The Squalo, not to be confused with squalor, is not a Ferrari made by British-based GTO Engineering. The company was established in the 1980s providing specialist engineering, servicing, restoration, repair, engine building to Ferrari owners and business clients. Over the years they have built a reputation for quality in all business areas. And business has been so good they are now able to afford to make their own cars ergo the Squalo which is Italian for Shark. Why didn’t they call it the GTO Shark? Nevertheless, clearly, the influence for the Squalo is derived from the 1960s Ferrari GT and GTO, a car so rare that a billionaire bought one for $70M back in 2018.

While the Squalo looks like a restored 1960s GTO, it is indeed new-modern-new. The Squalo will weigh in at a sub-1,000kg, with a manual gearbox, inspired by the Sixties sports cars of old but with modern engineering principles and materials. It will be powered by a bespoke quad-cam V12 engine, in keeping with GTO Engineering’s ethos, and both engine and the complete car will be built completely by the firm from the ground up at its UK HQ. Performance figures are yet to be revealed.

GTO Engineering Managing Director and Founder Mark Lyon:

“It’s often the small parts of a car that take the longest time. We’re now at a stage where the design models are being created here in the UK. Soon we will announce our technical partners working with us on the exterior manufacturing and interiors, as well as wheels and tyres. In all my years working in the [automotive] industry, I’ve never been as excited about the creativity of manufacturing and design as I am now.”

GTO Engineering is anticipating first customer deliveries will reach clients by 2023. No word on pricing or production numbers. But we can speculate that the base price will not exceed $450,000.