When a car sells at auction for over 50 million dollars, we are no longer just talking about a car. We are talking about a work of art. The Ferrari 250 GTO is the most expensive car ever sold at auction, and for collectors it is the “holy grail”. Behind the fame, though, is a race car built to win, and it did.
Photo: Neil / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Why “GTO”
The letters stand for “Gran Turismo Omologato”, a Gran Turismo homologated for racing. In the early 1960s the world sports car championship had a GT class, and to race a car at least 100 had to have been built. Ferrari had no intention of building 100 GTOs.
Enzo Ferrari persuaded the FIA that the GTO was not a new car but an evolution of the 250 GT SWB, of which plenty had already been built. The FIA accepted it. So Ferrari could build as many GTOs as it wanted, and in the end it built only 36.
Bizzarrini, Scaglietti and the V12
Development was started by engineer Giotto Bizzarrini, who worked hard on aerodynamics, something fairly new at the time. He lowered the nose, moved the engine further back and lower, and tested the body on the track and the road. In 1961, however, Bizzarrini left Ferrari with other senior staff after a major clash with Enzo. The work was completed by the young Mauro Forghieri and coachbuilder Sergio Scaglietti, who shaped the aluminium by hand.
The engine was Colombo’s 3-litre V12, in the version from the 250 Testa Rossa race car, with six Weber carburettors and about 300 horsepower. The gearbox had five speeds, rare at the time.
Photo: Neil / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Three championships
The 250 GTO won the GT manufacturers’ championship in the over-2-litre class in 1962, 1963 and 1964. It won its class at Le Mans, Sebring, the Tour de France Automobile and dozens of other races. It was a car you could drive to the track, race and drive home.
Enzo Ferrari personally chose who could buy a GTO. Money was not enough. The buyer had to be a known driver or a customer who would race the car properly and honour the Ferrari name.
Photo: Guy Churchward / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
From 18,000 dollars to 50 million
When new, a 250 GTO cost about 18,000 dollars in America. Today all 36 cars survive, and almost none change hands publicly. When one does, prices break records: in 2018 one sold at auction for 48.4 million dollars, and in 2023 another for over 51 million. Private sales are said to have gone even higher.
The 250 GTO combines everything that makes a car a legend: beauty, rarity, victories and history. Perhaps that is why, sixty years on, no other car has taken its throne.
P.Kefalas