Steve Statham

ZZ Topless

Frank Beard's GTO Spyder may be a custom, but it's enough to make any true Ferrari lover's heart sing

text and photography by Steve Statham

If you had to create an imaginary hall of fame for cars that should have been built but never were, one of the first to be inducted would have to be a Ferrari GTO Spyder. Sure, the original GTO was a racing machine, and therefore better suited as a closed coupe, but by the measuring sticks of sheer looks and driving pleasure a topless GTO  makes perfect sense. At least that's the way it seemed to Mark and Lisa Gerisch of M&L Auto Specialists, and their well-known customer, ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard.

After some two decades of rock-n-roll stardom, Frank Beard definitely has the means to make a few automotive fantasies reality. And, being a dyed-in-the-wool car enthusiast (more on that later) with a penchant for Maranello's finest, it didn't take him long to start clearing a spot in the garage after he spied M&L's first stab at a GTO Spyder at the home of a fellow Ferrari enthusiast a couple years ago. As a member of the Ferrari Club of America and the owner of a serious collection of original Ferraris, Frank is a true believer, but that doesn't stop him from appreciating cars of a more custom nature.

Which is just the sort of thing Mark Gerisch's M&L Auto Specialists thrives on. Mark has been working on specialty cars for about 15 years, starting in the business doing mostly restoration work. He first started making body panels out of necessity, when restoration parts he ordered didn't fit properly. He branched out from there, working his way up to larger and more exotic projects. He made a splash some years ago with a completely shop-built aluminum 427 Cobra, fabricating virtually everything but the Ford V-8 itself.

People noticed the Cobra project, people with some clout in the automotive world. One of those movers and shakers suggested Mark concentrate on "remade" Ferraris, since original Ferrari parts were either rare or non-existent, and the cars were starting to soar in value. Mark's new benefactor footed the bill for Mark to travel to  Europe to visit most of the Old World car manufacturers, and upon his return Mark dove headfirst into the business of reconstructing Ferraris and other exotic sports cars. Initially his shop just supplied body, trim, and chassis work, but now M&L can create entire cars.

M&L's first, and only other, GTO Spyder was created for Hilary Raab, an influential member of the Ferrari community, although Raab's needs dictated a longer wheelbase than the original GTO so it was not a quite the dead-ringer that Frank's car is. Still, the screaming yellow GTO Spyder attracted a lot of attention — in this case, Frank Beard's attention.

Mark and Frank met at a party at Raab's house in Crown Point, Indiana, where Frank made his initial inquiries into what it would take to get a GTO Spyder of his own. Later, Mark got word Frank was definitely interested in a Spyder that was exactly like a GTO, complete with  dry-sump, six carbs, the watts link rear, and correct suspension. Three months later they sealed the deal, with one very important provision — the car had to be completed by the following Christmas, 15 months away.

"My stipulation was, my kids were six or seven, and I was still trying to convince them there was a Santa Claus," Frank said. "So I told them, I said 'Look, when you write your letter to Santa Claus ask for a red Ferrari for dad. And if there really is (a Santa), one will show up.' So I told M&L the car has to be in my garage December 24th. And on December 24th it was sitting there, and it was perfect."

Of course, that's the short version of the story. During those 15 months Mark and his crew essentially built a car from scratch. Using a 1961 250 GTE as the donor car, they removed the body and heavily modified the chassis. Still basically Ferrari in origin, under the skin the Spyder is essentially a modified GTE, with all the bracing and oval tubing made to be exactly as it was in a GTO. "If you look at this and look at a GTO you're looking at the same thing," Mark says.

To contain the body flex inherent in convertibles, Mark and Chip Pilner fabricated reinforcing sill plates along the rocker panels, along with a steel bulkhead in the rear in place of the stock aluminum pieces. After welding the sill plates and bulkhead together, they added a third level of reinforcement, a rollbar (upper hoop removed for the photos). "We brought what was the rollbar — you know you bring the rollbar up and over on the original car, the coupe has a rollbar in it — we brought that up and then we tied it in to the next level. So we were already at three levels of strength. When you can tri-level it like that you're automatically going to have more torsional strength," Mark said.

The rear suspension and differential are GTE parts, with a watts link added. "The springs were cut down, re-arched, and the four-link set-up and spring perch box were moved back, so that everything lined up and was the same swinging arc as the GTO," Mark said.

The sheetmetal was crafted at M&L, hand-made from flat sheets of aluminum .063-inch thick, a bit thicker than stock. The interior was also hand-fabricated, with the door panels and center tunnel left in the hammer-tone silver finish, as the original GTOs were. "It's built to be as vibration free as possible," Mark said. "Every place that we put one of those panels down with the stainless steel rivets was silicone-caulked in-between it and the panel..."

The V-12 engine is not quite up to GTO horsepower levels, although the heads were massaged with bigger valves. One interesting powertrain modification was the change to a BMW transmission. "We decided to go with a BMW M-Series box, a European box, (it) had the same pattern as the GTO. So there's a natural. Plus the box is a super, super strong box. I mean, you can put a lot of horsepower through a BMW box. And it's smooth as silk and it makes no noise. You can just spank that thing through the gears and it just loves it."

To fit the box, "we took the original 250 bellhousing and adapted it to that gearbox," Mark said.  "There was a small adapter plate that was made up, and then we had to determine how much we took off and added, so that we had the correct throw-out bearing length." As you'd expect, the powertrain and modified body required a new driveshaft, which M&L made in-house.

The BMW tranny was a wise addition, if our brief test drive was any indication. The shifter moved through the normally balky Ferrari gates with hardly a hitch, something not normally said about other Ferraris — and we later drove a Testarossa that offered a back-to-back comparison. The transmission is indicative of the thought and skill invested in the car overall. Unlike many one-offs, we found the Spyder tight and rattle free. The car felt balanced and responsive, and with the V-12 singing its way toward the redline and the wind running through our hair, we can say Mark's GTO Spyder concept has definitely delivered on its original promise.

Certainly Mark's customer is happy. "It felt great," Frank said after taking the car out for one of its rare high-speed exercise sessions. "The car runs like a champ. I think it really goes." What with being on tour for long periods of time and having a house under construction, Frank hadn't had the opportunity to really play with the car since last August at the Monterey Historics. And even then the sometimes IMSA driver had to squeeze out the time. "I was lucky enough. We were on the road, but my schedule allowed me to spend two days in Monterey. I got to drive it around Monterey."

As you'd expect, with all the custom cars that parade through ZZ Top videos the band members are serious car nuts, although the beginnings of Frank's enthusiasm were a bit more humble than his present circumstances allow. "I've always been a car fan," he says. "When I was 15, My dad worked for Ford... he was the office manager of a Ford dealership. And I was taking my driver's ed course, and my dad was a big trader. He'd trade anything; lawn mowers, tractors, anything. About two weeks before I was going to take my test to get my driver's license, he shows up at the house in a black 1960 Squarebird — a black with red interior T-Bird. And that was going to be my car. And it was so fine. And about two days before I took my driver's ed test, he traded that off for an English Ford Consul. And that ended up being my first car. I was going to be king of the hill with a black T-Bird convertible, (and went) to having a little roller skate on wheels."

"And that right there kind of set the tone for my love of cars from then on," Frank remembers. "The first decent hot car I had was a ’60 Impala... I finally turned professional, and we worked three clubs called the Cellar, one in Fort Worth, one in Dallas and one in Houston. We did the circuit, we did two weeks at each place. So I made Dallas to Houston in three hours and ten minutes one time. And going back I was trying to make it in under three hours. And the car let go in Buffalo, Texas. The transmission let go... and when it did the engine just exploded. I mean it threw rods and stuff through the hood — I mean it could have killed me. And so, we stuck our thumbs out, me and the band, and hitch-hiked into Dallas... that was the last I ever saw of the car."

Frank started collecting cars seriously in 1985, beginning with a '57 T-bird. Since then he's bought and sold dozens of collector cars, finally settling on Ferraris as his marque of choice. The rest of his Ferrari collection consists of originals, but he's obviously got no qualms about modified examples. "Any Ferrari's altered, because there ain't no pieces available for 'em anyway," he jokes. For Frank, it's the driving pleasure that's the attraction. "That's all that I care about, the fun factor," he says. "I roll the windows down and listen to the motor."

Naturally, not everyone is thrilled at the idea of cutting up a rare original Ferrari to make a custom one-off. But most people who criticize the car are usually people who don't own Ferraris, Mark says. Most Ferrari owners get pretty excited about the car, he says, and appreciate it for what it is. As far as Mark is concerned, he's not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes by claiming the Spyder is some obscure original. He considers himself a coach-builder, as in earlier automotive times when wealthy customers ordered the body of their choice installed on a stock chassis.

Perhaps the highest compliment for the Spyder came from one who should know — Giotto Bizzarrini, Ferrari's chief sports car engineer in the early ’60s. Mark had a happy encounter with Bizzarrini at the Monterey Historics. "I had just entered the track and I heard a horn beeping behind me, and I looked in the mirror and I saw this Jaguar sedan and these guys waving their arms," Mark said. "So I slowed down to maybe about five mph, and these guys come up behind me, pull along beside me and then stop abruptly. And a little Japanese guy starts to get out of the driver's seat while the car's still rolling. He has to jump back in and put it into park. And this little old guy gets out of the car, walking and taking pictures at the same time... And I'm sitting in the car after a long day of talking to everybody about this GTO Spyder."

"So anyhow, this Japanese guy comes running back out of breath, he says 'sir, sir,' he says, 'We've been chasing you for four miles. Would you mind, Mr. Bizzarrini would like some pictures of your car.'" At first Mark was puzzled, not expecting Bizzarrini himself to be at the car show. After he saw the man's name tag, however, it slowly dawned on him who it actually was. They spoke through the man's driver/interpreter.

"And Mr. Bizzarrini's going around the car taking pictures of it," Mark said. "And he's talking in Italian, and gesturing his approval, and the Japanese fellow, he's smiling and laughing, and he says 'He really loves what you've done with his car.'"