After nearly two years of work by a team of experienced craftsmen, the Niels van Roij Design Breadvan Hommage was revealed to the world 26 January 2021. Niels van Roij, always striving for perfection, found a partner in KONI to work on the suspension of this celebration to the 1962 Breadvan race car.
The historic link between KONI and the Breadvan
KONI has a long history in the high-end shock absorber industry. It started in 1948 when KONI introduced its first hydraulic shock absorber, which was the world’s first adjustable shock absorber. That makes KONI the inventor of the adjustable hydraulic shock absorber. In the early 50’s KONI was adopted by several high-end car manufacturers for series production sports cars. That is also the link to the original Breadvan. The original Breadvan was created by engineer Giotto Bizarinni, who in turn was hired by count Giovanni Volpi to upgrade a KONI equipped Ferrari 250 GT SWB so it would be competitive with the then-new Ferrari 250 GTO. It’s first race (24h du Mans) the car outperformed the Ferraris but had to retire because of a technical failure. Nevertheless, the following 5 races it won 2 races and finished on the podium 3 times in total.
Many years later, KONI contributed to 16 world championships in Formula 1, several wins in Le Mans, and many other races. Nowadays All Formula 2 and Formula 3 cars are equipped with KONI shock absorbers. Therefor most of today’s F1 drivers have been competing in KONI equipped race cars during their careers. The one-of-a-kind Breadvan Hommage “So, when Niels van Roij Design approached KONI in the early stages of the Breadvan Hommage Project, we immediately knew that we would grab this opportunity to develop a suspension system based on our state of the art, double-adjustable, racing shock absorber, the 8211-series. This modular shock absorber itself has the finest valving technologies to ensure precise tuning, enabling the best possible setting depending on track and track-conditions.” says Frank Biesheuvel, Manager Sales and Engineering KONI Automotive.
“KONI was thrilled to be able to contribute to the project. As a shock absorber specialist, KONI is well aware that the character of a car is also largely defined by its suspension characteristics. This defines how a car reacts to steering input, road imperfections, breaking and acceleration. The Breadvan Hommage is a One-of-a-Kind but completely homologated road-car, and therefor KONI gave it one-of-a-kind suspension characteristics using the somewhat exotic 8211 technologies. The Breadvan Hommage doesn’t deserve anything less”