The Ferrari 288 GTO----A Group B-Homologated Racer, But Never Got The Call....

Today, on the ‘Full-Length’ Articles, I cover this—-The Ferrari 288 GTO. It’s not very often I cover a Ferrari, and this will be a first..I originally wanted to park this under the ‘Heroes Of Racing’ series, but seeing as it never raced, or won a race, I couldn’t park it there. Anyway, on with the car.

In the wake of the popularity of Group B, which attracted the likes of Audi and its monster quattro, Peugeot and the 205 T16, Lancia with cars like the Delta S4 and 037, and Ford, with the huge failure that is—-The RS200, Ferrari, just like Ford, decided that it wanted a slice of Group B success to take home with them, and began to make this, the 288 GTO.Albeit the fact that the segment of Group B they wanted the 288 GTO to take part in, a supposed Sports Car Class, never took off after being deemed far too expensive for the privateers it was aimed at, resulting in the Porsche 959 and 288 left with nowhere to go.. If you’ve been keeping up with the ‘Heroes Of Racing’ series, you’ll know that Group B regulations said that if you wanted to compete there, you could be as mad as you liked, so long as you made 200 of whatever car you were planning to enter there. Unfortunately, after the Untimely death of Henri Toivonen and co-driver Sergio Cresto(May they both Rest In Peace) at the ‘86 Tour de Corse, in which Henri plunged his Delta S4 into a ravine, the FIA decided that it was ‘Too Dangerous, And Too Fast’ to continue, and disestablished the class, leaving just the Group A Rally Championship. As a result, the GTO never got the call to race, and all 272 cars built over the span of 4 years(‘84 to ‘87) remained purely as road cars, and didn’t have the pedigree it’s maker wanted it to have.

Some of the GTO’s styling features were first displayed on a 308 GTB design exercise by Pininfarina shown at the 1977 Geneva Salon. The 288 GTO started out as a modified version of the 308/328 to hold down costs and to build the car quickly, but little of the 308/328 was left when the 288 GTO was finished. Easily noticeable differences were the GTOs bulging fender flares, larger front/rear spoilers, large “flag-style” wing mirrors and four driving lights at the far sides of the grille. Retained from the original 250 GTO were slanted air vents, put in the GTO’s rear fenders to cool the brakes. The GTO also had wider body panels than the 308’s because they had to cover much larger Goodyear tires mounted on racing wheels. The suspension’s height could be set higher for road use and lower for racing on tracks. Bodywork material was new and lighter for better acceleration and handing. The GTO’s weight was only 2,555 pounds, or 1128-ish kilos, compared to 3,085-3,350(1399-ish kilos to 1519-ish kilos) for the 308/328. Steel was used just for the doors because major body panels were made from molded fiberglass. Kevlar was used for the hood, and the roof was made from Kevlar and carbon fiber.

Now, the engine. The GTO was based on the MR(Mid-Engine, Rear-Wheel-Drive) 308 GTB, which used a 3.0 V8 engine. The ‘288’ refers to the GTO’s 2.8 litre V8 engine as it used a de-bored (by 1 mm) V8 with twin IHI turbochargers, intercoolers, and Weber-Marelli fuel injection. The 2855 cc engine capacity was dictated by the FIA’s requirement for a Turbocharged engine’s capacity to be multiplied by 1.4(The scale factor I mentioned about in some installments of my ‘Heroes Of Racing’ series). This gave the GTO a theoretical engine capacity of 3997 cc, just under the Group B limit of 4.0 litres.

Unlike the 308’s 2926 cc engine, the GTO’s 2855 cc engine was mounted longitudinally, using the 308’s rear trunk space. This was necessary to make room for the twin turbochargers and intercoolers. The racing transmission was mounted to the rear of the longitudinal engine, moving the rear differential and wheels aft. The arrangement also let the GTO use a more conventional race-car engine/transmission layout for such things as quick gear ratio changes for various tracks. As a result, the wheelbase was 110 mm (4.3 in) longer at 2,450 mm (96 in). The track was also widened to accommodate wider wheels and tires (Goodyear NCT 225/55 VR16 tires mounted on 8 x 16 inch Speedline wheels at the front and 265/50 VR16 mounted on 10 x 16 inch wheels at the rear) to provide increased cornering and braking performance and the ability to apply 400 hp and 366 lb-ft of torque to the ground. All this power was directed to the Rear Wheels via a 5-Speed Manual Gearbox. The GTO was an impressive performer, with a 0-60 time of somewhere around 5 seconds(Road and Track recorded 5 Seconds Dead). Ferrari claimed 0-125 mph in 15 seconds flat and a top speed of 189 mph, effectively making it the first street-legal production car to reach 186 mph.

Now, we move on to the 288 GTO Evoluzione. I haven’t managed to unearth why Ferrari made these Evoluzione models, but my guess is that they wanted to use the 288 GTO Evoluzione somewhere else, but couldn’t find the perfect category for the 288 GTO Evoluzione to enter. So, Ferrari made 277 288’s(Take these numbers with a grain of salt) in total, five of which(Six, give or take, if the development car is included, pushing the total number to a possible 278) were Evoluzione models. Compared to the 288 GTO, it sported vastly more aggressive styling and had increased power. The 2.855-litre engine was used, now putting out as much as 650 bhp at 7800 rpm, though that still depends on how high you had set Maximum Boost. With only 940 kilos of weight to push, the car had a Vmax of 225 mph. Fast, then. These five also formed the clearest link between the 288 GTO, and the legendary F40, which used a development of the 288’s 2.8-litre Twin-Turbo V8.
All five(Six?) are still in existence, with one owned by the factory currently on display in the Engine Manufacturing Facility of the Maranello plant.

So, to conclude, then. The Ferrari 288 GTO was conceived to go racing, to bring its maker back some success, some pedigree, some popularity…But unfortunately, the very category it had been Purpose-Built for was shut down before it could ever have a shot at the title, and as a result, remains in the shadows of Ferrari’s history, overshadowed by the very car that would use its components, paired up to new looks, new materials, all to greater effect,fame, and reverence, the F40.

And on THAT Bombshell, you have just finished reading my article on the 288 GTO, a Ferrari conceived to step out of its comfort zone, and go racing(Albeit that element never took off as well, it was deemed far too expensive for the privateers it was aimed for), instead of just being Ferraris, just sitting on driveways, but sadly, never got the call. Feel free to leave suggestions and advice down below, and I hope you enjoyed it.

See you at the next one.