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TJ HUNT FERRARI 458 GT3 WIDEBODY BUILD

Check out the 10-minute review of TJ Hunt and his Ferrari 458 GT3 widebody build.

You may have seen this car before, but we like it so much we thought we would revisit it. The delectable Ferrari 458 is a gorgeous car straight from the factory, but seeing them in GT3 spec on the racetrack is something special. We're not the only ones to think that, thus the number of aftermarket body kits, like this one from Liberty Walk, but there are very few road-legal GT3-spec Ferrari 458s on the streets. In fact, there is only a handful in the whole world.

The journey of this particular vehicle was showcased by TJ Hunt and crew, as they documented the entire build in a series of videos on YouTube. To make it easier to digest, he then reduced those parts into one 10-minute video that you can see below.

He bought the wrecked car at auction at the end of 2018, intending to repair it. It was a 2015 Ferrari 458 with 4,000 miles on the clock, and a damaged front end, but was running. It would need a new front bumper and braces, headlights, windscreen, fenders and bonnet. 

After sending it off to an approved Ferrari shop for the fitment of the front brace and chassis alignment, they hit a salvage yard that specialises in exotics so they could scavenge for all of the other bits of the 458 that needed replacing.

They also had to remove the dashboard and send it for repairs as the airbags had gone off, the steering hub would also need replacing.

It was at this point that TJ Hunt and company decided to visit the Autostyle show in Tokyo, and attended the reveal of the Liberty Walk Ferrari 458 V2 widebody kit. He put his name down for one.

Over the following months, he proceeded to fix the Ferrari, getting it back to stock, and painting it white. He had it serviced by the Ferrari dealership, fixed up a few issues, and it was complete – a fantastic feat.

But then, as any good petrolhead would, he wanted to do some modifications. First came a red wrap, then a new set of rims and tyres, and it got slammed to the ground. Next up was a new exhaust... and that was that for the Ferrari 458 for months.

Then, he faced a dilemma, sell the car for a profit and buy another project car, or bite the bullet and do the widebody conversion. The Liberty Walk kit wasn't in production yet, there was no timeframe for when it would be ready, and ge didn't really love it. Then the magic happened. He managed to get his hands on a used GT3 kit from a racing team in Italy.

Over the next few months, TJ and his buddy Calvin set about figuring out how to install the GT3 widebody kit on the Ferrari 458. This would prove to be problematic. The bodykit was developed for a racing car, not the stock version, which has far more parts in the frunk.

In the end, though, they figure everything out and create a stunning example. This British racing green Ferrari 458 GT3 widebody is gorgeous and, if you've never seen it before, you should check the video out below immediately.

 

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