His son brought it to my 288 GTO Reunion with the original letter that Ferrari wrote his father, confirming this "Last" 288 GTO. The story from Ron himself was that his wife had passed away and Enzo felt like this would be some consolation. In the pic at the bottom from left to right are 58345, 57223 & 79888. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Joe, a dealer here called Tom Hartley is claiming to be selling the first 288GTO ever produced. It's not listed on their website yet but you can find some information here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=63&t=1222104&mid=111694&i=0&nmt=Tom+Hartley+selling+the+first+288+GTO+produced%2E+1+owner%21&mid=111694 is this genuinely the first 288gto ever made?
Very cool indeed. If memory serves me you or possibly someone else shared a video of Mr.Tonkin explaining the story to a small group of friends, right? How is that book and dvd coming along about the reunion? Regards, Gregg
Marcel is asking me, WHAT is the chassis number Tom is presenting as the first car?? Can anyone supply that to us ASAP? Bear in mind that there are more than a handful of prototypes, some of which left the factory looking like production cars, then there are a couple of pre-production cars, then there are the production cars. I will defer to Marcel on this one.
I was told about a 288GTO in Italy in September , it was also offered as first produced. Chassis number I was given was 52465. Obviously can't be certain we're talking about the same car here. It was being offered along with a Porsche 959 as a package.
52465 (air-conditioning, power-windows, all-black interior) is not the first prototype, pre-production car, or production car. So its not a first-of-a-series in any sense. I have it about half-a-dozen cars along production. An early car to be sure, but not a first. Perhaps Marcel will comment
Joe, that letter to Mr. Tonkin is fantastic, I also like how Mr. Ferrari speaks about the F40 in it as well. As always you are a wealth of information, it is great to read and see the pictures you post. Best, Tony
This is how the car was described to me: '288GTO Chassis 52465 is the very first 288GTO ever built. It has a total of 24,010km and is Classiche certified'
Well, now you know the "very first 288 GTO ever built" part is wrong. Certainly, the early 1984 cars are quite interesting, to be sure, and this one too, but not because of its production sequence. I have 50253, 50255 (recently in the Collezione Panini), 50719, 51837, & 52321 as production cars all before the aforementioned 52465. By the way, I think Ron Stern got the first one in England, 52469. I mention England because I think more 288 GTOs reside there than anywhere else.
Wouldn't surprise. Bear in mind sometimes the misinformation is not intentional and is simply because the homework/research hasn't been done.
Not intentional? Claiming it's the first without doing reserch to varify if it is or not is intentional. I'm sure they will want a premium due to the claim. That is if they advertise it as the first or choose no to.
Well is isn't on their site so they haven't publicly claimed anything yet. If it is the chassis you think it is hopefully they don't make the claim it's the first. Or maybe they really do have the first production car.
Maybe I'm stretching, but my first thought was - What is the chance that the "first" claim is due to information contained in the Classiche Certification and the homework that's been done (by Ferrari in this case) isn't being intentionally misrepresented by the seller? If I'm not mistaken, I've read on this site that Classiche has made mistakes in the past - wouldn't it be something if this claim of being the "first" (anything) is due to Ferrari's own mis-information?
This morning a New Zealand 288 GTO owner writes me: "the RHD Black 288 GTO has turned up in New Zealand for much work. Looks as though it has been sitting in a paddock for 20 years. No seats but still only travelled a few hundred kilometres (hard to believe looking at it)" In 2000, public records showed that Prince Jefri had spent a total of $78 million at Pininfarina SpA for coach-built Ferraris... Image Unavailable, Please Login
Perhaps the lowest-mile 288 GTO in the USA, my client's car has less than 200 miles. EE.110.AK plates still affixed. One of two 288 GTOs he owns, the other being the ex-Niki Lauda 288 GTO with over 40,000 km. Image Unavailable, Please Login
