Just days after Ferrari revived the Testarossa name with its SF90 successor – the 849 Testarossa – Dutch car design studio Niels van Roij Design has reinterpreted the 1980s icon as a bespoke Targa.
Dubbed the Guida Touring Sport, the open-top Testarossa is set to make its public debut in the Netherlands’ Concours d’Elegance Mariënwaerdt on 12-14 September 2025.
Based on a 1987 Testarossa, the Guida Touring Sport is said to have taken Niels van Roij’s engineers around 3000 hours to design, develop and hand-build.
The Guida Touring Sport arrives more than 40 years after the Testarossa first broke cover at the 1984 Paris Motor Show. Penned by Pininfarina’s Leonardo Fioravanti, the Testarossa quickly earned its place among the era’s poster cars, alongside Lamborghini’s dramatic Countach and Porsche’s 930 Turbo.
Despite epitomising 1980s excess, the Testarossa was offered only as a coupé. The sole factory-built exception was Italian industrialist Gianni Agnelli’s bespoke convertible, which was shown at the 2023 Concours on Savile Row.
Beyond Agnelli’s 1986 car, German firm Lorenz & Rankl produced a handful of Testarossa Spiders and Targas from the late 1980s into the 1990s, while various US custom shops also attempted roof-chop and Targa-style conversions – with varying success.
Niels van Roij Design’s Guida Touring Sport takes the open-top Testarossa concept by reimagining the car from the ground up with what it calls an ‘OEM design philosophy’.
To compensate for the rigidity lost in the Targa conversion, the body has been reinforced at key points – including the sills, door apertures, rear parcel shelf, transmission tunnel and structural elements beneath the dashboard.
Aesthetically, the design stays true to the Testarossa’s iconic lines and proportions, while introducing contemporary finishes that elevate quality without diluting its period character. Updates include a reupholstered dashboard, redesigned door cards, bespoke roof-panel bags and polished, milled aluminium levers for the roof.
The press material makes no mention of powertrain changes, suggesting the 1987 car retains its standard 385bhp 4.9-litre flat-12 paired with a five-speed gated manual.
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