Ferrari 599 GTO

I'm sure if you are remotely interested in fast cars and Ferraris in particular, you will be aware that Ferrari have released official pictures of the new Ferrari 599 GTO.


I won't repeat all the details from the press release as they are available on plenty of websites already instead, as an owner of an older berlinetta (and having a Dad who has owned every front engined road going berlinetta made since the 250SWB), I will give my initial thoughts on what Ferrari are claiming is the fastest road going car they have ever made.


This only the third time that Ferrari has adopted its most reverred name tag for a car, the first, the immortal 250GTO was a homologation special of the SWB, which went on to dominate GT racing in the early sixties. The second the 288GTO was also intended as a homolgation special to compete in the proposed Group B racing series but a lack of interest (Porsche was the only other manufacturer to build a suitable car in the 959) and the ban in rallying meant the 288 never saw action. One would assume that Ferrari has no plans to go racing with the 599GTO (the new GT1 world championship would be the only possible outlet if they did) so the name doesn't seem right to me. 


To be honest I'm struggling a little to get what Ferrari is trying to achieve with this car. They are claiming that it is a limited addition and that only 599 will be made. The thing is 599 is actually quite a lot in terms of the total production of 599s if Ferrari mamanufacture around the same number of 599s as they did 550/575s (approximately 5,500 in total), it would probably accounts for total production of 599s for the next year or so.


Next and perhaps this is my real gripe with the car is that Ferrari are pitching it as a more hardcore drivers car than the regular 599, Ferrari has gone down the twin paths of reducing weight and adding horsepower, with the car now producing an Enzo rivalling 670bhp and a 448bhp/ tonne power to weight ratio which incidentally is almost exactly the same as an F40 which produces 478bhp! Being based on a 599 this GTO is also something of a leviathan when both of the previous GTO's were small and nimble cars.


Numbers aside the whole point of a Ferrari V12 Berlinetta is that it should be the ideal car to whisk you and your suitably attractive other half from some European capital to a luxurious weekend bolt hole several hundred miles (and some entertaining roads) away.  This is something the standard 599 does brilliantly (if as I have mentioned several times before it's too big for British Roads), and I can't see that making it more track orientated will make that better in this respect.  I doubt a standard 599 would be appreciably slower on the road and probably ride better (although that has to be confirmed). As a track car I'm sure it will be a blast but I also suspect that a 670BHP V12 is not going to be the quietest engine ever made so the car may fall foul of noise limitations at many track events. 


It does however look better than the standard car at the expense of some subtlety, the style taken from the 599XX  track development special.  The GTO has a predicted price is £275,000 in the UK, some £68,000 more than a stock 599 and £54,000 than a 599 with the HGTE pack. That £68K would buy you a very nice track car say an Ariel Atom (or even maybe 355 or 360 Challenge), but then I think that misses the point slightly. The "limited" edition nature of this car would indicate that Ferrari will be looking in the first to sell this car to it's most loyal (read wealthy) customers, the same people that snapped up Enzo's, and F50s. I suspect that the majority of these cars will end up as collectors pieces, which seems slightly strange when Ferrari went to some lengths to emphasise the useability and almost everyday nature of the standard 599.


If Ferrari wanted to build a true GTO in the style of the wonderful 250, they would have looked to build a smaller, lighter car with possibly a smaller capacity (the 599's engine is twice the capacity of the 250s) high revving V12, now that would be a car to excite me and I suspect a good few other Ferrari fans think the same.