If you’re in your 40s, it could mean you’re starting a life with heavier jobs and responsibilities, but for cars, if not real luck. It is the age of the car that is probably preparing to break down. (Unless you meet an owner who takes very good care of it) When Ferrari launched the F80, the company’s highest model car. Limited production with modern shape. But many say it doesn’t have the sexiness of previous Ferraris. The entire car seems to have been consumed by robots and science. Today, Thairath Sunday would like to present the 288 GTO, or as Ferrari officially calls it GTO, a car from an era when body art still reflected sensuality, like inviting a woman’s body to get into the car. It was also where Ferrari began using turbocharging, becoming the company’s first turbocharged V8 car since the 1980s, before returning to this format later in the decade.
GTO in the name of this car It is the abbreviation of Gran Turismo Omologata, which in English means Gran Turismo Homologation because of this car model. Born from Enzo Ferrari’s desire to build a car to compete in motorsport events that followed the homologation rules of the class in which it would compete. In order to participate in the competition, no fewer than 200 cars of that model must actually be produced and sold.
However, in the 1980s, auto racing rules and regulations changed long before the GTO was actually ready for sale. The rally class that Enzo Ferrari wanted to participate in has been cancelled. But the goal was disallowed. This did not stop the popularity of the GTO because of the number of cars that were intended to be produced, only 200 were purchased by high-prestige customers and they had to push the total production to 272 cars, and this meant that Enzo (the founder of Ferrari) began to have an idea. That the more Ferrari produces powerful cars and sells them in small quantities, the more and more customers want it. Especially customers with a lot of money. This was the beginning of Ferrari’s tradition of building world-class supercars. High power and limited production It was the precursor to the cars that followed such as the F40, F50, Enzo, LaFerrari and F80. Western automotive experts later gave it the name 288 GTO because they feared that simply calling it GTO would cause confusion with the 250 GTO that came later. several times before. The year 28 in the name derives from the engine displacement (2,855 cc.) and the following 8 numbers indicate the number of pistons.
The car itself is based on the 308, a relatively simple sports car from Ferrari that became famous in America with the Magnum PI series, which has nothing to do with Ice Cream Wall, but rather a modification of a high-end sports car class The The brand name has become very expensive and customers buy it. You probably can’t just change the wheels and put a sticker on it to pretend it’s fast and raise the price. Ferrari also has an obligatory problem, which is to hurry up and finish the construction quickly. So I had to use the main bodywork from the 308, which Pininfarina designed beautifully. But you need to make some additional changes. For example, the nature of the engine placement, from 308 to 328 was a transverse mid-engine (like the Toyota MR2), was changed to a longitudinal engine.
Because of this positioning, the wheelbase had to be lengthened from 2,340 to 2,450 mm, which forced Ferrari to redesign the rear end. and adding modifications to the front of the car to have a balanced width proportion. The part that makes the Ferrari 288 GTO different from the regular 308 is the front and rear bulges that have been widened to accommodate the big wide tires. The side air intakes are located above the rear air intakes, which in addition to the 288 GTO also appeared on the 208 GTB/GTS Turbo, which was the budget version of the 328 on the Italian market. This model was made to meet the tax requirements of cars with engines larger than 2.0 in Italy liters are subject to a 38% tax, but smaller cars are only 18%, but the 208 will not have a big bulge . There is no wide, pointed front tongue ready to plow snow. There’s no tail that curves up a big duck’s ass. And there are no headlights arranged like 4 square spotlights, and there are no 3 ventilation strips at the rear of the car.
Later, when the car is almost finished Various parts used with the 308/328 were gradually replaced one by one. Because customers will scold you for charging a high price and still using spare parts with cheap models. Subsequently, the structure of the car changed a lot. The car door is still made of steel. But the outer body in other parts becomes lightweight fiberglass. The front/rear hood is made of Kevlar. And the roof is made of Kevlar mixed with carbon fiber. The weight reduction measures adopted by Ferrari have brought the bare weight of the 288 GTO, excluding liquids, to 1,160 kilograms, or approximately 100-150 kilograms less than the 308/328.
At the heart of the 288 GTO is the Tipo F114 B000 engine, which was developed alongside Lancia’s 2.6-litre racing engine, but Ferrari uses the 2,855cc engine in accordance with Group B racing rules (where the car is equipped with a turbocharger). You need to multiply the capacity by 1.4 and get no more than 4.0 Cars without turbos can use 4.0 liters.) Twin turbochargers are installed, connected in parallel, which means they use 2 identical turbos. Each is responsible for one side of the V8 engine, which has 32 valves, with two camshafts in each cylinder head. The turbos are IHI from Japan, which Ferrari considers more efficient and more heat resistant than the KKK turbos used in their race cars. Weber-Marelli fuel injection system
And because the engine had to receive a 1 bar boost in an era when the ignition/fuel distribution system was not as precise as today’s. The compression ratio of the F114 engine is therefore low, only 7.6:1, which means that the size of the combustion chamber when the piston moves to the high position is very large. This causes the engine to not respond well during periods without boost. Accelerate and there is no power. This is what makes older people call it turbo lag (Lag, not Lack), like today’s cars Extremely high compression ratio There are many technologies that help. The turbo lag is therefore much less than in previous cars.
The result is 400 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and a maximum torque of 496 Nm at 3,800 rpm. This amount of power on a lighter body than the current Civic 1.5 Turbo makes it very effective. And I must say that in the past, 400 horsepower cars were the company’s flagship supercars. The alloy wheels are tiny, just 16 inches. The rear wheels use 265/55 wide tires, the front 225/50, and there is no launch assist system. Ferrari claims acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.9 seconds, a quarter mile in 12.7 seconds and a top speed of 305 km/h. In those days, the number 300 was reached by only a few cars .
But the 288 GTO isn’t that easy to drive. Many famous foreign media companies have come to lead. Some cars run the quarter mile in 14 seconds, like a remapped 2024 turbo pickup, but that’s because it’s not a car that starts that easily. If done right, the wheels will be free and the revs will not slow down. If you start at the wrong time The round fell to a point where there was no push. The car was left without power.
The interior of the 288 GTO has the raw feel of a race car. Even though it was an expensive car at that time But you get manual sports seats. The mirrors in every house do not have an electrical system. Feel free to rotate and exercise your arms (the F40 and F50 that followed used hand-cranked mirrors). and the fact that cars at that time didn’t have many buttons to adjust anything. There will only be one set of gauge panels needed. And it uses a simple orange numeric font on a black background. It’s hard to find a design like this nowadays. A classic Ferrari gearbox, the base of the gearbox must be made of steel. The ping pong ball-shaped gear knob is made of metal. It looks good every time AND your hand swells to the point of going crazy when you accidentally touch the back of a car parked in the sun one fine day (not all Ferrari drivers have to park in the sun). or meticulousness in assembly work Because it is a car born to “Hurry up, sell everything and let’s go build racing cars”, which is the style of IL COMMENDATORE, Mr. Enzo Ferrari, a sharp-tongued racing car builder and father of the Mustang brand. And he is the person who gave the world a Lamborghini and a Ford GT40 with his mouth.
There are a total of 288 GTOs in the world (according to Ferrari’s 272), all red and all left-hand drive. But in 1990, the Sultan of Brunei who also owns this model of GTO The car was sent to Ferrari to convert it to right-hand drive so that he could drive comfortably. When he saw the number of the check that the Sultan was willing to pay, Ferrari agreed to do so in good faith.
But the main point I want to tell you today about the 288 GTO is that it is one of my favorite Ferrari models. But I never thought I’d own one. I never even thought I wanted to drive. Since the number of GTOs of this model in the world is fewer than that of all large Ferrari models, it is even more difficult to find than an F40 or F50. And when it is sold at auction, if the car is in good condition, buyers will fight to purchase it for more than the Enzo’s new price, LaFerri has also become a bit of a mixed bag. After all, the 288 GTO is Ferrari’s car of an era of motorsport passion. The courage to build a powerful car The multi-valve V8 turbo engine meets the beauty of a classic style like a model lying on its side. Created by grandfather Sergio Pininfarina, it was a time when beauty still had magic in this proud camp of wild horses.
What is the current era like? Oh, that’s not bad. But I feel that aerodynamics are more important than beauty, to the point that the body of the car looks like a Transformer that hasn’t finished transforming yet, that’s all.
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