My GTO Review: Fairly Long Post

This is a fairly rough draft on an article I am working on for the South African Ferrari Club, I contribute to the club magazine.

Its not totally finished but I thought some may enjoy it nonetheless,its terribly hard to write an article that does the car justice! The top part was written by my friend the owner of the car.

The keys have been thrown my way but think I want to spend a bit more time in the passenger seat before I comtemplate taking the wheel of this monster.

"Standing at the famous green gates at Ferrari one November morning I had time to reflect on what it means to be here, today I would be collecting my 599 GTO but standing here there was a tremendous sense of history, the drivers who have walked under that arch, some of the very best in the world, cars that have driven out this gate, icons like the 250 Testa Rossa, 250 SWB, 500 superfast and the iconic 250 GTO. To say this is a special place is an understatement.

That moment was soon eclipsed by being taken to the end of the 599 GTO production line, there being a car under a cover, the cover removed and just wow, there it was my very own 599 GTO, the culmination of a journey that started when I went to the world launch of a 599 GTO in April. Seeing the car was a special moment and one I shall treasure forever.

On 20 December my GTO arrived in Cape Town and the journey was well and truly complete. The thrill of seeing the car driven down from the container was tangible. Two days later I got to drive her for the first time and well you can read the account written by the good friend Jacques below, we have been a few Ferrari journey together but I think for both of us this was the ultimate.




I have a saying; it goes like this “to understand the present we need to understand the past”.

Wherever you may be at this moment, stop and think about the glorious 64 year history of Ferrari, think back to the first time you saw a Ferrari, the first time you drove in a Ferrari and that magical day when you took your first Ferrari home. I am sure I have stirred up some memories. At the same time, think of the emotions that accompanied each of those events.

Ferrari has built many great cars, many drop dead gorgeous cars and many, many race winning cars. Then there is the mystique attached to Enzo Ferrari, the way he recruited drivers, the way he never left Italy, kept royalty waiting, he was a legend, perhaps never intended to be but it was inevitable.

In a list of exceptional cars there are examples that truly stand out; three of these examples carry a simple moniker: GTO.

In 1962 Ferrari created what many in later years would call the world’s greatest GT sports racing car, the iconic 250 GTO. The development of this car was completed by a young engineer Mauro Forghieri, a man who would be responsible for the development of the flat 12 engine as well as playing an integral part in Ferrari’s F1 team in the 1970’s. What’s less clear is that 250 didn’t become an icon over night, sure it won 3 championships for Ferrari but by the early 1970’s they were just old racing car, you could find them in classifieds for sale, for as little as $5000.

The 250 was designed to race and it did that very well but then the 1960s were very different to today, it was possible race V12’s, there was less politics in racing and privateers could compete against works teams. It should be noted most of the 250 GTO glorious race history can be attributed to privateers.

1984 brought us the 288 GTO; a car designed to race in Group B but ultimately never did due the banning of the series after a sequence of fatal accidents. The 288 GTO was developed by Dr Harvey Postlethwaite, the 288 pioneered the use of advanced composites on Ferrari road cars and again the shape penned by Leonardo Fioravanti is today widely recognized being simply stunning.

It’s interesting to note a common thread among GTO’s so far, all were based on other models in the Ferrari range.

It’s against this back drop that I move onto the 599 GTO. The parallels with the 250 are easy to see, front mounted V12 engine and GT body. Some of you will about now be saying but it wasn’t built to race and you would be right but lets for a minute look at this. The GTO is based on the experimental 599 XX which had the world been different could have raced; instead today Le Mans is ruled by the diesel engine and not the vocal V12.

It was with this nostalgia and 64 years of Ferrari history in mind that I went to meet the newest GTO.

Walking up to a 599 GTO one cant but be awed by its appearance, that aggressive nose, those massive front wheels, however there are curves and perhaps the biggest nod to the 250, a lip on the boot. It’s a car that doesn’t shout, doesn’t need to sport fancy body kits, t has class. I would say it has a unique aura.

Inside the car is bare basic, no carpets, no leather and none of those luxury items that add weight, sure, there is air con but that’s about it. The atmosphere is unique and highly sporting, there is a sense there is nothing in this car to distract one from the art of driving, nothing to distract one from the glorious V12

Start up that V12 and it starts with a growl unlike any Ferrari I have ever heard, it’s a raw bark and the settles to a growling idle. On the road the car is simple astonishing, it rides well but the whole car has this feeling of being at one, there is a focus I haven’t felt in any other Ferrari including the 430 Scud. The gearbox is superb but it’s that mighty engine that steels the show and what an engine it is. Low down in the rev range it growls menacingly but at 5500 rpm onwards it take on a whole new tone, a hair raising scream as it races up to 8000 rpm, its to me the best sounding engine I have ever head and it causes instant goose bumps. Windows down the cabin becomes perhaps the finest mobile concert hall in the world. Imagine Pavarotti reaching for high notes in Nassum Dorna and you have some idea of the sound the GTO makes in the high rev range.

The acceleration that accompanies that orchestra is nothing short of savage, in some ways its scary at the rate it chases the horizon, the gearshifts are super fast and the whole car has morphed into nothing short of a road going race car. In fact the sound and looks are so shattering motorists literally pull off to the side of the road.

Inside the feeling this car gives its occupants is nothing short of phenomenal, it’s hard to describe but it’s even more extreme than a 430 challenge, more intense than a 458 and there is no comparison to a 599 GTB. Handling, well it simply sublime, there is no body roll during cornering. Press reports talk about “front end power” and that’s no lie, under steer doesn’t seem to exist, instead the car feeling half its size and half its weight.

Cars are not defined by figures but rather the experiences they give one and for me the 599 GTO experience is an incredible one. One cant help but think that as that V12 screams toward 8500 rpm Enzo Ferrari is looking down, a wry smile on his face because the 599 GTO combines everything that’s great about Ferrari. It’s stupendously fast and has that unique focus that only cars bearing the hallowed GTO nameplate have.

The 599 GTO is a phenomenal achievement and to fully understand what a truly remarkable achievement I have to repeat the following “to understand the present you need to understand the pass”, when looked at in that manner the 599 GTO will I have no doubt take its place as one of the greatest Ferrari’s ever made. For me it’s simply the most incredible car I have ever had the great privilege of experiencing."