Ferrari 288 GTO owners set to descend on Monterey
Every year during the third week in August, thousands of automotive enthusiasts flock to the Monterey Peninsula for a massive gathering of classic, sports and exotic cars known as the Pebble Beach Weekend. In addition to the various car shows, auctions and races, one of the highlights this year will be a gathering of Ferrari 288 GTOs to celebrate the car's 25th anniversary. 288 GTO specialist Joe Sackey is organizing the event, which will be the first reunion of the car in the United States, and has put out an invite to any and all current owners for what will hopefully be the largest gathering of Ferrari's first supercar of the modern era. Those interested in the event can visit Joe Sackey's web site for additional information.
[Source: JoeSackey.com]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
AC0 9:51AM (4/06/2009)
Oh i love that car... one of the few that i truly like from that decade.
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steve clark 9:52AM (4/06/2009)
Ohhh.... Must. Attend. Event. (drool).
One of the best Ferrari's ever built. And beautiful to boot.
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jrfalcone1 10:03AM (4/06/2009)
Oh, an orgy in Monterey, and you are not invited. D'oh!
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Redwood 10:09AM (4/06/2009)
I love that car as well. There may be better cars now, but it was one of the best cars around when I was a kid and first becoming a car enthusiast.
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Rick C. 10:26AM (4/06/2009)
Already 25 years? Thanks autoblog. I had a huge poster of this car on my wall when I was a teenager. Still can't afford one.
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MajorGeek 10:23AM (4/06/2009)
Everyone should wear a Tom Selleck mask. That would be funny!
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Eric C 11:08AM (4/06/2009)
Probably would not get many laughs, as most of the people there will know Magnum PI drove a 308.
MajorGeek 11:53AM (4/06/2009)
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, they look SO much different too. Lighten up. Most people would not notice at all, sorry.
Eric C 12:15PM (4/06/2009)
The 288GTO is the Enzo of it's day.
The 308 barely deserved to wear the prancing horse.
PGAero 12:38PM (4/06/2009)
Actually, Major Geek, I'd put money on the people at Pebble Beach event knowing the difference between a 308 and the 288 GTO. It isn't a bunch of people who can't tell the difference between a 959 and a 911, or a 288 and a 308/328, or even an A4 and an RS4, or... its a bunch of people who attend these events exactly because they CAN tell the difference.
The 288 GTO has long been one of my favorites. I might have to attend the event this year.
RWD 5:54PM (4/06/2009)
True, a discerning enthusiast will immediately know the difference at a glance. But it is the same body, based in fact on the 308 GTB... So give the guy a break, it looks nearly identical from most angles.
And also yes, the 308 was a friggin' Fiero compared to this.
why not the LS2LS7? 11:43AM (4/06/2009)
I expect at least one of them can make it, since I've seen a 288 GTO at the Laguna Seca ALMS race before.
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LloydChiro 12:29PM (4/06/2009)
I'm about | | this close to moving to Carmel just for stuff like this.
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PJ 12:58PM (4/06/2009)
Monterey is a good place for car-spotting just about any time of the year. My parents live in neighboring Pacific Grove, and on the way out of town after visiting last weekend, I passed a Porsche Carrera GT, one-off Eldorado ETC convertible, two first-gen Camaros, a '67 Plymouth GTX, and--of all things--a Zimmer.
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steve clark 12:57PM (4/06/2009)
More pics, please.
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BoxerFanatic 1:14PM (4/06/2009)
[/monk chant...]
This car is second on my all-time favorites list, and that is a reasonably populated list... Second only to McLaren F1.
The 288 GTO is "like buttah" as Linda Richman (mike myers) would say.
Take a nicely designed edgy-italian car, with a transverse 3-liter V8....
Bump out the fenders and fill them with wide rubber, and put a big chin spoiler under the full-width grille, with square fog and driving lights. Lots of heat extraction vents on the front hood and fenders, too. Bigger side intakes, canted inward quarter windows, with intakes, this car is going to need a lot of air flow!
Tune up the suspension for racing (it was designed to go racing along with the 959, although neither ended up making it before Group B was eliminated.)
Gut the interior to the basics for street and track.
Then go to work on the back of the car. Make the flying buttresses solid with those quarter window intakes, and the rear deck lid flat, with lots of vents... and a ducktail spoiler at the back. Cut some diagonal vents in the rear fenders, as it will need some cooling, and a little throw-back to the 250 GTO's diagonal slats.
Cut the rear trunk out of the car, as we need the room.
Now the fun part... put in a race-built 2.88 liter the right way... longitudinally amidships, with a big transaxle gearbox, more like the 512BB and it's TestaRossa replacement.
(incidentally 2.8 liters is less displacement than 308/328, and even future F40, which was basically the third revision of the 288 GTO, after Evoluzione.)
Then, bolt two external wastegate turbos to that little screamer, with a big common wastegate, two big top-mounted intercoolers, and two massive aft airboxes, all under the engine cover.
And you have yourself a classic, and a mid-engined monster. And what is under the skin is what makes sure that just re-skinning a 308 or 328 with the wider bodywork, still won't be the equal of the mighty 288 GTO.
There really hasn't been another car in this very specific idiom, most other mid-engined cars either don't have V8s, aren't longitudinal, or aren't turbocharged.
Ferrari's own F430 Scuderia, or Audi's R8 are probably the closest to the idiom, although R8 is AWD rather than RWD (weight/drag-, traction+), and not turbocharged.
Even Ferrari's 90's-to-current supercars F50/Enzo are V12s, rather than V8s, and after F40, they have gotten less attractive looking. 288/Evoluzione/F40 still have some panache that the later cars have seemingly given up for their quest for more power.
I still, to this day, kick myself for not buying a 1:18 scale 288 GTO model when I saw it on a local retail shelf a few years ago. I practiced impulse control... and haven't seen one in person since. Figures.
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LM4411 9:55PM (4/06/2009)
You've made me feel better about never being able to afford a 288 GTO; I had the good sense to buy that 1:18 scale model back in 1987 or so for a cool $100 CDN. It gets out of the box every now and then, and is probably only 10-15 hours from being completed. If only I could find the room to set it up and leave it out.
Seeing the line-up for Monterey inspires me. It will be built!
KarlInSanDiego 1:37PM (4/06/2009)
I've been attending said weekend since 1995, but my experience there tells me the 288 GTOs will be at the Concorso Italiano (Friday event) or possibly the Quail Lodge show (also Friday). The Concours d'Elegance at Pebble Beach (Sunday) is never a one marque or one model affair and given their limited numbers (100 cars total) and the by-invitation nature, it's not the venue for these cars, at least not in numbers. The dig about Concours attendee's not being car knowledgable is about half true. The car owners are among the most knowledgable in the world, but many of the Concours viewers are there because they were invited or it's a place to be seen. Those folks would definitely mistake a 288 for a 308. Of the weekend's activities, the Concours d'Elegance is the one voted most likely to require a smoking jacket, and trophy wife.
The Concorso Italiano on the other hand attracts Ferrari, Alfa, Lancia, Maserati, Lamborghini, Fiat, DeTomaso, and even Ducati fans. There is no invitation needed to show a car, and it would easily be the venue of choice for a GTO reunion. Unfortunately last year the venue moved to an airbase and the ambiance was about 1/10 of what it normally is. Looks like they're back on a golf course this year which should help tremendously.
So for the uninitiated who want to try visiting this Mecca of cardom, consider the Concorso over the Concours if you can only afford the time/money to do one. And spend the rest of your weekend at the track watching the Monterey Historics.
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Luce 1:47PM (4/06/2009)
*sigh* If only there was something like this around here...
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ClassicCarGuy 4:45PM (4/06/2009)
The car of my childhood dreams. Unlike many other boyhood "Dream Machines", this one holds up to adult scrutiny.
My neighbor owns one of the top Ferrari restoration shops in California, and says the 288 GTO is actually fairly easy to maintain (relative to many other Modena creations), and actually requires regular driving to keep the IHI turbos and seals in running condition. According to him, it is very well behaved on the street and can still hold its own on the track even by today's standards thanks to its lightweight design and tremendous power on tap. Many supercars today are much heavier. There is some lag, but once you get used to maintaining revs, you could give others a run for their money. The sound of the small 2.8 flat crank V-8 crackle combined with the turbo whoosh is something you'll never forget. Look it up on You Tube and listen. Ahhh...
Of course, few if any owners would push these cars to their limits. Especially now that they've achieved "trailer queen" status.
If I won the Lotto...
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