Ferrari 456 M "Lola"

LOLA,

written by Manish Pandey.

I first saw a Ferrari 456 more than 20 years ago in Kensington.  She was dark metallic green with a tan interior.  I remember, I had almost walked right past her, but something made me stop and turn back.  ‘Was that a Ferrari?” asked my inner voice.  I looked over her lines, at that deep air-intake behind the front wheel arches, leading to the most perfectly proportioned rear I had ever seen.  I was in love.  On May 1st 2024, I took delivery of my very own Ferrari 456M.  I took delivery of Lola.  She had been owned by a famous fashion and music photographer who had barely driven her for three years (92 miles, to be exact) so she had to undergo a fair amount of work to make her reliable.

Her body was Nero Daytona, which accentuated every line and deep curve, but her interior was Sabbia with black piping and her 24 years showed in a myriad of tiny fissures and cracks in the leather.  I reasoned that you can’t see the outside of your car, when you are sitting inside (that is what an owner, who intends to drive their car, does after all) so I decided, against all rational advice, to completely reupholster her.  I settled on a local coachtrimmer, scheduled to begin when the mechanical work was complete.

At the time, I was deep into the production of the film about Luca Montezemolo and, one evening over dinner with him, we talked about the 456 in general and Lola in particular.  He reminisced about 1992 and the terrible state that Ferrari was in, in his first full year as Presidenza, and was particularly scathing about the 348 (which was the first Ferrari he had ever owned).  But The 456 was different.  He thought it the most elegant GT of its generation and drove it, often, with his mentor, Gianni Agnelli, in the 90’s.  He asked me what colour Lola was and when I told him Nero Daytona with a Sabbia interior, he said ‘Too light!’

A month later, I was walking around the Hampton Court Concours, on the first Friday, marvelling, like all middle-aged teenage boys, at the beauty around me when an impossibly tall, slim man introduced himself.  He said that he was a fan of the Chris Harris and Friends podcast (on which I appear) and was Manager and Head of Supplies at the fabled O’Rourke Coactrimmers (or ‘Rorky’s’ as their loyal customers call them). 

That was the moment that I became friends with AJ Pink.

AJ said that O’Rourke’s would love to have the commission to completely reupholster Lola and I was thrilled.  I was also piqued by the many restorations that they had done to other Ferraris of the 1950’s and 60’s.  The interiors had a certain flare, without being ‘showy’ or ‘flashy’, and the leatherwork had a texture and quality that I hadn’t seen on any modern car.  That is when the really dangerous thoughts started to enter my head.  Could we redesign the interior, subtly, to evoke Ferraris from those romantic days of Bergman, Sellers and Guichet – yet maintain the basic integrity of the 456M?

I began to look at Ferrari interiors from the era, as well as some Monteverdis from the 1970’s, and slowly little details began to emerge.  Firstly, the clever use of fluting to add a certain opulence inside the doors.  Secondly, the original 456’s had black carpeting on the lower parts of the doors, as well as the central tunnel – something which earlier Ferraris, such as the 330GT Lusso, would never have had.  And thirdly, when the 456 was modified to the 456M, the body (to my eyes) became much prettier as did some aspects of the interior (the dash, with round vents and the central console which did away with the metallic silver plastic fascia).  But the ‘M’s’ seats had a dated 90’s ‘Jasper Conran’ quality to them, with leather inserts were flat and horizontal (whereas the previous incarnation had 60’s longitudinal fluting and was more plush and inviting).

I delivered Lola to O’Rourke’s on September 16th 2024 and met the crew.  I work in the world of film and Television with a small team and our fuel is passion.  So, I can write, with total honesty, that in that small workshop were mirrors of everyone in our team, driven by that same passion and joyous obsessive attention to detail.  Rob (Rorky), AJ, Barry, Lorezeno, Abi, Kitt and Tom are a family – and that family was going to realise Lola’s full beauty – a beauty that even Ferrari had not realised in the most expensive production car they had ever built, at the time.

And now Connolly entered Lola’s story.  AJ agreed that a cabin as vast as a 456 might be overwhelmed by the rich, chocolatey Cuoio Naturale that many had recommended to me.  After staring at Lola’s modern, sculped ‘car within a car’ exterior, I wanted to be transported, very gently, into a past that had never existed for this car.  It had to be a tan or a beige – but which one?  It was love at first sight, when I first saw Lola back in March 2024, and it was that same intense feeling when I looked at and touched Connolly’s Vaumol 3218.  The colour is a light butterscotch with a subtle grain, hand finished to bring out every tiny bump and irregularity – the most ‘analogue’ finish I could imagine and perfect for my Nero Daytona Tardis.  It was a colour that predated Ferrari, by two decades, having originally been used in Austins in the 1930’s.

The next five and half months were punctuated by repeated visits to Rorky’s (with lots of Earl Grey, with a dash of milk, that Kitt became expert at making); dozens of photos and phone calls and a sense of expectation that I was convinced could never really be realised.  How wrong I was…

Many distinct memories stand out.  The first was a picture, sent by AJ, showing the Connolly hides on a hook, labelled ‘Manish’s 456’.  It seemed like an impossible amount of leather and acted as a kind of reverse-clock as the days, weeks and months went by – with each hide disappearing as another milestone was reached.  The second, was the decision to install a new Audison sound system, which would complement (rather than replace) the existing Ferrari Becker whose face is so perfectly married to the buttons and dials on the central console.  The third was the decision to replace the carpets on the doors and the central console with the Vaumol leather.  The former required perforations for the speakers; the latter brought out the artist in Rorky, as he created a butterscotch wave shape in the footwells to avoid the console ending in a block (something which even the 60’s Ferraris were guilty of) as it met the carpet.

But the final pieces of artistry came in two parts.  First, O’Rourke’s sent the leather for each headrest to a trusted workshop to create the Prancing Horses which stand out, in relief, behind the driver and passengers’ heads.  The detail of each Cavallino Rampante was beguiling in the photographs and a sensual pleasure when I got to run my fingers over them.  On the reverse, punched-out side of the leather, each horse indentation was filled with soft, but durable, silicone to preserve its outlines for years to come.  I had never seen anything like it.

The final piece of art was yet another Rorky moment of inspiration.  Every 456 had scalloped door inserts, with the doorhandle bisecting this hollow oval space.  Although lined with leather, it always seemed a little ‘thin’ to me – as if the door insert had been dipped in molten leather and coated in a thin veneer.  As I wrote, the Ferraris of the 60’s and some Monteverdis of the 70’s had fluting which added depth and luxury to the doors and the challenge was to recreate this.  I had originally thought to replace the lower, carpeted areas of the doors with horizonal fluting but Rorky felt that the scallops were the issue.  With typical incisiveness, he fashioned two long, oval inserts covered in perfectly stitched vertical fluting and continued this into the passenger compartment.  I remember that AJ was particularly mean about not sending me too many photos, at this stage, because the end was in sight…

There is one small thing to add, that perhaps isn’t art, but a deeply personal touch to Lola.  As the film with Luca progressed, so too did our friendship.  He is a warm man who wears his heart on his sleeve and loves his family, demonstrably, like few others.  Lola will always represent the time spent in Bologna at Luca’s home and long summer days filming at his farm or in Rome.  His family crest is simple and beautiful – blue and gold with a bow and arrow and three golden stars – and the Cordero di Montezemolo motto is ‘Honour and Loyalty’.  If our film is about anything, it is about loyalty, and so I asked him a very special favour – could I use his family crest in Lola?  His gratifying response came in letter, my favourite line of which is, ‘Knowing your love and passion for Ferraris from all eras, I’m sure you brought her back to life in the best possible way.  It makes me happy to know the crest will be on Lola’s dashboard.  It is a nice way to remember the time we spent together’.

Vaugton’s, the small, wonderful British jewellers, took my photos of the crest, made one up, weathered it and O’Rourke’s finished the dash by placing it, just left of centre by the three circular air-conditioning vents.  At 4cm tall, and burnished, she is as subtle as everything else about my Lola.

March 7th 2025 is one of those days that I will never forget and you can see my reaction, for yourselves, in the video on this page as I saw her unveiled by AJ, with the whole team in attendance – along with a very special guest whom I knew in two minutes would be a friend for life – Jonthan Connolly.  The greatest compliment that a person can receive from a man whose family have given their name to their business is a smile, an approving nod and the words ‘Lola looks as if she was factory fitted with that interior’.

There is no other Ferrari like her and, to my eyes, she is perfect.  But the greatest joy about her is that she represents the best of so many people – Maranello, a quarter of a century ago, and Connolly and O’Rourke’s, today – people who I am proud to call my friends.