Heritage · Ferrari 288 GTO
“Two Owners From New”
The premise
Two hundred before the curtain rose
Group B gave Ferrari a simple numerical premise: two hundred road-going cars for homologation. The GTO was built around that threshold and became Ferrari’s first limited-edition road car of the modern line.
It arrived at Geneva in March 1984 with no need to prove demand. Ferrari says every one of the planned two hundred had already sold; the additional seventy-two also found buyers quickly. The production baseline is 272, not the 273 reported by one secondary registry.
The hands
Three hands, one unfinished programme
The GTO joined Ferrari’s turbo expertise, Pininfarina’s 308-derived line and Enzo Ferrari’s revived three-letter badge. Competition disappeared; the development chain did not.
Nicola Materazzi
Development lead · turbo authority
Ferrari hired the Italian turbocharging specialist in 1979. He led the GTO development team while also working on early-1980s Scuderia Formula 1 cars — the engineer who carried competition powertrain thinking into Ferrari’s road flagship.
Leonardo Fioravanti
Designer · Pininfarina
After the Daytona and 308 GTB, Fioravanti shaped the GTO by making the familiar 308 outline longer and wider without hiding its origin.
Enzo Ferrari
Patron of the GTO revival
Ferrari says its founder embraced the Group B GT challenge and followed the GTO’s development closely. The programme ran under his direction; the F40 remained his final personally approved Ferrari road car.
1986
May 1986
Group B’s safety end
After the Tour de Corse deaths of Toivonen and Cresto, FISA ends Group B for the 1987 season. The GTO’s tarmac-rally route closes.
The engineering
A familiar outline, turned longitudinal
The 308 GTB supplied the visual starting point, not the mechanical answer. Ferrari turned the engine longitudinally, stretched the proportions and installed a 2,855 cc twin-IHI-turbo V8 behind the cabin, driving the rear wheels through a five-speed manual transaxle.
A tubular steel chassis carried composite, GRP and Kevlar bodywork, with aluminium doors, bonnet and deck lid. Ferrari claimed 400 hp, 4.9 seconds to 100 km/h and 305 km/h; each remains a manufacturer figure here, not an independently timed universal record.
2026
29 January 2026
The model record
Chassis 52471 sells for €9,117,500 in Paris, nearly €2M above the previous model record according to Gooding Christie’s.
The race that never was
Two routes, neither a start
Ferrari and Porsche expected Group B cars to have a circuit championship. Other manufacturers did not commit, the series failed to form, and the GTO never started a race or rally. Published sources give no formal cancellation date for the proposed series.
Ferrari’s own Evoluzione account preserves a second route: privateer Group B tarmac events. After Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto died in a Delta S4 at the May 1986 Tour de Corse, FISA ended Group B for the 1987 season. The fallback disappeared with the circuit plan.
On the record
Milestones, on a line
The moments that set the 288 GTO's standing. Use the arrows, and hover a point to read what happened.
