THE F70 (LaFerrari) Thread

yes.

Check my last post ... a "-O" (hyphen oh) was first added in an approval document by the sanctioning body, to indicate that the 250 GT had indeed been approved. The hyphen was dropped, and the name stuck.

In the 288 generation, Enzo decided to call the car the "GTO" ... quite early in its development process, certainly well before any approval by a sanctioning body.

Strict adherence to the procedure & meaning of "GTO" established in the first generation, means that the factory supplies the "GT", and the sanctioning body supplies the "O". This isn't just cutsie happenstance, or semantics ... its entirely consistent with the authority of the factory, versus the authority of the sanctioning body ... and , of course, the meaning of the word "omologato" (sp?).

EDIT : I'm away from home, so i am going a bit on memory. I'll be back home in about a week, and dig up the appropriate reference. Please feel free to call me out on this again, in about a week

 

Yes, 50-100 years. This is a process that will play out over a couple of generations but ours is living through the beginning of it.

-F

 

That's the way I heard the story as well.
The funny part is that nine out of ten Americans think Pontiac not Ferrari when they hear GTO.

 

a whole 'nother can o' worms!!!

Growing up in America in the 60's as a car guy (kid?), means that I loved (and continue to love) American muscle cars ... as do my oldest friends. But I can't count how many times i've had to explain that Pontiac didn't "invent" the GTO moniker ...

 

So, which other cars got an 'O' added to their name?

Doesn't it make more sense that Ferrari added the 'O' themselves, after receiving homologation?

 

So, what you are saying is that Enzo sent them the papers for the car to be homologated and in order for them to indicate that the car achieved the prerequisites, they put an "O" next to its name. For that to have happened, it means that the Italian federation homologated the car, since that is an italian word. Even if that is true (which I do not doubt), all they did was to put an "O" next to the existing name. They could have put an OK for that matter. The actual name of the model though was Ferrari's decision. He just liked the GTO moniker and thus kept it. He could have named it the "Mary Poppins" should he wished so. Likewise, anyone can call a car "GTO" or "FTO" or "ABCDEFG". Pontiac actually nicked the GTO name for one of their models. No problem whatsoever. The fact that a clerk put an "O" next to the "250 GT" name, merely gave Enzo an idea. The car was not named by the FIA or the Italian Federation; they just inadevertently provided the inspiration for it.

 

Even fewer folks remember that GTO wasn't the first name Pontiac borrowed from Ferrari.
Remember their version of the 2+2?

 

Guys we have done the " why did they call the 599 GTO a GTO" to death (go and search those threads please) and lets get back to topic
Pete

 

What? They made a GTE?

-F

 

I hear you Pete but when a thread that's 99% speculation runs this long it's tough to stay on topic.
I hope that we'll have something substantive to talk about before too long.

 

No that was scheduled to be a 63 Edsel.

 

fair enough. So let's "extrapolate" your point :

The 288 GTO was indeed a GTO ... simply because Enzo decided to call it a GTO (well before any involvement of a sanctioning body). By that very same logic, the 599 GTO is indeed a GTO ... simply because Ferrari decided to call it a GTO.

All i'm saying is, the 599 GTO was not the first GTO to stray from the "rule" of the first generation. In the first generation, the "O" in GTO did not mean : "intended to race" by the factory, nor "designed to race" by the factory. Instead, it meant : "approved to race" by the sanctioning body. Ferrari already strayed from this meaning, in the second generation.

I have no problem, by the way, proudly calling all three generations "GTO" !!!!!!

EDIT : I wrote "proudly", even though i have no personal investment in the 250 GTO generation Full disclosure requires me to mention, though, that i do have a substantial personal investment in the last two generations ... !!

 

We seem to be in agreement sir.

 

Not meaning to derail, but this is just incorrect.

The V12 and 4WD was deliberately replaced due to the sheer size and weight of the car and their affect on usability and handling (the concept is a whole 13 inches(!) longer and meant to be much heavier than practical). These changes were sanctioned *before* the car was announced as a production car so nobody was duped.

Therefore, saying the V6 was not wanted belies the fact that people were queuing up, the night before orders were to be received, at the factory and dealerships around the world and, although only 350 cars were allocated to be built, four times that many sold out in only one day!

The recession that hit, with it's clamour to off-load the car and get back the deposits, has fired these rumours of a 'covert' or unwanted engine change.

Anyway, sorry for going off-topic.

 

Interesting.

 

I would say, though, that that era had a whole "who has a bigger penis" vibe to it, which started with the 959 vs. f40. When Jaguar released that its car had a V6, and the EB110 had a quad turbo V12, the F50 would have an F1 derived V12, the McLaren had a V12... The Jag looked bad on paper...and a lot of times customers buy these cars by "on paper" stats... I love the XJ220, I think it's a really striking car... I like it a lot better than the Veyron, or any of the boutique shop supercars (except for Pagani)...

It has a relation to what I said earlier. the 2010's will be about efficiency, and ways to make a green supercar. McLaren is already on the attack, with the V12's are dinosaurs statement...

 

Great Song, Mark K is not only one of the best musicians but an avid car nut.

Jim I spoke to Alain DeCadenet over at Laguna Seca and apparently Mark has quite a bit of Ferrari's. I thought he only has a 275 GTB/4

 

Any takers? Or are they sworn to secrecy?

 

Well the US dealers apparently do not have an approved list of buyers yet..

 

how many will be produced?

 

I put your wife on the list.

 

DS is my favourite band of all time.

Don't forget also about MK's Maserati Birdcage that he vintage races.

 

She prefers the FF as it snows a lot here and she wants to have at least 3 kids!

 

Is it honestly any different now?
Veyron, oh and Veyron SS and SSV
New Enzo, the 'Luca' ;o)
P12
Huayra
One-77
918
Sesto Elemento
Aventador
SSC Tuatara
760RS, LH etc
M600
Venom GT
CTR3
Apollo
to name a few..