Two years ago, the article we organized featuring our client's sensational Niki Lauda GTO Image Unavailable, Please Login
Andreas Nikolaus Lauda's GTO as commissioned for him by Enzo Ferrari himself, the car I dubbed "A Kiss from Enzo" in the Octane article. I've been fortunate to experience countless GTOs, and I have to say this one is a quick one, I bet the old man asked them to blueprint the engine so his F1 World Champion wouldn't be disappointed Image Unavailable, Please Login
Joe - aside from just becoming bored with it, was there any particular reason why Lauda chose to sell thrust GTO?
I'm not sure why he sold, perhaps he was too busy with the recently-started Lauda Air, but I can tell you he regretted selling.
Nowadays you can re-live the experience of collecting a 'new' GTO @ the factory again, by sending one to them to be fully recommissioned, and taking delivery afterwards and driving it home - as a client has recently done Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
What’s does “recommissioned” entail at the factory? I would imagine part of it is Classiche certification.
Yes, could be anything from an as-needed refurbishment to a total restoration of all aspects of the car.
One of 3 GTOs known to me with red leather (not fabric) seat strip inserts by the factory Image Unavailable, Please Login
A few more from Casa Ferrari, 2017. No AC, power windows or radio. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
57709 https://www.rmsothebys.com/ff17/ferrari--leggenda-e-passione/lots/1985-ferrari-288-gto/1705124 which in fact required a significant amount of TLC
I know if no better example of how a car with virtually delivery miles can very possibly have been neglected at some point. Further evidence to Joe’s point is this photo of the same car that I took at Casa Ferrari at Pebble Beach in 2017 - notice the lack of cadmium plating. While not unusual on 288's, it is surprising for a car with less than 800 km. Image Unavailable, Please Login
The engine bay also showed some non-original ancillaries and lots of deferred maintenance. My understanding is that it went back to Ferrari Classiche to be recommissioned.
The 288 GTO is one of the most pictured car in the world. It's very hard to add pictures that show something never seen before: usually they are just pictures that show the same cars in various moment of their life. While the car development history from the conceiving up to the production starting is not very well known. My book has almost 300 pictures and 42 of them show the 288 GTO or its details, but just 6 are about something (probably) never seen before. What the book adds and it's a world premiere, is the story of the car development, that started on December 8, 1981, during a lunch at the table pictured here below. Four persons were there: one was Enzo Ferrari. Other two were Angelo Bellei and Ermanno della Casa. The fourth one, the only one still alive, told me what happened at that lunch, what Enzo Ferrari said (= ordered) and what he answered. And he also tells all the following 288 story up to the F40 Le Mans. Then Nicola Materazzi, Calogero Morreale, Dario Benuzzi, Marco Arrighi and Mario Vincenzi add some more details about the 288 GTO story. You won't find the picture here below on my book, as it's prohibited to put on a book such a picture (even if I took it in person, it's Enzo Ferrari private dining room at the Fiorano track guesthouse), but you can read all the story that is an exclusive world premiere. ciao Image Unavailable, Please Login
Very cool details from the Italian development side of the story!!! Thank you for your efforts to share these details plus a very special picture!!!!! Now how about that English-language edition...
Does anyone know of a very low mileage 288 GTO being sold through Motorcars International (Springfield, MO) in the late '90s/early '00s and hasn't been located since? They've bought/sold a few GTOs, but I'm trying to track down one specific car that is local to me.
