Type 35 racer.
This Ferrari replica was built in much the same manner, starting with digital replications of the car’s original design drawings. Once it had a template to work towards, The Little Car Company then set loose a team of panel-beaters to hammer the car’s bodywork out of aluminium.
Ferrari says the Testa Rossa J retains the same steering and suspension geometry as the original 250, which it claims offers “authentic handling.” The components holding the bodywork up were all sourced from proper OEMs, too.
The coilover suspension was sourced from Bilstein, the disc brakes came from Brembo, and the tyres were supplied by Pirelli. The toy’s handling was also fine-tuned by Ferrari test-drivers at the company’s own Fiorano test track in Maranello.
The interior was pieced together in a similarly meticulous fashion. The single bench seat (which can accomodate an adult and a teenager) features the same piping as the original Testa Rossa, and is trimmed using the same leather found in Ferrari’s current cars.
The toy’s pedal box was lifted from the F8 Tributo supercar, while the wooden steering wheel was sourced from Nardi, which is the same company that Ferrari used back in 1957 when sourcing a wheel for the original 250 Testa Rossa.
Ferrari and The Little Car Company even reproduced the classic car’s gauges, although they’ve been repurposed for use in an electric car. The original oil and water gauges now display the battery and motor temperatures, while the fuel gauge is the battery charge-level indicator.
The tachometer has become a speedometer, and there’s even a new power gauge which displays the level of regenerative braking.
Ferrari and The Little Car Company are inviting buyers to customise the Testa Rossa J to their taste, offering a choice of 14 historical racing liveries, 53 paint finishes and 15 upholstery colours.
The Testa Rossa J is powered by a trio of batteries and an electric motor, all of which are mounted under the bonnet. The motor has a maximum output of 5.3bhp, while the batteries give a range of up to 56 miles.
The toy also has three driving modes, which incrementally increase its top speed. Novice mode limits the motor’s output to just 1.3bhp and caps the top speed at 12mph. Comfort unleashes all 5.3bhp and raises the limiter to 28mph. However, there’s also Sport and Race mode, both of which have sharper throttle maps and increase the toy’s maximum speed to more than 37mph.
Now check out our video review of the Bugatti Baby II. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…
