The world’s great carmakers guard their names, brand image, and invaluable intellectual property with ferocity.
But one British start-up has persuaded Ferrari, Bugatti, Bentley, and Aston Martin not only to let it use their storied badges, but to actually build cars which bear them: an unprecedented decision in each case. With the unveiling of its latest model, an homage to Porsche’s pretty, delicate but devastatingly quick 550 racer of the 1950s, Hedley Studios is adding a fifth famous name to that list.
The official approval of the great marques tells you all you need to know about the work of Hedley Studios. It helps, of course, that its cars can’t be confused with the real thing. Each is a scaled-down recreation powered by an electric motor. Although their dimensions and the ease with which they can be driven mean that they can be used by children, Hedley’s clients are typically serious, adult car collectors buying them for their own use.
Many own the real thing and commission a bespoke Hedley car to match. Some are driven on private estates, others have been road-registered, and a few are displayed as art pieces, including one which had to be assembled inside the owner’s Manhattan apartment as the complete car wouldn’t fit in the service lift.
“We have customers who want to match the paint to their original 1950s Ferrari,” says founder Ben Hedley, a serial entrepreneur, racing driver, triathlete, and former world-ranked skier. “We have an American couple who race down their drive every morning with a stopwatch to pick up the mail and record their times on a leaderboard. We’ve got a guy in Holland who has road-registered his Bugatti and uses it to drive to work and take the dog for a walk. He’s done 10,000km in it.”
Related article: Why Porsche 911 Restomods Are Every Collector’s Dream
The Porsche 550 Spyder on which his latest model is based is probably best known as the car in which James Dean had his fatal crash, but it has a much broader significance for its maker. It was Porsche’s first purpose-built race car and was immediately successful in some of the most glamorous but difficult and dangerous events of the day, including the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico and the Targa Florio in Sicily.
Hedley’s Porsche 550J (for ‘junior’) has been created in collaboration with the Porsche Museum, which provided the original technical drawings on which the new car’s chassis and even suspension are based, and an original 550 whose body was 3D-scanned to ensure those graceful curves were perfectly replicated in carbon fiber at 80 percent scale. The badges are genuine Porsche items, and a sign of the marque’s approval.
The price is rather less than four-fifths of the original through. You’ll need around £3.5m (approx. $4.7m) to buy a 550 with a good racing history. The 550J starts from £69,500 (approx. $93,600), but that’s before the bespoke paint and trim which mean that no two will be the same. Or an upgrade to the RS Pack which nearly doubles the power to 21 bhp, adds drilled brake discs and adjustable Bilstein dampers, and increases top speed to 50mph and range to 50 miles.
Related article: Louis Vuitton and Singer’s First Collaboration Is a Love Letter to the Porsche 911
The cars are assembled by hand at Hedley’s workshops at Bicester Heritage, the former RAF airbase in Oxfordshire whose historic buildings have been converted into a hub for the UK’s flourishing luxury, competition, and collector car scene.
Around 600 cars have now been delivered to clients in over fifty countries over six continents, and the order book for the 550J is now open, with first deliveries from early next year. Most customers want a bespoke build, and for that they can expect to wait between three months and a year.
Related article: In the Market For New Wheels? Pebble Beach Is Where To Go Car Shopping
They won’t be disappointed when their car finally arrives. Despite their modest power output, Hedley cars are a blast to drive, thanks to their low weight – just 330kgs in this case – and properly sorted handling.
“I love the fact that you have this pure experience with the wind whistling by,” Hedley says. “It feels so much faster and you’re not trying to hear yourself over an engine. There’s a purity to it. It’s undiluted. I just don’t believe that you need a thousand horsepower to have fun.”
