Ferrari 250 GTO
Ferrari 250 GTO was a racing supercar and racing car built by Ferrari with the beginning of the year 1960. She is largely regarded as the quintessence of the Ferrari models, and one of the most famous sport scars of all times. Number 250 corresponds to volume in cubic centimeters of each cylinder of the Moteur while GTO means " Gran Turismo Omologata" in Italian is " Approved for Large Tourisme".
In 2004, Sports Because International placed the 250 GTO in the eighth place in the list of the best sport scars of the years 1960. Motor Trend Classic , as for, named him the 250 GTO in the first place of the list " Better Ferrari of all temps".
Development
The 250 GTO was conceived to take part in races of Great Tourism. It was about an orthodoxe evolution (some will say preserving) 250 WP SWB. The chief engineer Giotto Bizzarrini took the frame of the 250 WP SWB and with the engine V12 3,0 L of the 250 Testa Rossa associated it. After Bizzarrini and the majority of engineers de Ferrari were laid off following an argument with Enzo Ferrari, the development was entrusted to the new engineer Mauro Forghieri and to the designer Sergio Scaglietti. The admirable body was drawn starting from the work of Bizzarrini and Scaglietti then refined afterwards tests in Soufflerie and on circuit. Contrary to the majority of Ferrari, it was not conceived by only one individual or a company of design. The remainder of the car was a synthesis of Ferrari technology of the beginning of the year 1960: a Frame welded with the hand, a front suspension with arm and a Bridge-engine with the back, brakes discs, Borrani rims with rays. If the gear box with five reports/ratios marked a progress, it was not nevertheless really revolutionary. The metal grid of change of report/ratio, with the first shifted in bottom on the left, will become the standard on Ferrari following. Only the arrival of the boxes with six reports/ratios (which will preserve the famous metal grid) will modify the provision of the reports/ratios, with the first in top on the left. The interior was stripped and simplified to the extreme, so much so that the tachometer was not regarded as necessary for the instrument panel.
Victories in race
According to the rules of the TRUSTED, for the races of sporting cars, at least a hundred specimens must be built so that a model is approved in the WP category (contrary to the category of the prototypes). Ferrari had built only thirty-nine 250 GTO (thirty-three “normals”, three with an engine of four liters, sometimes called “330 GTO” but more correctly 330 LMB, and three “Type 64” with a modified body), however the car was authorized to take part in races of WP category. Some say that Ferrari argued by affirming that the model was technically only one modification of the 250 WP SWB, others say that the anger of Ferrari was such as it was better for the sport to let take part the team rather than to discuss with the irritable one and goes away (with the great disappointment of the fans) Scuderia Ferrari.
The car began with the 12 hours from Sebring in 1962, controlled by the team of the American Phil Hill (world champion of F1 in 1961) and the Belgian Olivier Gendebien. Although constrained at the beginning to drive a car of WP category instead of one of Rossa Tested completely conceived for the race and classified in the category of the prototypes, the tested duet was impressed itself (and all others also) by finishing second in front of Tested Rossa of Joakim Bonnier and Scarfotti.
This success was not due to a stroke of luck; the 250 GTO was a very powerful racing racing car. At the time of its introduction it acted, according to the staging of the gear box and the final ratio of reduction gearing, of the fastest car in straight line on any circuit. Moreover, its performances were allied with a healthy road behavior and overall with a car without major defect. In the pure tradition Ferrari, that made it possible the normal drivers to be excellent and the good drivers to have an unsurpassable advantage. The years of development devoted to the important components and the traditional reliability of Ferrari guaranteed moreover that the car held good until the race end. Final, the GTO made it possible Ferrari to gain three years of at a stretch, 1962,1963 and 1964, the championship of the best manufacturer in the world.
Production
The weak production (39 vehicles) made it possible Ferrari to be very selective on the potential buyers. While being in the good graces of Enzo Ferrari itself, or of its American northern ambassador Luigi Chinetti, one could with: 18000 dollars (dollars of beginning of the year 60) to buy best the WP of race available at the time.
The 250 GTO is perhaps one of the last cars of this level to present the behavior of a road normal. In a more visible way, it was one of the last engine cars before truly competitive on such a level. At the time, before the popularization of the races of cars of time, the 250 GTO faced the same destiny as the other racing racing cars: when they became obsolete, some were useful for regional races while the others were used like normal passenger cars, glorious use but nevertheless rather not very practical.
Collection and increase in the value
At the end of the Sixties and with the beginning of the year seventy, the attraction for the performances of the 250 rare GTO and other Ferrari quickly made increase their value on the market. As auto industry was to conform to new regulations and was questioned on decisions marketing, the unequalled performances of the 250 GTO conferred a new capacity of attraction to him. There was also a change in the way of considering this car: instead of regarding it as old but attaching racing racing car, of the collectors of reputation (whose Ralph Lauren) started to see in the 250 GTO and its variations like a kind of car of great art (a little like the driver luxury cars before the second world war).
The mentality of investment reached an incredible top at the end of the Eighties. Certain members of the baby-boom being considerably enriched and the purse causing more and more interrogations, the commercial value of luxury cars, particularly of Ferrari, flew away, the 250 GTO being the example most representative of the mark, the price of these cars reached tops. This phenomenon of rise of the prices was particularly marked in 1988, at the time of the death of Enzo Ferrari, founder of the mark to the pulled up horse. One of these 250 GTO, seized by the FBI with a salesman of drug, was sold with the biddings in 1998 approximately 2 million dollars, which was exorbitant at the time, but 3 years later, that proved to be a good investment. The last 250 GTO sold with the biddings was it in 1991 in Las Vegas, the sum was then of 5,5 million dollars. The legend wants that one 250 GTO was sold with a Japanese collector for approximately 15 million dollars. Into semi-2007, the coasts indicated this car at a price ranging between 8 and 9 million dollars.
The factor money, the strong attraction and the scarcity of the car involved a big number of false 250 GTO based on more common Ferrari frames. There are currently much more cars resembling 250 GTO on the roads than all those conceived by the team of Scaglietti. The counterpart Alpha One of the 250 GTO used a frame of Z-because Datsun and could be seen in a film of John Candy: Delirious . During the scenes of opening of the film Vanilla Sky, the main actor leads one 250 black GTO, however it was revealed later that it was about a different car modified to resemble one 250 original GTO. To a lower level, copies of sale contracts of cars of origin, built by not very scrupulous people but also of the copies of the cars of origins, were brought back. Although it did not sell it, an obvious example was that of Charles Brocket, which made pass its 250 GTO for original whereas it was about a counterpart. That was revealed only at the time of a fraud to the insurance in 1996.
With the beginning of the year 2000, the price of the strongly required models of Ferrari increased considerably. The market price for one 250 GTO, at the end of 2006, flew away to reach one of its more historical high levels. To be one of its happy owners, a minimum of 10 million dollars was necessary on this date.
References
-
official site of Ferrari
- 250 GTO on Ultimatecarpage.com
- Supercars.net article on Ferrari 250 GTO
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