The Button Built Ferrari’s
We weren’t expecting to see Button Built Ferraris in Las Vegas at the 2019 SEMA Show. Mitch Button, proving the scene should be as entertaining as it is boundary-pushing, pranked us all on Instagram two days prior to the preeminent Las Vegas automotive gathering.
Neither the Grigio Medio BB328T nor “distressed” Azzuro la Plata BB355TT would make it to Vegas due to a “mishap” during transport to the shop for final SEMA prep, claimed Button Built’s post. Luckily, the joke was on us. Not only did both Buttons arrive—the BB355TT was parked at the Toyo Tires Treadpass and the BB328T was displayed by AccuAir on the back of the CTP Concepts “Nighttrain” hauler—Das Erbe rolled out to the Vegas desert with them after the show.
Mitch and the Button Built team are among the elite of a new breed of builders. To these visionaries, honoring the heritage of marque or model doesn’t mean restoring the original work someone already did decades ago, resulting in a nearly unattainable garage queen. Instead, Button Built pays homage to heritage by giving admirers and inevitable detractors alike a new way to see and engage with storied car companies and their legendary creations. He also respects the individual car and their previous owners.
When the BB328T was still a stock 1988 Ferrari 328 GTS, it spent its life on the East Coast being cared for by a single owner who faithfully maintained it and kept meticulous records. It was also one half of an identical pair: the owner who sold the car to Mitch had purchased one for himself and one for his son. Unfortunately, the son passed away. Mitch felt he needed to honor not only Ferrari but also the relationship between this father and son that was now intertwined with the Button Built story.
Perhaps Mitch was destined to purchase and build the 328 GTS. Born into what he describes as “redneck poverty,” if he hadn’t strived for greatness, had he just let fate decide the direction of his life, he probably wouldn’t have ever seen a Ferrari up close, let alone own one. If his father hadn’t instilled in him a strong work ethic, a love for maintaining and modifying cars, and the aspiration of owning a Ferrari, the cars on your screen right now wouldn’t exist. Mitch grew up idolizing Enzo Ferrari, and these cars are his homage to his idol. Neither build would have materialized if he hadn’t been brave enough to leave home at the age of 15 to pursue greatness, live his passion, and make his name known in the automotive world.
When Mitch reaches into automotive history, pulls out iconic models, and molds them into his vision for today, he does so literally and figuratively. Both widebody systems were designed and molded in clay by hand to create the carbon-Kevlar body panels. Most of the original body of the 328 GTS was handbuilt by Italian coachbuilder Carrozzeria Scaglietti. Transforming this particular Prancing Horse into the BB328T meant handcrafting a body of Mitch’s own design, including the hood; front and rear bumpers; front wings and carbon fiber rear wing; rear quarter and rocker panels; and a bespoke targa top.
The 1999 F355 Berlinetta, designed by Pininfarina, was the last of the regular Ferrari models (as much as the term “regular” can ever describe a Ferrari) to be handbuilt. Creating the BB355TT once again included sculpting a widebody system by hand, including the hood vents; front fenders; front and side splitters; front and rear bumpers; rear quarter panels, wing and diffuser; C-pillar and rocker panel ducts; canards; and acrylic engine cover. Like the BB328T, the BB355TT was wrapped by Impressive Wraps. The “battered” Azzuro la Plata wrap is a nod to Ferrari’s motorsport history: it’s the color of the 250 SWB Ken Miles drove in the 1966 24-hour race at Daytona International Speedway.
By now you’ve likely worked out that “BB” stands for “Button Built.” And I bet you’ve figured out the “T” and “TT” designations as well. Mitch boosted the BB328T’s performance from 270HP to over 400HP with a Xona Rotor turbo, TiAL Sport blow-off valves and wastegates, and CSF intercoolers and radiators, along with a list of other goodies. While the Xona Rotor, TiAL and CSF hardware certainly isn’t OEM, an intercooled, single-turbo setup isn’t new to the 328: Ferrari created such a variant based on their 208 Turbo’s V8 in 1986.
The BB355TT rocks—you guessed it—twin Xona Rotor XR5455 Echo Series symmetrical turbos (one rotates counterclockwise, meaning each half of the engine mirrors the other). The snails, along with TiAL blow-off valves and wastegates, CSF radiators and intercooler cores, Aviva Instruments intercoolers, and other parts plus tuning by Voodoo Engineering’s Eric Cheney bump the standard 40-valve V8’s 375HP to 600-plus.
