Breadvan Hommage is a manual V12 racing tribute

A project spanning two years, the Breadvan Hommage was a commission by a “true admirer of an Italian brand” to Neils van Roij Design, for a modern-day, manual-shifting V12 shooting brake based on a model from said brand. Insert legal minefield metaphor *here*. His CV paints him as the man for the job, based on his experience with adding coach-built luggage capacity to interesting cars like the Tesla Model S and Rolls-Royce Wraith.

Unlike Piero Drogo’s creation for Giovanni Volpi di Misurata, the Breadvan Hommage is no contender for Le Mans glory, rather an artful nod to the ‘60s one-off.

“We see it as a great privilege that we can celebrate the ’62 Breadvan through this Hommage commission,” says Niels van Roij. “It was a complex task to translate the essence of the legendary car into a contemporary design. We intended to be inspired by the original, but ensured we were not limited by it in our creativity. The Breadvan Hommage is a new original.”

Though not intended for race use, nods to the competition car are plain to see. The cabin is reupholstered with diamond-stitched leather, with new blue suede bucket seats with track-spec harness. The all-important gated manual shifter remains, albeit translated onto a pedestal in the style of the classic V12 GTs. The rest of the, ahem, donor car’s cabin remains, with some milled alloy accents on the vents and new classically-styled instrumentation. Those badges have been replaced with NvR’s own badges.

Besides the obvious addition of the shooting brake element of the bodywork, the donor car has undergone changes all over. Hand-beaten bodywork by coachbuilder Bas van Roomen sees only the windscreen of the donor car retained. Even the doors have been sculpted, to accommodate the lines of the exaggerated vents behind the front wheels. Speaking of those wheels, they’re a new addition too, not unlike those once seen on James Glickenhaus’s P4/5 one-off.

Up front, some of the changes could be considered, shall we say, challenging, for some die-hard fans of the car on which this is based. Nods to Drogo’s ‘62 car are in full effect, though. The nostrils and the bonnet bubble are both quintessential Breadvan touches. Out back the rear lights of the original car have been retained, albeit in a new layout in line with the remodel. There are also new protruding quad exhausts, very much in the classic jutting style but with tips borrowed from modern models.

Overall, we love the idea… but parts of the execution could take some getting used to. Not that it matters. We, nor you, nor anyone but that “true admirer of an Italian brand” can have it and there’s no word yet on whether others are planned, or have been commissioned. Whether a briefcase to activate an arsenal of lawyers akin to that in which the President of the United States keeps his nuclear codes is optional, also hasn’t been confirmed. We suspect that might be retained by Niels van Roij Design. Much like how Ferrari keeps its Corsa Clienti cars mostly on-site.

What do you think of the Neils van Roij Design Breadvan Hommage? Would you buy one if you could? On a completely unrelated note, we’re off to look at GTC4Lussos in the classifieds.