Why Niels van Roij doesn’t dare to name the make of his V12 Targa

Strange, which car is in the photo? You won’t be much wiser from Niels van Roij Design’s press release, as the brand isn’t mentioned anywhere. And there’s a reason for that…

Niels van Roij is a Dutch car designer who has launched several one-off cars, including the Adventum Coupé (a two-door Range Rover) and the Model SB (a Tesla Model S Shooting Brake).

Website Niels van Roij Design

On his design agency’s website, the brand of the original car is mentioned for every body construction project, which is why it is all the more noticeable that this is conscientiously omitted in three projects.

Of course it’s about Ferrari

It will hardly surprise any reader that in all three cases it is a Ferrari. For example, the press release for this V12 Targa beats around the bush with a lot of verbal gymnastics.

It is based on “an iconic sports car with twelve cylinders and a mid-engine,” it says. “A coupé that was first presented to the automotive world at the Paris Motor Show in 1984.” So the Testarossa…

Looking at the attached photos, we see that all Ferrari logos and wordmarks have even been removed: on the nose, on the wheel hubs and – it seems – on the top of the 4.9-liter boxer engine.

Ferrari reacts very aggressively

Of course, Niels van Roij Design did this for a reason. Ferrari reacts quite aggressively to alleged infringements of its trademark rights.

Just ask a Belgian billionaire who had his F40 LM converted into a Spider and then had an army of lawyers on his roof. Or DJ Deadmau5, who turned the prancing horse on his 458 Spider into a jumping cat.

Testarossa Targa is a cool project

In any case, it’s a cool project that Niels van Roij is working on. On behalf of a wealthy Brit, he converts a Ferrari Testarossa into a Targa with a partially open roof. This means you can hear the twelve-cylinder engine even better.