FERRARI 288 GTO

Kudos on a job well done.... even now Enzo is cracking a rare smile.

Joe

www.joesackey.com

 

Good for you. That is what I love to hear.

 

+1...That the people uses their cars and dont have it there like a " garage queen"

 

An owner tells me GTO stands for "Get Tools Out". Can anybody confirm??

Joe
www.joesackey.com

 

I think you are referring to the Pontiac version. My Fcar has been bullet proof

 

That car is pure sex.

 

The first post of this thread blows away any post in the bikini and/or ass threads !! That's all I gotta say.

 

The car was delivered last week... Wednesday seems like the day I'll get to know it more intimately

I can't wait!

 

GTO = "Get Tools Out"? Not mine anyway. Now, that phrase would have expressed my feelings for my Miura SV. We eventually joked that every time I took the Miura SV out, it was going to cost at least $1K in something.

The trick with GTOs is to get someone that knows what they are doing set them up properly. (I guess the same would make the difference on the Miura SV as well.) From the factory, they were not and had lots of updates. In addition, unlike the F40, there was no Factory Service Manual. The belief was, back in the day, if you didn't know what you were doing, don't touch the car.

I have lots of stories of the car sitting in 100 degree stop and go traffic and it could have cared less. But, probably the best story, is driving from Los Gatos to Thunderhill Park (Willows, CA) one morning for a track day. The temperature is 109 degree ambient at the track. I track the car, whip some supercharged Z06, which eventually blew up in the heat, and drive the car home that evening. First stop is at the gas station at Willows. 360s and 355s are lined up waiting at the pump. I can't figure out what is going on. I was told they are waiting for the cars to cool to get gas into them. Seems odd to me. The GTO had no problem. In goes the fuel, off I go watching the 360/355 owners waiting to put gas in the cars. In Vacaville, it's 108 degrees and the traffic is stop and go. The GTO makes it home at evening without a hitch. And, this is a turbo car that, in theory, hates heat.

Now, the GTO, like the F40, Miura, etc. will lighten your wallet. Parts can be expensive and hard to find. Because I use mine frequently I have acquired quite a stash of parts from original body panels, fuel rails, turbos, ECUs, etc. Sometimes you do get lucky and find a correct part on a junk yard car, like the unobtainium Weber fuel pumps which the Maserati BiTurbo was nice enough to use. But, some items, like the fuel rails, are unique to the car. And those valves, you would have thought, given the price from Ferrari, that they were made from some metal not found or invented yet. When I last priced them, about seven years ago, the exhaust valves were something like $475 per valve. 8 cylinders, 4 valves, x $475 = Take my breath away. And to think someone on some other thread thought you could rebuild a motor for $20K to $25K. You're two thirds there just on the valves. Pistons, oddly enough, were cheap. Don't bother pricing the rear wheels. They haven't been available from Ferrari for damn near forever. The downside to owing a limited production car, parts can be a challenge. The upside, as a GTO owner, is that most people don't drive them so they leave the spare parts for me to use. How considerate.

One last point, nothing kills a car quicker than sitting. And, most GTOs, unfortunately, sit. So, the first thing you need to do is rip through the car to get it right. Back in 1993 when I purchased mine, that was $30K in basic crip-crap to get it up to snuff to be daily driver quality.

Steve

 

Great write-up.

Joe
www.joesackey.com

 

Steve you were a HUGE help on my journey to GTO ownership. Just to clarify, I was not knocking higher mileage GTO's ...just that the one in Netherlands had some mods and mileage higher.

Believe me, I am putting my "SCHUMI 1" personalized plates on the car, and working to add many glorious miles to the 6,000 on mine now!

Thank you again

 

Good for you. Nothing is worse for a GTO than to sit. Well, other than the drop in value as owners seem to want Ferraris with less than 3K miles on them. Or, as people in the trade say, Buers would rather be lied to about the mileage as long as the odometer currently states the miles are low.

As mentioned in some other post, I made a comment about purchasing a couple of used 288 GTO Speedometers from a USA Ferrari Dealer. I asked why the speedometers where for the sale? I was told the owners didn't want that kind of mileage showing on their car. I purchased them just as a reminder to potential buyers of Ferraris the stuff that goes on out there.

The mileage on the speedometers you ask? A bit over 8000 on one, 6000 on the other. Buyers beware, there are at least two GTOs in the USA that have a bit more mileage on them than anyone is willing to admit. I'm sure the service records will be conveniently missing on those cars.....

Steve

 

Dear Steve,
Thanks for sharing your experience with one of the greatest cars ever built. I have read this thread twice and I always come back to see what is new. Thanks!

 

Have records to verify or don't believe the mileage...that's the best policy.

Carlo

 

Sound advice. Congrats on your purchase Carlo. Your timing was great!

 

Beautifull, really nice GTO. Nice 599 too!

 

I got mine in January, I had to wait for all our snow to melt, but I have 800 miles on it so far, including two track days...
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Of course, then there is this view...
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

stunning pics of a stunning car - thanks for sharing

 

Beautiful... on the 959 though - do you know whether its under show and display or converted? I heard they're illegal in the USA.

 

Hasn't Bill Gates got a 959?

 

Yes, but AFAIK it is (was?) under S&Display. I know there's also a company that mods 959 to USA legal spec. Remember going through their site..

 

Bruce Canopy does it, did it for Jerry Seinfeld, and others... a bit slow, unfortunately, (actually very slow) but quality work if you want to drive your 959 here.

His company supports his habbit of buying, owning, driving etc. 917's

 

This car stayed parked at the track, but the owner had a plate on it. He said it needed work before he tracked it. A shame, I was hoping to chase him in the GTO, two cars that should have raced.....

 

Beautiful GTO Tom...