288 GTO unique factory builds?

FWIW, here is yet another GTO as posted in this thread from a decade ago also with the red leather seat inserts
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/137086169/ judging by some of the other small mods perhaps it's safe to assume that this is a post-production non-factory application, making a total of 3 known cars that have made this modification after production. A reasonable assumption would be that the owners did not care for the way the orange-red fabric fades over time.

When my USA client JS sold the Lauda GTO off the Ferrari SpA Museo floor to my other USA client DB, your notes stated:

Observed on November 13, 1985, during production at the factory with the number "264" marked on the car.
Sold new 26th March 1986 through Fiat Auto SpA in Torino to the former Ferrari Formula One Driver and world champion Niki Lauda, resident in Salzburg, Austria, and at Costa Santa Eulalia, Ibiza, Spain. Price paid was Italian Lire 140'000'000. Warranty card issued and car delivered on the 3rd April 1986 with Italian tourist license plates "EE 304 AK"

As such, the conclusion was made based on your notes that was the final GTO given that the others were completed by November.

Even if based on subsequent received wisdom it has been determined that it is not the final production GTO in terms of sequence of production numbers, chassis numbers or completion dates, as it was not sold as a new car till March 26th 1986 months after production has ceased, based on the warranty card date, perhaps this was the final GTO delivered?

A witness to this GTO's late-delivery was the noted Austrian journalist Herbert Völker, who recorded that he was invited by Lauda to collect this GTO from Ferrari SpA. Völker recalled that they flew in Lauda’s Learjet from Vienna to Bologna, then, from a guarded airfield in Reggio Emilia where Ferrari SpA handed over the car, they drove GTO 58329 back to Salzburg. Says Völker: "The presentation of the GTO took place secretly because the cost of the car had been split between Fiat and Ferrari. Although it would have been grander to stage the event in Maranello, with more kisses from the boss, at least this way the exclusivity of the proceedings was guaranteed."

Völker also recalls that first drive from Reggio Emilia to Salzburg with Lauda behind the wheel as both epic and fast.

FWIW I should point out that all this historical debate of dates is of zero interest to my client, the car's current owner, who only cares that it was famously built for the legendary Ferrari F1 World Driving Champion Andreas Nikolaus Lauda.

As an aside, at this point having been an owner and driven at least a dozen GTOs, and having driven the Lauda GTO more than the car's current owner has, I can attest that the Lauda GTO is, for some unknown reason, a quick one!

Here is 58329 in all it's glory as imaged in California, still sporting the very same EE plates that Lauda used to collect the car that memorable day, the stickers expiry date is 03/87, marking one year after the car was delivered as new.

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Correct! Yet some people insist on trying to reinvent the [information] wheel

 

I don't drive them regularly now but in the 80's I did and I noticed performance as delivered was not terribly consistent. I remember one regular client had one with some unfortunate cosmetic personalization done that was noticeably faster than the norm.

 

This is still the case today.

 

I do agree that 58329 was the final 288 GTO handed over to the client. It has Scaglietti body number 264.

Marcel Massini

 

Thank you for confirming this Marcel, much-appreciated.