What is the most historically significant Ferrari?

Whenever someone asked Enzo which was the most significant/important Ferrari, he said, "the next one." I guess that would be too cliche an answer; technically, it wouldn't be an answer at all.

But even more cliche is my actual answer: the 250 GTO. It's the not the rarest of Ferraris, nor is it the fastest. But I believe it's the most significant of the company's history. It was a road car - a beautiful, fast-in-its-day, sexy car that you could put a license plate on and drive around. You could take it to work or use it on weekends for coastal cruises or canyon runs. You could even take it to the market and pick up a few sundries. But, if you knew what you were doing, you could also take it to the track; and absolutely embarrass anything and everything else that might've been there. You could pull it out of the garage, drive it to the racetrack, disgrace anyone else who dared show up, and then drive it home. It was the original Challenge Stradale. And today, it's regarded as the holy grail - not just the holy grail of Ferrari, but the holy grail for the whole of the automobile as we know it. It is the benchmark by which all other collectible cars are compared. Brand new, they were under $20K. Today, the best examples can't be had for less than $30MM, and there's never a word that a GTO is for sale - it only becomes public knowledge after the fact. In 2006, a GTE-based 250 GTO replica sold for a quarter of a million dollars; an emulation, an impression, an homage, it was a r e p l i c a, and it sold for more than what many brand new sports cars sell for these days.

Sure you can say the 250 GTO might not have existed if it weren't for the 250 GT SWB; and you can rewind from there and eventually get back to the TdF, which was another iconic race-dominating Ferrari road car. Go back even further and you'll get to some of Ferrari's earliest creations. Before that, as someone already mentioned, you could consider the Scuderia shield-adorned Alfa piloted by the great Nuvolari. But not everyone instantly recognizes a long wheelbase berlinetta or a 166MM. Some peoples' brows wrinkle in confusion when say words like sharknose or Vignale-bodied cabriolet. But 250 GTO? Everyone knows that. Its design, its performance, its achievements, its legend, its provenance - those things all culminate in the most poignant significance of Ferrari's history.

 

It's funny but our modern view of the 250GTO being this comfortable capable road car is not how they saw it back in period. This is why Stirling Moss considers the SWB as Ferraris best road car, for all the reasons 134282 just stated.

Of course now many GTOs are fully trimmed, etc. ... not how they were!
Pete