Red Dawn: How the Ferrari GTO Changed Everything

Is there such a thing as a subtle supercar? To the uninitiated or those taking only a quick glance, the Ferrari GTO could be a 308 – lovely, but perhaps not something worth dropping your lunch over. After all, the two have a similar profile, are exactly the same height and differ by just 60mm in length – it would be an understandable case of mistaken identity.

Those in the know, however, will soon start putting the pieces together. With a 110mm-longer wheelbase and extra 190mm in width, the GTO has a much bigger footprint with commensurate presence. The five-spoke alloys are a familiar design but a half-inch wider at the front (16 x 8.0-inch) and 2.5 inches wider at the rear (16 x 10.0-inch).

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Suddenly, it all falls into place. The extra bonnet vent, the more pronounced chin spoiler and ducktail rear, the body-coloured, high set wing mirrors – it’s not a 308, it’s a GTO! Seeing one in the wild would indeed be cause for dropping your lunch as just 272 were produced – which is a story in itself, but more on that later.

The Ferrari GTO – the commonly used but unofficial ‘288’ moniker would come later in reference to the car’s 2.85-litre, eight-cylinder engine – was first announced by Enzo Ferrari in September 1983 and made its public debut at the 1984 Geneva Motor Show.

It was intended as a technological showcase, with extensive input from the F1 team’s lead designer, Harvey Postlethwaite, and the head of powertrain for Gestione Sportiva, Nicola Materazzi, while also giving Ferrari a potential challenger for the new Group B racing and rally regulations.

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This intention gave the car its name, GTO standing for Gran Turismo Omologato – Italian for homologation – and the name carried weight, for it had been applied to just one Ferrari in history, the heroic 250 GTO. No pressure, then.

The Group B regulations were liberal, to say the least, but there were a couple of non-negotiables. At least 200 road-going examples must be made, it must have two front seats, and minimum weights and maximum tyre widths were specified depending on engine capacity.

For example, a car with a 3.0-litre engine could run at a minimum weight of 960kg with 11.0-inch-wide tyres; a 4.0-litre engine increased this to 1100kg and 12-inch tyres, while a 5.0-litre engine meant 1235kg and 13-inch tyres.
Turbocharging was starting to make major waves in motorsport in the early-1980s, so to compensate for its power-boosting ways, the FIA decreed a turbocharged engine would be deemed to be 1.4 times bigger than its actual capacity. This is where Ferrari got clever.

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A far cry from today’s heavily automated e-factory, almost every part of the GTO was put together by skilled mechanics and technicians.

Using the 308’s 2927cc V8 as a base, the GTO’s engine bore was reduced by 1mm for a swept capacity of 2855cc. Applying the FIA’s 1.4x multiplier, Ferrari’s new machine was deemed to have an engine capacity of 3997cc, a whisker under the 4.0-litre limit, yet two turbochargers and intercoolers increased outputs from the 308’s 177kW/260Nm (in Quattrovalvole guise) to 294kW/496Nm.

In order to make room for the forced induction paraphernalia, the engine was rotated 90 degrees, the GTO becoming the first Ferrari to have a longitudinally mounted V8 engine. This in turn necessitated the wheelbase stretch, but to keep the weight as central as possible (47:53 front-to-rear), the engine was mounted right up against the passenger compartment, to the point that a service hatch was installed in the bulkhead to perform certain maintenance.

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A far cry from today’s heavily automated e-factory, almost every part of the GTO was put together by skilled mechanics and technicians.

A tubular steel spaceframe comprised the GTO’s chassis, but while the doors remained aluminium, to reduce weight all other panels were either fibreglass or kevlar composite, one of the first automotive uses of the material. As a result, the GTO weighed just 1160kg dry, or around 1235kg ready to drive.
Combine this with the force-fed V8 and performance was outrageous. Two IHI turbochargers fed 0.8bar (11.5psi) of boost into the dry-sump engine to produce294kW (a neat 400hp) at 7000rpm and 496Nm at 3800rpm.

To accommodate the GTO’s 304km/h top speed potential – the first production car to breach the 300km/h mark – the five-speed manual had very tall gearing, with maximum speeds of 112/180/252/304km/h in first-fourth respectively and fifth as an overdrive. Nevertheless, 0-100km/h was claimed to take just 4.9sec and the quarter mile 12.7sec.

Stopping was equally impressive thanks to large, ventilated discs at both ends (309mm front; 310mm rear) and tyre widths were massive compared with most conventional rubber – 225/50s doing the steering and 265/50s doing the driving, making the most of the A-arm suspension.

Every GTO was painted Rosso Corsa, though a few were repainted by Pininfarina for the Brunei Royal Family, but customers could choose from two seat sizes, fabric or leather upholstery, the latter available in black or with orange inserts. Electric windows, air conditioning and an AM/FM/cassette stereo were optional.

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Pictured is a development prototype which – as can be seen next to the right taillights – was badged 288 GTO, but was never officially named as such.

The latter two added US$1300 to the US$83,400 price of the example tested by US magazine Road & Track when the GTO was new, equivalent to U$244,669 ($A375,697) in today’s money – why didn’t we all buy one?

The reason we didn’t all buy one was that only 271 of Ferrari’s VIP clients could, including Mick Jagger, Ralph Lauren and F1 drivers Keke Rosberg and Michele Alboreto. But weren’t 272 GTOs produced?

Following his retirement from Formula 1 at the end of 1985, Niki Lauda was employed as a consultant to Fiat and Ferrari and expressed his desire to become a 288 GTO owner. Ferrari regretfully informed Mr Lauda that production had ceased with all cars allocated, so this would not be possible.

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Seats were available in two sizes and with cloth or leather. Pictured orange inserts didn’t have a huge take-up rate.

Not the sort of person to take no for an answer, Lauda rang Fiat CEO Vittorio Ghidella and a plan was devised for the cost of building a 272nd GTO to be shared between Ferrari and Fiat. Lauda got his GTO.

Despite its otherworldly performance and race-derived conception, journalists who were fortunate enough to find themselves behind the three-spoke Momo steering wheel were amazed at the GTO’s useability. Its tractability, its vision and its ride comfort all made it a car that was as beautiful to drive to the shops or in the hills as around a racetrack.

evo has featured the GTO on a number of occasions over the years and subsequently quite a few of its staff have thoughts to share. Even alongside its newer siblings, the F40, F50 and Enzo, Ferrari’s original Supercar still impressed John Barker. “The GTO is sailing over this tricky surface, barely acknowledging many of the lumps, bumps and compressions.

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F114B000 V8 loosely based on that of the 308 but heavily modified under the watch of Nicola Materazzi.

“Then there’s the unassisted steering – direct, feelsome and marvellously weighted. This is clearly a very tight, sorted original, and helped by modern rubber, but it delivers, and the tougher the road, the better it gets, its twin-turbo V8 driving the tail into the tarmac and firing it up the road on a swelling, whooshing flood of torque.”

Richard Meaden added: “It flows with such ease that you can relax into enjoying the prodigious performance”.

Jethro Bovingdon was also enraptured: “The delicacy of its feedback, the rush of its turbos and the supple chassis really got under my skin. That this all comes wrapped in a compact, beautiful package is a big bonus.”

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No, not an AI-generated image, but an otherworldly scene from the GTO Legacy Tour, held in February 2024.

Perhaps the last word, however, should go to Stephen Dobie, who pitched the Ferrari against its German Group B rival, the Porsche 959.

“The GTO is an almost religious experience as you thread the car from corner to corner with minimal inputs, click-clacking up and down the open-gate gearshift and hearing the front tyres chirrup and squeal as you brake later and later. For me, the GTO is the greatest and most desirable car I have
ever driven.”

Its beautiful but understated lines don’t immediately attract attention and its performance may have long since been surpassed, but its rarity and quality means there’s no mistaking the GTO as one of the most iconic Ferraris of all time.

Legendary Specs

• Engine: V8, 2855cc, twin-turbo
• Power: 294kW @ 7000rpm
• Torque: 496Nm @ 3800rpm
• Weight: 1235kg
• Power-to-weight: 238kW/tonne
• Tyres: Goodyear Eagle VR50
• 0-100km/h: 4.9sec
• Top speed: 304km/h
• Price: US$83,400 (1985)
• evo rating *****