Duration: 03:55

THE NIELS VAN ROIJ DESIGN BREADVAN HOMMAGE

• Styled by #NielsvanRoijDesign
• Strictly limited to only one example
• Designed and coachbuilt for a true enthusiast of the ’62 #Breadvan
• Wearing Vredestein Ultrac Vorti tyres
• Equipped with bespoke Koni shocks

The Niels van Roij Design #BreadvanHommage is based on an Italian V12 coupe. Niels van Roij Design has styled the interior and exterior of the coachbuilt motorcar and has also overseen the construction process.

Breadvan Hommage

When a true admirer of an Italian car manufacturer reported to Niels van Roij Design with the request to design a Breadvan Hommage, the car design studio saw it as an honourable task to translate the iconic race car into a modern piece of car design.

“We see it as a great privilege that we can celebrate the ’62 Breadvan through this Hommage commission,” says Niels van Roij. “It was a complex task to translate the essence of the legendary car into a contemporary design. We intended to be inspired by the original, but ensured we were not limited by it in our creativity. The Breadvan Hommage is a new original.”

Ideation sketches and design renderings

As is the case with all Niels van Roij Design coachbuilding projects, the Breadvan Hommage started with ideation sketches: quick drawings made by hand. These ideation sketches are crucial for every automotive design project and one of many iterative stages of the car design process.

“Automotive design is about the search and the experiment” according to Van Roij “Which is only truly achievable in a handmade sketch. In the ideation sketches differences can not only be seen in proportions and surfacing, the skin of the car, but also in the application of graphics and other details. Such as the bespoke exhausts and unique headlights. Eventually this process produces a so called key sketch: the one sketch chosen to be developed into more elaborated, rendered ideas.”

The next step, after selecting one of the ideation sketches, was fitting the design precisely over the technical layout of the base car and presenting it in a more refined way. All the surfacing and volumes were developed into a large variety of high resolution images. These renderings make the shapes easier to read and again a selection is made. This was developed into the clay model.

Clay model

A frame work was installed on the base car to which the clay was applied. To make the full size clay model, the team needed detailed visual information. Think of surface transitions from side to top and the design of air intakes, rear lights and the opening in the bonnet. All this visual data was provided by renderings, showing the details from different angles. Design work was ongoing during the highly labour intensive clay modelling process. The car was further refined and all challenges, such as the integration of a bevel around the roof and the new headlights, were ironed out.

Van Roij: “A car is a complex, three dimensional sculpture, which has to look right from all angles and under different light. Like sketching, the clay modelling process is iterative and the Breadvan Hommage was reshaped many times, to get it spot on. After establishing the correct proportions the search for sophistication in the surfacing, or skin, started: finding the right subtleties for transitions from one element to another. It includes the exterior graphics like the richly sculpted air vents on the fenders.
Coachbuilding the body

The body panels of the Breadvan Hommage were hand-beaten in aluminium by coachbuilder Bas van Roomen. He also worked on the clay model. Only the windscreen of the Breadvan Hommage remains OEM. Later the coachbuilt aluminium body was painted in a bespoke red colour, selected out of eight shades developed specifically by Niels van Roij Design for the Breadvan Hommage project.

Bespoke interior

The Breadvan Hommage features a handmade interior. The iconic outline of the exterior design has been embroidered into the blue Alcantara carbon fibre seats. The monogram can also be found on the dials, all 7 boasting pure silver inlays. All switchgear is made out of milled aluminium, linking to the gated shifter, which is set on a raised block. The driver is surrounded by quilted black leather: it can be found on the centre console, the lower door cards and the headliner. The door panels feature an unpainted, hand beaten aluminium element, which beautifully links to the custom body made in the exact same way. The door is opened through pulling a lightweight red cord, whilst a blue Alcantara insert functions as grab handle to close the door. A small embroidered Italian flag in the corner of the aluminium insert element of the door is highlighting the roots of the vehicle.

Follow and like New Imaging Co. for this excellent collaboration and production:
https://www.newimaging.nl/