288 GTO Super Car 25th Anniversary
With just 273 made, the 288 GTO Pininfarina design is the rarest of modern Ferrari’s. GTO or in Italian, “Gran Turismo Omologato” meaning Grand Touring Homologated are seen in the U.S. as a gray market car. The Italian factory chose not to sell the GTO here in the U.S. (though we have the biggest market for Ferrari). Sometimes you got to keep something for yourself. In this case the GTO was to remain in Europe.Interesting fact: the 288 number represents 2.8 liters and 8 cylinders. Same as the 246, 308 and 512.
I had the rare privilege of driving a GTO that belonged to my friend Claudio of Sherman Oaks, California. It was absolutely awesome to be behind the wheel of such beauty. The ride was much like that of a refined 308 until the boost kicked in.
Ferrari built the 288 GTO for one reason – Racing in the Group B. Group B was the pinnacle of the rally class in the 80’s. Crazy horsepower F1 technology made rallying fun to watch. To be able to race in this class, Ferrari had to make minimum of 250 of these cars. Ferrari had no idea that the car would fetch such huge prices in the market place. I remember people buying them and touring around and reselling them for huge profit.
Personally I thought this was a huge publicity stunt by Ferrari for this car and the factory. It paid off big.
The Group B referred to a set of regulations introduced in 1982 for competition vehicles. The rally racing is regulated by FIA. The Group B were some of the quickest, most powerful and sophisticated rally cars ever built. There were some major accidents. Many spectators were killed. I used to watch these races on TV could not believe how close the spectators were able to get to the cars while racing. I ended up buying my 1984 R5 Turbo 2 because of its racing heritage of Group B. 1986 was the last year for the Group B class. Too many deaths happened not only amongst drivers but race spectators.
The 288 GTO lead way to the development of the F40, one of my favorite of all time modern Ferraris.
With all in this mind the yellow GTO is a 308 GTB reproduction. We could not find any in Hawaii 288 GTO to celebrate the 25th anniversary of this super car. Ben loves the 288 GTO design but not the $650,000.00 price tag. Far as I know there is only one real yellow GTO ever made? (I could be wrong.) Imagine how much that would be worth?!
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Nep… not flawless , it’s a fake one ~
mean! this GTO is flawless!