Ferrari 250 GTO: Bending the Rules, and the Body Panels, in Style

Eagle-eyed readers will note that the vehicle blasting down the road below is not a Ferrari 250 GTO. Instead, it's that car's immediate predecessor, a mostly-forgotten effort (if that can happen to a Ferrari) called the 250GT Sperimentale, and only five were built. To stay competitive in the production GT Class 3 of road racing, Ferrari engineers devised a lightened version of their existing 250 GT short wheelbase (SWB) coupe by Pinin Farina, which had been built in as many as 170 examples. We'll get back to the "numbers built" business later.  Unlike the SWB, they fitted this revised car with the dry-sump Testa Rossa engine from 1960's all-out racers.  The new car featured more aerodynamic bodywork by PF, with nose, front fenders and roofline cribbed from their efforts on the big Superamerica touring cars.  The long, low tail created lift problems on the Mulsanne straight when this car, chassis #2643, ran on the Ferrari team at Le Mans in 1961. After trying a spoiler mounted below the rear window, Ferrari engineers decided on a more drastic approach...

That approach was to create a new car which could still be passed off to the international racing regulators, the FIA, as a version of Ferrari's well-proven (and legal) 250 GT. Giotto Bizzarrini* got the job of designing the lightened and lowered tubular chassis, which retained the live rear axle in the interest of simplicity, and the 4 wheel disc brakes of the Sperimentale.  The dry-sump SOHC engine had six Weber carburetors rather than the default 3 of the SWB, and Scaglietti's prototype bodywork, shown below, featured a lower, pointier nose, lower roofline and also lower window sills to maintain outward vision, and a blunt, unresolved tail that was sitll a work in progress.  Note that this prototype has winding windows in the doors, a feature that wouldn't be adopted on "production" versions.  Bizzarrini left Ferrari at the end of 1962, and work on the chassis and body continued under Mauro Forghieri.

The overhead view of a prototype on test in 1961 shows the tidy overall shape and hides the incomplete tail design.  Note the tiny oval air intake, much like those then appearing on Abarth GT racers, with three added intakes recessed into the alloy bodywork above it. 

The completed "production" version of the car featured the same small oval air intake, with removable covers (barely visible in the photo below) over the 3 additional intakes above it.   The word "production" is in quotations because while FIA regulations required Ferrari to produce 100 examples to homolagate it for racing, the company never managed to make more than three dozen.  Nonetheless, the name Gran Turismo Omologato, stuck, and the "GTO" moniker was ripped off soon enough by GM for a new Pontiac, where the "O"  meant…nothing.

At the tail, this "final" design had clarity and simplicity to recommend it. Sergio Scaglietti's body works had replaced the elongated lift-causing rump of the Sperimentale, and the unresolved mess of the prototype,  with a clean rearward taper and recessed flat panel containing the tail lights and license plate.  Air extractor vents retained from the prototype were tidied up and slanted to follow the wheel arches.  Altogether a nice piece of work, and if you squinted, you could almost convince yourself that it was a modified production-model SWB...

The FIA bought the idea that Ferrari had produced a hundred of these, though that never happened, and as soon as the car was homologated it began winning races.  The GTO's first track appearance was in March 1962 at the Sebring 12 Hours, where Phil Hill (World Champion for Ferrari in 1961 and disappointed at not being assigned one of the TRI prototypes) finished a surprising 2nd overall with Olivier Gendebien, right behind the TRI / 61 prototype of Jo Bonnier. Despite their second-string status to the TRI spiders, GTOs won overall victories in that year at Brands Hatch (twice), at Silverstone, and other courses. The success continued in 1963, when the cars faced E-Type Jaguar lightweights and Shelby AC Cobras.

Ferrari engineers added a distinctive turned-up spoiler at the rear of the car; this increased downforce and improved handling at the cost of a slight decrease in top speed. Most of the 33 examples of the 1962 body design for the GTO, which we'll call the Series 1, were bodied with this feature by Scaglietti...

Detail variations appeared between individual cars; note that the example above has 3 vents  behind the front wheels, while the car raced at Laguna Seca (2nd from front) has 2 vents. Sliding side windows were adopted to save weight.

Unlike the other Ferraris* in this row of racers at Laguna Seca, the GTO attempted to be a drivable road car as well as a road racer.  As soon as their racing days were over, serveral of the Series 1 cars were converted to street use; Henry Manney of Road & Track drove one for awhile.  But Enzo Ferrari knew that for 1964, his GTO would face sharper competition, so engineers worked with Scaglietti on a new body design.  When it appeared, this GTO64, or Series 2, had no panels in common with the Series 1.  It featured a more steeply angled windshield with more curvature in plan, and a wider, flatter air intake plus air scoop atop the hood, without the three recessed ones. Most strikingly, a notchback roof with an unsentimental chop and recessed, flat rear window replaced the previous fastback, all in the interest of enhanced aerodynamics.  GM Styling would later adopt this feature on the '68 Corvette.  Only 3 of the new design were built, or 7, depending upon how you count.  After initial success on the race track with the new design, 4 of the Series 1 cars returned to Scaglietti to be rebodied in the new style.  So the Ferrari team continued to bend the aluminum while it was bending the rules...

I caught up with this example of the GTO64 at the Steamboat Springs Races* back in the early 80s, when it was owned by Bob Sutherland.  He'd raced the car that day, and then displayed it on the courthouse lawn, next to an E-Type Jaguar and a Mini.  It was a pretty informal event, and there were no signs warning you not to touch the cars.  A couple years later, I checked in at Bob's garage* to support the children's symphony (always a good idea) and look at some old cars…usually a good idea, and in this case, a great one.  By then, he'd replaced the GTO with another vintage racer, a 250LM, which was a part of the Sixties design trend away from dual-purpose sports cars you could drive to the track with some hope of winning.  

Today this GTO64 might possibly buy all the buildings around that courthouse square, with some change left over. Bob Sutherland is no longer with us, and the days of racing cars on public roads are mostly gone too.  As we face new challenges, complexities and crises, we may look back with some yearning at times when things at least seemed simple...

Ferrari's GTO was, despite the Holy Grail status as a collector trophy which now may prevent us from viewing it objectively, a pretty good road racer, and for awhile, a spectacular used car value.  For the most part, though, it fought a losing battle in the trend-setting department, if not on the track.  After it, few road racing cars would resemble production road cars, or would trust simple features like live rear axles, and their manufacturers wouldn't even try to pass them off as versions of their production cars.  It's both ironic and fitting that though Ferrari's 250 GTO was the last of the "simple" dual-purpose sports cars, it's now the most valuable car produced during its era...

*Footnote:  A photo essay of other Ferrari endurance racers from the 1960s appears in "Lime Rock Concours: Alfa, Bugatti, Ferrari, Maserati & Etceterini", which was posted on September 17, 2019.  Giotto Bizzarrini's designs for his own car-building firm are reviewed in "The Etceterini Files Part 17" from Feb. 14, 2019, and "The Etceterini Files Part 18", posted Feb. 27, 2019.  A photo essay on the Steamboat Springs Races was presented as "Lost Roadside Attraction: Vintage Racing in Steamboat Springs" on Jan. 31, 2019. Other Ferrari and Bugatti cars from the Sutherland collection appear in "On a Lazy Afternoon in 1987",  posted May 18, 2019. 

Color Photo Credits:  All color photos were taken by the author except for the front and rear close-up shots of the Series 1 GTO, which were submitted by LT Jonathan D. Asbury, USN.

Monochrome Photo Credits:  

Top:  modelart111.com

2nd & 3rd:  wikimedia

4th & 5th:   ferrari.com