One to Buy: 27,000km from new 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO
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The Group B regulations that arrived in 1982 and took full effect from 1983 spawned some of the most exciting competition cars ever seen.
Today, the Group B era is most commonly remembered for the immensely powerful supercars that took to the special stages. However, the FIA had also expected similar manufacturer uptake for Group B circuit racing.
Things initially looked promising; by late 1983 both Porsche and Ferrari were known to have a Group challenger in development (the 959 and 288 GTO respectively).
Unfortunately though, things fizzled out as Porsche’s 959 was beset by lengthy delays and Ferrari decided against a dedicated competition programme for the GTO (partly as Lancia were Fiat’s sports car racing representative).
When Enzo Ferrari officially announced the GTO’s availability in September 1983, buyers clamoured to get their orders in. Following its public debut at Geneva in March 1984, even more customers got their chequebooks out and Ferrari ultimately had to build significantly more than the 200 units originally anticipated.
Eventually, 272 production cars had been completed by the time Niki Lauda took delivery of the last GTO in March 1986.
The 31st of these cars is currently on offer with Talacrest in Ascot, Berkshire. Delivered in March 1985, chassis 52737 was retained by its first owner, Giuseppe Daloiso, for a little under four years at which point it was replaced by a new F40.
Chassis 52737 subsequently headed to the UK where it has resided since. Today, this GTO has covered a little over 27,000km and remains in excellent condition.
