CarBrandLogos archive · Ferrari · 1962

Ferrari250 GTO

Thirty-six cars, three consecutive world titles, and the highest prices ever paid for any car.

Photo: MrWalkr · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Ferrari history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Ferrari 250 GTO, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The GTO was built to win a specific championship under a specific set of rules. The FIA's GT category required homologation of a production model, and Ferrari's answer for 1962 was to present the car as a development of the 250 GT SWB rather than the new machine it effectively was — hence the O, for omologato. The governing body's willingness to accept this has been argued about ever since.

1962 Ferrari 250 GTO engine · No machine-readable author provided. Sfoskett~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

Giotto Bizzarrini did the engineering, and the priorities were aerodynamic. The 3-litre Colombo V12, fed by six Weber carburettors and derived from the Testa Rossa sports racer, was set low and well back in the chassis; the nose was dropped and the radiator opening made as small as cooling allowed; the tail was cut off with a spoiler after wind tunnel and high-speed testing. Scaglietti built the bodies, and the shape that resulted — long bonnet, three vents behind the front wheels, abrupt Kamm tail — was arrived at functionally and has been imitated ever since. Bizzarrini was gone before the car raced, one of the engineers who left in the 1961 walkout, and Mauro Forghieri finished the job.

Collection car Musée Ferrari 035 · Arnaud 25 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Ferrari 250 GTO ser. no. 3647GT interior

In production

On track it did what it was built to do, winning the over-2-litre class of the FIA's GT championship in 1962, 1963 and 1964, with class wins at Le Mans, victories in the Tour de France Automobile and results across every significant endurance event of the period. It was fast enough to beat prototypes on some circuits and durable enough to be driven to them.

Ferrari 250 GTO ser. no. 3647GT interior · ColinMB · CC BY-SA 3.0

Legacy

Thirty-six were built between 1962 and 1964, in two body styles, and Ferrari controlled who was allowed to buy one. That scarcity, combined with an unusually complete competition record and the fact that most survive with known histories, has made the GTO the most valuable car in the world by a wide margin, changing hands privately and at auction for sums that have repeatedly set records. The 250 LM and later the 288 GTO followed it, but nothing has matched its standing.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1962–1964

Engine

2,953 cc

Designer

Giotto Bizzarrini

Body

2-door berlinetta

Technical specification

The 250 GTO, in detail.

Production: 1962–1964; (36 produced)
Class: Sports car
Body style: 2-door berlinetta
Layout: FR layout
Engine: 2,953 cc ; Ferrari Colombo engine#250; Tipo 168 Comp/62 60º V12 ; Overhead camshaft#Single Overhead camshatf; SOHC 2 valves per cylinder valvetrain configuration ; 6 Weber carburetor; Weber 38 DCN carburetors ; Compressi
Transmission: 5-speed manual
Designer: Giotto Bizzarrini ; Scaglietti; Sergio Scaglietti
Manufacturer: Ferrari