Ferrari Cars
Ferrari cars are the best. This page is on the documentary on my favorite Ferrari and the said to be the greatest Ferrari.
The Ferrari GTO is a dual-purpose car. These are cars that are designed for both the street and racetrack. In this great tradition, an owner could drive the car to the track, race it, and then drive it home. It is a fact that characteristics that make a car excel on the racetrack do not make for a good street car and what makes a good street car will make a car uncompetitive on the race track. In the early 1960s, technology was such that succeeding in both areas was possible.
Part of the lure of the GTO is its exclusivity; only 40 were built. In theory at least 100 should have been built, as this was the number required to qualify the car at the time for international sports car racing. In fact the letters "GTO" stand for "Gran Turismo Omologato" which translates into "Grand Touring Homologated" or "approval" for racing. It was either Enzo Ferrari's name or his inscrutable charm that enabled the rule makers to let the technicality slip by.
Enzo Ferrari raced in the 1920’s, in the 30’s he went on to run the Alfa Romeo works team as Scuderia-Ferrari. He became frustrated with Alfa’s decision to concentrate its efforts on road car production and felt Alfa were neglecting their racing heritage, he left the company and began building his own cars, enter the Legend...
Many, many racing successes followed, but he soon realized road car production was vital to finance his racing ambitions. His first engine was a simple V-12 with a light alloy block and cylinder heads, narrow valve angles, 1500cc with tiny 125cc cylinders, 3 twin-choke webers and twin ignition distributors (remember this is in 1947)
Ferrari hit the world headlines in 1964 with the launch of the 275 GTB, a Ferrari with all new suspension, and a comfortable to drive Ferrari and of course, extremely quick.
In 1968 the Ferrari Daytona 365GTB/4 was launched, the last GT front-engine Ferrari supercar. The car was named in honor of Ferrari’s success in the American 24-hour race of the same name, 365 denotes the capacity of each cylinder, four stood for the number of camshafts. This sensational motorcar had a top speed of 70mph, in reverse gear that is! Forwards just 175mph.
To celebrate 40 years of production Ferrari built the F40, a road-legal racer, a twin turbo 3-litre 478 bhp 200mph supercar.
Enzo said, if it’s not enough we can fit a wider camshaft and larger turbos.......then you have 678bhp!
Sadly Enzo did not live to see the F50, a similar car to the F40 but with a 4.7 litre engine and no turbo’s. Performance of both the F40 and F50 was almost identical (the F50 slighter quicker acceleration and top speed) The F50 is really an out-and-out racer for the road, not a developed road car. The V-12 engine is bolted directly to the carbon-fibre chassis. Despite more power than the F40, maximum speed will be no greater, ground effect is more important.
This 1958 250 GT Spyder California had the body built by Scaglietti although the design came from Pinnin Farina. Just over 100 Spyder’s were built, Ferrari thought this would be an ideal competition road car, but most owners thought this car was just too nice to race! In the early 60’s the California was modified to a short-wheel-base form, many thought it even better looking than the 1958 version. Production ceased in 1963.