The
Ferrari GTO (often referred to as
Ferrari 288 GTO) is an exotic
homologation of the
Ferrari 308 GTB produced from 1984 through 1986, designated GT for
Gran Turismo and O for
Omologato (homologation in Italian).
Background
The Ferrari GTO was built to compete in the new
Group B Race series and a minimum of 200 cars were required for homologation. However as only Ferrari and
Porsche, with their
959, entered, the series was soon abandoned leaving just Group B Rally championship. The Porsche 959 (as the
Porsche 961) only raced three times in Group B, but the 288 GTO never raced and all 272 cars built remained purely road cars.
Some of the 288 GTO's styling features were first displayed on a 308 GTB design exercise by Pininfarina shown at the 1977 Geneva Salon. This included the deep front spoiler, fender flares, rear lip spoiler, front lid radiator cooling louvers and quadruple driving lights.
Engine
The GTO was based on the
mid-engined, rear wheel drive 308 GTB (which has a 3.0
litre 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. This gave the GTO a theoretical engine capacity of 3997 cc, just under the Group B limit of 4.0 litres.
Unlike the...
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