What do you prefer: old school, or new school? This Liberty Walk Ferrari duo offers a taste of both, with an added kick of sacrilegious spice.
If you spend as much time online as I do, you’ll likely have heard the horror stories about Ferrari taking legal action against customers that modify their cars, the most famous example being the very public case against DeadMau5 and his ‘Purrari’. In fact, Ferrari are so uptight about their brand image, that they even have strict rules about what you can and can’t customize on their cars in video games. As such, I imagine if Old Man Enzo and his descendants ever laid their eyes on this pair of modified prancing horses, they’d combust from rage right on the spot. However, if you know anything about us here at Fast Car, that’s exactly the sort of approach to car modification that we’re into. So, allow us to give you a whistlestop tour around this epic Liberty Walk Ferrari duo.
Liberty Walk Ferrari 348
First up, we’re heading back to the eighties with Liberty Walk Europe’s Ferrari 348 demo car.
“I think this was probably our seventh or eighth build, something like that.” explained James from Liberty Walk Europe. LBWK Europe has built its fair share of demo cars over the years, so this 348 is considered a bit of a golden oldie these days. Now, you might be thinking that there’s not much more to this build than the bodykit, but actually this car has plenty of stories to tell. So, let’s dive in and see what it’s packing.
Custom-designed wheels
“We’ve worked with 3SDM on probably half of our projects,” James revealed. “They’re great when we want a unique [wheel] design and, for us, we wanted to try and keep it as close to the original as we could. Essentially we wanted a modern take on the original 348 wheel rim design, so we approached 3SDM, they mocked this up, and we instantly loved the concept.
“[The wheels are] one of the best parts of the build, they’re absolutely beautiful. 3SDM offers great quality and they’re a UK company as well, so that’s a double win.”
I have to agree. Wheel choice can make or break a car, and these rims are certainly enhanced over the stock variants, yet they still feel period-appropriate to the 348.
Look behind them and you’ll find a set of upgraded Brembo brakes at both the front and rear, featuring four-piston calipers.
Air suspension
You’ll probably have noticed by now how low the car sits to the ground, and that’s thanks to the fact it’s sitting on bags.
“It’s got full Airrex suspension and rides great. Even when lifted for driving it still rides low, that’s one thing you immediately notice when you sit in it. It feels like you’re sitting on the floor, it’s absolutely crazy.”
Engine modifications
The 3.4-liter V8 simply had to stay in the car, but Liberty Walk Europe wasn’t against the idea of enhancing it. As a result, the car’s engine now boasts a set of custom-fabricated throttle bodies, fully custom exhaust manifolds, and a whole lot more internal work. However, if you want to learn more about the intricacies behind this car, please go ahead and watch the full video feature at the top of this page. In the meantime, let’s move things on to the new-school (if you can call a near-20-year-old car ‘new’)…
Liberty Walk Ferrari F430
Straight away, although this F430 is rocking a Liberty Walk wide arch kit as well, the vibe it gives off is very different. The new aggressive lines mixed with its monochrome and turquoise color palette brings this car right up to date in terms of styling. In fact, when you see it in person in the right lighting, it almost looks futuristic.
Stance
“It was never intended to go like this.” The car’s owner Charlie explained. Well, we’ve heard that one before, but for somebody who attends car shows as regularly as Charlie does, this F430 was never going to remain stock for long.
However, for Charlie, this car was a bit of a journey of discovery.
“I used to be naive and assumed that everything to do with air suspension was from Air Lift, but Prazis do a very bespoke, very special performance car strut which works incredibly on this. It handles incredibly with the Air Lift 3H management system and we can air it out from a phone [app], which is great fun for when you’re at the shows, but it’s also great for really fine-tuning where you want the car to sit and how you want it to look.”
“With such a wide kit we had to find a wheel that would fit, so I opted for some completely custom-made Rotiforms. They’re 11.5J fronts and 9.5J at the rear. The offset is ET -70. I didn’t know much about offsets before – I was the guy who would buy wheels and they’d either be too far out or too far in and you’d have to buy God knows how many shims and spacers to get them away from the caliper, but it’s fair to say I’ve done my research. I don’t think there’s anything nicer than driving a car where you can look in your rearview mirrors and just see that wheel spinning – you know you’re wide then!”
Engine and exhaust
Nobody needs to extract more power from a Ferrari V8, so instead Charlie has focused on its aesthetic qualities. The turquoise accent color than can be found elsewhere on the car is present on the engine cover, and there’s some additional carbon fiber thrown into the mix too.
The real party piece, however, is the insane spiral exhaust, which you can see in the picture below.
“Deutsch Tech did an amazing job of it but they’re itching to do a titanium version instead because that seems to be what the big boys do these days. But as you can appreciate, I think each titanium 90° bend worked out to be something like seven times the price of a stainless steel one. There was 32 90° bends used for this so, um, I’ll let you do the maths on that… ”
Interior
As Charlie puts it, the interior was why he bought this particular F430 in the first place. And with good reason.
“This [pure white interior] was actually done by Ferrari as a specific customer request. It came like this, even with the quilted headlining, from the factory.”
To see the F430’s stunning cabin space, plus a whole lot more, make sure to watch our in-depth video feature above!
