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The Ferrari 250 GTO was a supercar and auto racing car made by Ferrari in the early 1960s. It is widely considered to be the quintessential Ferrari model, and one of the greatest sports cars - indeed, one of the greatest automobiles - of all time. Download high resolution version (1235x744, 72 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Automakers or automobile manufacturers are companies that design and manufacture automobiles. ...
The current Ferrari logo Ferrari is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. ...
The Ferrari 288 GTO was an exotic homologation car produced in 1984 through 1986. ...
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In automobile design, an FR, or front-engine, rear wheel drive means a layout where the engine is in the front of the vehicle and drive wheels at the rear. ...
1995 Buick Riviera coupe A coupé (from the French for cut) or coupe is a two or four-seater car with a fixed roof and two doors. ...
The Bugatti Veyron 16. ...
1995 Buick Riviera coupe A coupe (or coupé) is a two or four-seater car with a fixed roof and two doors. ...
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A V12 is an internal combustion engine with 12 cylinders in V configuration. ...
The Bugatti Veyron 16. ...
Auto racing (also known as automobile racing, autosport or motorsport) is a sport involving racing automobiles. ...
Karl Benzs Velo model (1894) - entered into the first automobile race An automobile (or motor car) is a wheeled passenger vehicle that carries its own motor. ...
The current Ferrari logo Ferrari is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. ...
The numerical part of its name denotes the displacement in cubic centimeters of each cylinder of the engine, whilst GTO stands for "Gran Turismo Omologata", Italian for "Grand Touring Homologated." Displacement, One complete cycle of a four cylinder, four stroke engine. ...
A cubic centimetre (cm3) is an SI derived unit of volume, equal to the volume of a cube with side length of 1 centimetre. ...
A colorized automobile engine The internal combustion engine is a heat engine in which the burning of a fuel occurs in a confined space called a combustion chamber. ...
Homologation is a technical term, derived from the Greek homologos (ομόλογος) for agree, which is generally used in English to signify the granting of approval by an official authority. ...
In 2004, Sports Car International named the 250 GTO number eight on the list of Top Sports Cars of the 1960s, and number one as the Top Sports Cars of All Time. Similarly, Motor Trend Classic named the 250 GTO as number one in their list of the "Greatest Ferraris of all time". Sports Car International is an automobile magazine in the United States focused on sports cars. ...
Sports Car International magazine compiled a list of the Top Sports Cars of the last few decades. ...
Sports Car International magazine compiled a list of the Top Sports Cars of the last few decades. ...
Motor Trend is one of the oldest automotive magazines still publishing. ...
Development
The 250 GTO was designed to compete in GT racing. It was an orthodox (some would say conservative) evolution of the 250 GT SWB. Chief engineer Giotto Bizzarrini took the chassis from the 250 GT SWB and mated it with the 3.0 L V12 engine from the 250 Testa Rossa. After Bizzarrini and most other Ferrari engineers were fired in a dispute with Enzo Ferrari, development was handed over to new engineer Mauro Forghieri and designer Sergio Scaglietti. The widely-admired body was developed from work done by Bizzarini and Scaglietti and perfected in wind tunnel and track testing. Unlike most Ferraris, it was not designed by a specific individual or design house. GTP sports cars racing at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 1991 Sportscar racing is a form of circuit racing, with cars that have two seats and enclosed wheel wells. ...
The Ferrari 250 is a series of sports cars from the 1950s and early 1960s. ...
Giotto Bizzarrini (June 6, 1926 - ?) was an automobile engineer active from the 1950s through 1970s. ...
The litre or liter (see spelling differences) is a unit of volume. ...
A V12 is an internal combustion engine with 12 cylinders in V configuration. ...
The Ferrari 250 is a series of sports cars from the 1950s and early 1960s. ...
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Mauro Forghieri (Modena Italy, January 13, 1935 - Formula 1 car designer) Categories: | ...
Carrozzeria Scaglietti was an Italian automobile design and coachbuilding firm in the 1950s. ...
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The rest of the car was a well-balanced presentation of early-Sixties Ferrari technology: a hand-welded tube frame, A-arm front suspension and a live-axle rear end, disc brakes, Borrani wire wheels. The five-speed gearbox was a step forward, if not really revolutionary; the metal gate that defined the shift pattern would in turn become a tradition that is still maintained in current models. The interior was stripped-down and simple in the extreme, to the point where a speedometer was not considered necessary for the instrument panel. Close-up of a disc brake on a car On automobiles, disc brakes are often located within the wheel disc brake is a device for slowing or stopping the rotation of a wheel. ...
Racing success According to the FIA rules for sports car racing, at least one hundred examples of a car had to be built in order for it to be homologated in the GT class (as opposed to the less-restricted prototype class). However, Ferrari built only 39 250 GTOs (33 of the "normal" cars, three with four-liter 330 engines (sometimes called the "330 GTO" but properly the 330 LMB), and three "Type 64" cars with revised bodywork) but nevertheless the car was allowed to race in the GT class. Some say that Ferrari successfully argued that the model was technically a modification of the 250 GT SWB, some say that Ferrari's clout was such that it was better for the sport to allow the team to compete instead of dealing with a petulant (and crowd-depressingly absent) Scuderia Ferrari. The Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile, commonly referred to as the FIA, is a non-profit association established in 1904 to represent the interest of motoring organisations and motor car users. ...
Ferraris earliest cars used engines designed by Gioacchino Colombo, who had formerly designed Alfa Romeos for Enzo Ferrari. ...
The Ferrari 330 cars replaced the successful Ferrari 250 series beginning in 1963. ...
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro is the name for the Gestione Sportiva, the division of the Ferrari automobile company concerned with racing. ...
The car debuted at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1962, driven by the team of American Phil Hill (the standing World Driving Champion) and Belgian Olivier Gendebien. Although originally annoyed that they were driving a GT-class car instead of one of the full-race Testa Rossas competing in the prototype class, the experienced pair impressed themselves (and everyone else) by finishing 2nd overall behind the Testa Rossa of Bonnier and Scarfotti. The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race held at Sebring Raceway, a former Air Force base in Sebring, Florida. ...
Philip Toll Hill Jr. ...
Olivier Gendebien, born January 12, 1924 in Brussels, Belgium and died on October 2, 1998 in Les Baux de Provence, in the Bouches-du-Rhône departement of France, was a war hero and race car driver. ...
1958 250 Testa Rossa from the Ralph Lauren collection 1961 250 TR Spyder Fantuzzi Serenissima version from the Ralph Lauren collection One of Ferraris most famous racing models was the 250 Testa Rossa of the 1950s and early 1960s. ...
The success was not a fluke; the 250GTO was an exceptionally capable racing car. At the time of its introduction it was (depending on choice of gears and final-drive ratio) most likely the straight-line fastest car on any race track; more subtly, but perhaps more important, it had no bad habits or nasty tricks in its wide performance envelope. In the best Ferrari tradition, it made normal drivers look excellent and gave great drivers an unsurpassable advantage. Years of development for its significant components, and traditional Ferrari robustness, also guaranteed that the car would last until the end of the race. In the end, the GTO won the World Manufacturer's Championship three years in a row: 1962, 1963, and 1964.
Production The low production (39) allowed Ferrari to be selective about potential owners; if you were in the good graces of Ferrari himself, or his North American ambassador Luigi Chinetti, your $18,000 (early-1960s dollars, of course) would buy you the best GT racing car available at the time.
The 250 GTO arrived as perhaps the last car that could compete on such a level and still act as something of a normal road car; more visibly, it was one of the last front-engined cars to be truly competitive at such a level. In the age before vintage racing, the 250 GTO faced the same fate as any other racing car of its time: as it passed into obsolescence, some were kept as regional race machines, while others were used as normal (if barely-practical and thoroughly glorious) passenger cars.
Collectability and appreciating value In the late Seventies and early Eighties, the focus of the "performance" of the 250GTO and other rare Ferraris turned out to be their rapidly-accelerating market value. As the auto industry struggled through new regulations and questionable marketing decisions, the unfettered performance machines of the recently bygone era took on a new desirability. There was also something of a paradigm shift; instead of being old but lovable racing cars, well-heeled collectors (Ralph Lauren among them) started to see the 250GTO and its brethren as a sort of drivable fine art, much like the coachbuilt luxury cars of the pre-World War II era. Cover Time magazine Ralph Lauren (born Ralph Lifschitz on October 14, 1939) is an American fashion designer and business executive. ...
This investment mentality reached an unreal peak in the late Eighties. As the wealth of certain members of the baby-boomer generation exploded and the stock market became a questionable investment, the market value of classic cars, especially Ferraris, went geometric - and as the much-touted great example of all the best traits of the breed, the asking price of the 250GTOs soared highest. One of them, seized by the FBI from a convicted drug dealer, was sold in a sealed auction in 1988 for approximately $2 million, which was considered outrageous at the time - and within three years would come to be seen as a good investment.
The money element, and the car's raw desirability and scarcity, have resulted in a number of faux 250GTOs being crafted on the base of more common Ferrari chassis; there are many more cars that look like 250GTOs on roads today than were ever rolled out of the Scaglietti coachworks. (The Alpha One 250GTO replica used the chassis and body of a Datsun Z-car and can be seen in the John Candy movie Delirious). Misrepresentations of original cars, with unscrupulous types attempting to sell them for full price, have been reported. In the opening scenes of the film Vanilla Sky, the main character drives a black 250 GTO, though this was later revealed to have been a different car altered to look like an original 250. Z-car 1969 or 1970 Fairlady Z (240Z) in Japan Z-car usually refers to a series of sports cars manufactured by Nissan. ...
Delerious is a romantic comedy film starring John Candy. ...
Vanilla Sky is a 2001 film which has been variously characterized by published film critics as an odd mixture of science fiction, romance, and reality warp [2], part Beautiful People fantasy, part New Age investigation of the Great Beyond[3] a love story, a struggle for the soul, or an...
Prices peaked around 1991; although specifics are discreetly glossed over, it is common knowledge that a 250GTO traded hands in a private sale around this time for no less than fifteen million dollars.
Since then, the collector-car bubble has comprehensively burst, and the price for legitimate high-demand Ferrari models has steadily climbed again. Market value for a 250GTO in late 2004 can be safely estimated to be in the neighborhood of $6 million.
Famous Owners Frank Beard, born June 11, 1949 in Frankston, Texas, is the drummer in the blues-rock band ZZ Top. ...
Cover Time magazine Ralph Lauren (born Ralph Lifschitz on October 14, 1939) is an American fashion designer and business executive. ...
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Nick Mason, as photographed for the Pink Floyd album Meddle. ...
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References - Buckley, Martin & Rees, Chris (1998). World Encyclopedia of Cars. London: Anness Publishing. ISBN 1-84038-083-7.
- The Ferrari Pages. Cars From Italy. Retrieved on November 20, 2004.
- Ferrari 250 GTO. Ultimatecarpage.com. Retrieved on October, 2005.
- Supercars.net article on Ferrari 250 GTO
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