Mat Armstrong’s February Ferrari rebuild video ends with a car that looks race-ready but cannot start. A later update gives that bleak ending a twist: Ferrari agreed to help.
In the original episode, Armstrong works on a crashed Ferrari 296 GTB brought from Cyprus to the UK. He wants to fit genuine 296 Challenge race parts while keeping the road car’s hybrid system.
Getting the panels to fit takes cutting and welding. The cooling system needs changes, too. Yet putting the car back together does not wake it up. The hazard lights flash, but the ignition will not turn on.
Armstrong calls a Ferrari dealer for help. First, though, an approved body shop needs to check the car. His build has already moved well beyond a stock repair, with more changes still to come.
A Tight Fit
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Buying Ferrari parts isn’t a simple bolt-on job. The Challenge front bumper clashes with the road car’s radiators. Armstrong removes them and fits a large race radiator in the center.
That switch also calls for a vented hood. At the back, the huge wing needs new mounts. Even the parking sensors need holes cut into race parts that were never built to hold them.
There is a second hurdle at the parts counter. In a call, a supplier explains the rules for some restricted parts. Those parts must match the car’s chassis number before they can be sold. Armstrong’s car is a GTB, rather than a Challenge racer.
A race team helps him make a template. He uses it to cut wing-mount holes in the stock rear panel. The build moves forward, though the starting fault remains.
An Awkward Call
A new airbag control module fails to wake the car. Checks also flag a current crash-data fault in the hybrid system. The team cannot clear it with its tools.
The dealer calls back with its answer. An approved body shop must check the repairs before the car can come in. Armstrong thinks his race kit and repair methods will make that route hard to follow.
“I have an ornament,” he says. He is weighing what happens if neither his team nor Ferrari can get it running. By the episode’s end, he has emailed Ferrari to ask for help.
A Different Ending
That request was not the end of the road. In the description of his May follow-up, Armstrong confirms that Ferrari eventually took the car in and tried to get it going.
In that episode, the parking brake had been left unplugged. That stopped the hybrid battery from charging. A failed touch-sensitive start button on the steering wheel caused another fault. A new wheel solved it.
With those faults fixed and the cooling system finished, Armstrong took the rebuilt Ferrari out for a road test. He later completed the process to re-import the car to the UK and took it to a track.