Mark A Cella and the Ferrari 250 cc Grand Touring Sport Coupe for Competition
Building on the successful history of the V12 GT racing engines that made the GTOs so substantial, brought the 250 Berlinetta sport coupe about. GTO stands for Gran Turismo Omologato in Italian, and in English means Grand Touring Homologated. Homologated means Official Agreement. So, the GTO was Officially Agreed to be a Grand Touring car. Anyway, the 250 simply is the measurement in cubic centimeters of each of the cylinders.
Mark A Cella’s Official Agreement is the Car is for Pure Racing
The SWB was built from 1953 to 1964 and really put Ferrari in the limelight. It became Ferrari’s most successful car line of that time. It was their first all wheel disc brake vehicle. One model was their first four seater. Its V12 engine weighed about half as much as the competition’s. The higher tuned ones hammered up to 280bhp at 7,000 rpm. They had a four speed manual tranny, all of which exploded the car to more victories then I can list, here’s just a few:
In the 1960 season it took 1st-4th place in the Le Mans 24 hour race, leaving it’s nearest rivals to eat dust. It took 1st-3rd in its third consecutive victory of the 5500 km Tour de France. Later that season for a second consecutive win at Goodwood, driver Sterling Moss took a victory by lapping the entire field. Then it won all over the rest of the season.
The car weighs only 2,314 pounds which equates to a very high power to weight ratio. Its top speed reached 152 and it hit 60 from a dead stop in 6.2 seconds. All of these figures were superb in 1960.
Mark A Cella Votes it One of the Greatest Ferraris Ever
Enthusiasts envied the fact that owners of this car could show up, unpack and race in the same unmodified car, occasionally changing tires. The only thing necessary was to paste on numbers. The competition models were lighter and had 30-40 more horsepower, regardless of which one you were in other manufacturers didn’t stand a chance.
Out of the ten Greatest Ferraris of all time, Motor Trend ranked this one 5th. Sports Car International placed it at 7 Top Sports Cars of the 60’s. Mark A Cella gave it first place of his 1960’s Muscle Car Picks, second is the 67 Corvette Sting Ray and third being the cherished 1968 Chevy Camaro.
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