Ferrari’s New GTO

The list of how we’ll spend our PowerBall lottery winnings just got a new No. 1 with a high-speed bullet: Buy Ferrari’s new GTO.

The latest thoroughbred out of Maranello carries on the tradition started with the original 250 GTO in the 1960s and carried on by the 288 GTO in the 1980s. And like the two that came before, the 599 GTO offers stunning looks, stunning technology and, of course, stunning performance.

How stunning? Well, Ferrari says it is the fastest road car it has ever built.

For those of you whose blood doesn’t run rosso corsa, let us explain just what the GTO is.

Simply put, the 250 GTO was the sports racer of the early 1960s. GTO, of course, stands for Gran Turismo Omologato, which is Italian for “Grand Touring Homologated.” That means this was a stripped-down, hotted-up car designed for racing but street legal. There were two version — the original 250 GTO and the GTO 64, also known as the Type II. They were as quick as they were sexy, and GTOs beat up on everything in sight at places like Le Mans and the 24 hours of Spa and Sebring. If you wanted to win, you had to have one. It was just that simple. And since Il Commendatore built just 36 of them, they are among the most highly coveted and most valuable cars on the planet.

Ferrari resurrected the name in 1984, when no-limits Group B rallying was all the rage. The 288 GTO was a stretched, widened, flared and generally bad-assed version of the gorgeous 308. The mid-mounted twin-turbocharged V-8 cranked out 400 horsepower, a staggering figure for its time. The 288 was the first production vehicle capable of 300 km/hr (186 mph). Before the Magician of Maranello could turn it loose on the tarmac, Group B rallying was banned (too many deaths and rising costs were to blame), and all 272 of the cars Ferrari built between 1984 and 1986 remained strictly road cars.

And with the new GTO, Ferrari has decided to follow the path laid out by the 250 and 288 by making a racer for the road. Ferrari claims the 599 GTO, which is based on the already impressive 599XX track car, is the fastest road car it has ever built. It set the new record lap time at Fiorano Circuit, Ferrari’s private test track, clocking in at one minute and 24 seconds. That is nine-tenths of a second faster than the mighty Enzo.

The 599 GTO accomplishes that most impressive feat thanks to a 670-horsepower V-12 that puts down 457 pound feet of torque. It powers a car that weighs 3,295 pounds, giving the 599 GTO a power-to-weight ratio of 4.9 pounds per pony. It’ll go from a standstill to 100 klicks an hour in 3.35 seconds and top out north of 208 mph.

That V-12 is mounted up front and drives the rear wheels as God and Enzo Ferrari himself intended. There’s a six-speed paddle-shifted gearbox at the back of the car, and shifts are completed in a mere 60 milliseconds.

Bringing anything that fast to a stop requires serious hardware, and the 599 GTO has it. Ferrari’s fitted the car with its latest carbon-ceramic brakes, which it claims are lighter and offer better performance than those fitted on earlier cars, and aerodynamic tweaks like wheel doughnuts to increase aerodynamic efficiency and brake cooling. Clamp down on the calipers at 100 kilometers per hour and you’ll bring the car to a stop in 106 feet.

The engine displaces 5.9 liters and complies with Euro 5 and LEV 2 emissions regs and burns 17.5 liters per 100 kilometers, which by our math comes to 13.4 mpg. It also emits 411 grams/kilometer of CO2. Neither figure will win it any plaudits from Al Gore, but then how often will a car like the 599 GTO really be driven?

Ferrari’s engineers worked over the engine to reduce internal friction, then fitted it with a racing-type intake system. The intake manifold sports diffuser-type intake geometry and shortened inlet tracts designed to improve power delivery at high revs — and we’re sure this V-12 sounds great as it approaches, say, 8,000 RPM. The exhaust features a pair of six-into-one manifolds derived from the 599XX.

Weight was cut at every opportunity using composites and components manufactured with technologies you’d find in Ferrari’s F1 operation. The bodywork and greenhouse use thinner gauge aluminum and thinner glass, carbon rotors cut the weight of the brakes and Ferrari even shaved weight from the gearbox and exhaust system.

The GTO generates over 317 pounds of downforce at 124 mph. The car has a flat underbody and airflow has improved ducting to the brake discs and pads.

The front spoiler incorporates a separate lower wing that increases downforce at the front of the car and increases the flow to the oil cooler. There is a new sill design with a more pronounced leading edge to improve aero efficiency of the underbody. And the underbody itself incorporates a new, lower front section with diffusers ahead of the front wheels to optimize downforce, and a new double-curve rear diffuser.

Inside, Ferrari gave the 599 GTO a serious high-performance, no-nonsense feel. The driver can adjust suspension settings using the manettino, that F1-inspired switch on the steering wheel, and the shift paddles are oversized carbon-fiber units, also inspired by the F1 racers. The car also sports a “Virtual Race Engineer” system that provides instantaneous information on performance. Dynamic stability control and the F1-Trac traction control system help keep things from getting out of hand.

How much? If you have to ask, you can’t afford it, and it doesn’t matter anyway because Ferrari is building just 599 of them.

Photos: Ferrari