We were a little surprised recently when we found out that Alibaba – one of the new breeds of online mega-emporiums selling all manner of questionable quality items that you probably don’t need – will also sell you a brand new reproduction body shell for the legendary Toyota AE86. Colour us even more surprised, then, that you can also pick up what claims to be a genuine second-hand shell for a Ferrari 458 Italia.
Yep, an outlet in Guangzhou, China, which stocks parts for a variety of high-end car manufacturers, will apparently sell you an entire shell – finished in Rosso Corsa, no less – plus panels for the last of the naturally aspirated mid-engined Ferrari berlinettas. It also lists various major parts for other supercars, and looks like it’ll sell you all the necessary bits for a full Lamborghini Gallardo body, albeit not all as one package.
Ferrari 458 shell – rear
The ad, however, sort of raises more questions than it answers. For instance, this is apparently a genuine 458 shell, built in Maranello at some point between 2009 and 2015, and from the pictures, it looks to be in pretty good condition. What, then, happened to the rest of the car that led to it being separated from a perfectly serviceable body?
The seller also claims that the shell is designed to fit the Italia, Spider and Speciale versions of the 458. This is an issue because it’s clearly from the standard 458 Italia coupe – nearly every panel on the hardcore Speciale was different, and the Spider was, well, a spider, and thus had a folding convertible roof.
Ferrari 458 shell – interior
Still, let’s give the seller the benefit of the doubt, and assume that this is a legit 458 Italia bodyshell. It’s listed at $27,700, or around £21,900. Even factoring in the fact that this doesn’t include shipping, we imagine this is a lot cheaper than sourcing all the individual panels through Ferrari itself.
Indeed, the most likely use we can see someone picking this up for is for spare parts. Having said that, if you pranged the bumper on your 458, you’d probably just order replacements for the bits you actually damaged – this seems to be an all or nothing deal, so maybe it’s best for a very crash-prone 458 owner.
Ferrari 458 shell – front
Or maybe you could just drop Toyota MR2 running gear in it to create the most convincing Ferrari replica the world’s ever seen. We’ve reached out to Ferrari for comment, and will update this story if we hear anything back.
