For those that don't know, SPOFEC (a name derived from compressing Spirit Of Ecstasy) is a German aftermarket tuner and automotive refiner in Stetten near here that refines Rolls-Royces and Rolls-Royces only.
And for its latest creation, it has taken the company's most elegant current vehicle, the 2+2 seater Dawn drophead, and given it a widebody conversion complete with flared wheel arches.
Co-created by respected German designer Vittorio Strosek, the re-imagined exterior is formed from carbon fibre and makes the car 130mm wider, front and rear. So that the widebody look isn't too jarring to luxury motoring purists, SPOFEC has also given some serious attention to the rocker panels, flaring them out subtly, so that the exterior lines still flow.
Bigger wheel arches also mean bigger wheels and the company has made a special set of 22-inch wheels for the car and reprogrammed the air suspension. At speeds of up to 140kph the car rides 40mm lower to the ground than a standard Dawn, but as the owner continues to accelerate, the car's height rises to that of a standard-specification Dawn.
Under the hood, the standard twin-turbo V12's power output has been tweaked. It now develops 686hp (up by 115hp) and torque jumps to 980Nm from 820Nm. This results in a 0-100kph time of just 4.6 seconds. However, thanks to the 22-inch wheels and their extra low profile tyres, top speed is electronically limited, for safety reasons at 250kph.
Thankfully, this extra power comes with extra responsibility in the form of bigger, fade-resistant carbon ceramic brakes which are both lighter and more effective than the standard braking setup, meaning that the car's unsprung weight is also significantly reduced.
However, those big brakes, plus the extra engine power means that the rear portions of the rocker panels feature vents for extra cooling, something that really will divide opinion, even among the tuning community.
But as with all such cars, once questions regarding taste are out of the way, the only issue remaining is how well the conversion has been completed.
In SPOFEC's case, the company promises that all carbon fibre is perfectly matched and that all body additions blend seamlessly with the original car so that it looks like it rolled off a production line.
