08.04.2004 THE FERRARI 550 GTS MARANELLO THAT COLIN MCRAE WILL RACE AT LE MANS THIS SUMMER IS BEING BUILT AT PRODRIVE'S WORKSHOPS

Prodrive will return to the Le Mans 24 Hour in June this year, in a fight to retain its GTS title won in 2003.

Two Ferrari 550 GTS Maranellos will be meticulously prepared for Care Racing at Prodrive's Banbury workshops for the ultimate challenge of speed of endurance. They will be driven by five of the world’s leading circuit racers and one rookie, who has never raced a sports car in anger, let alone completed a lap of the eight mile street circuit.

However, he has the undoubted talent and commitment to compete with the best in the world.

Colin McRae is now a rare breed. He has shown he is able to compete at the highest levels on track and stage, harking back to an era of British greats like Moss and Surtees, who regularly competed in different motorsport series.

During the 24 hours, he will have to demonstrate the same pace which has won him 25 World Rallies, as he shares driving duties with two experienced sports car drivers: Rickard Rydell, the Swede, who is a former British Touring Car Champion and an experienced Prodrive Ferrari 550 GTS racer; and Darren Turner, who drove a Prodrive Ferrari at Le Mans in 2003. They will not only have to meet the challenge of other GTS teams, but also the second Prodrive Ferrari driven by the formidable trio of Alain Menu, Tomas Enge and Peter Kox.

Prodrive have offered an insight into the preparation of McRae’s new Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello as it goes from a bare bodyshell to a 600 plus horsepower, 200 mph racing car.

Every Prodrive Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello racing car starts out as a standard Ferrari 550 road car. This is driven into Prodrive's race team workshops in Banbury, where it is stripped to its component parts, only a small proportion of which are retained to build the final car.

Under the regulations, the 550 must be based on the original road car chassis and passenger cell. However, in order to make it suitable for stresses of motor racing the chassis is considerably strengthened and stiffened while a roll cage is fitted for the protection of the drivers. Once complete, the chassis goes to the paint shop where it is sprayed in the familiar red of Ferrari.