The 250TR and the 250GTO

The 250TR and the 250GTO

It's hard to imagine how valuable these cars have become. It is also hard for me to realize how much of a relationship I had to them from the time I joined the Ferrari Owners Club in 1979 through the first few years of my entree into vintage racing.

First, the 250TR. The number, in one of the two model designation schemes used by Ferrari throughout the company's history, refers to the approximate displacement of a single cylinder. The “TR” refers to “Testa” and “Rossa,” meaning literally “red head,” and not “Testarossa” or “redhead,” which is a marketing model name used in the 1980s for a completely different kind of car.

The designation in the 50s was used to indicate that the cam covers were painted red on some, but not all, Ferrari competition models. In addition, foxy Enzo used even serial numbers on race versions and odd numbers for “production cars.” Keep this fact in mind as it will become important when I mention the GTO.

Most people thought of Ferrari as synonymus to the iconic V12 which started as a two liter motor (thus a 125 model designation) and continues to this day with such models as the 550 Maranello...a monster (by Ferrari standards) 6.6 liter. But the TR designation actually was first used on a two liter, four cylinder car (blasphemy!). The 500TR was produced along with a dizzying array of other models all sharing very similar looking bodies...the numerous Monza, Mondial, and MM variants of the mid 1950s. But in 1958 Ferrari was ready for something different, and his usual race car design firm of Scaglietti sculpted the curvaceous lines of the 250TR, which used a single overhead camshaft Colombo V12 with six two barrel Weber carbs. This, possibly the most famous and successful motor Ferrari ever built, went into many race and street cars of the era, continuing through the 1964 GTO and even beyond that with enlargement to 275cc per cylinder in the 250LM and 275 GTB, and then to the 330 series cars. In fact, the motor also could be easily modified to carry four camshafts, as it did for the 275GTB/4, and even continued to be enlarged to 365 variants. By moving from so-called “hairpin” valve springs to more conventional coils, and by using different combinations of carbs and intake manifolds, the engine could be boosted from less than 250 to more than 400hp. It was produced in one form or another in this “final” 250 guise from 1960 until well into the 1970s. 

A Four Cylinder Ferrari?
Absolutely
A 500 Testa Rossa
From Conceptcarz

One form of 250TR, arguably the prettiest and certainly the most famous, had sculpted cutouts behind the front fender for more efficient brake cooling and air flow, and is known as “Pontoon Fendered.” Again, arguably, one of the best known was owned and lovingly brought back to its original body shape and condition by David Love, and David raced it from the late 1960s until his Parkinson's Disease finally forced him to stop. 

David on the Corkscew
Monterey Historic Autombile Races
From Tams Old Sports Car site

I have a short but deep link to this car, and perhaps a deeper one to David. He was my first driving instructor when I joined the Classic Sports Racing Group (CSRG) in 1983. I might have met David through the FOC, but most of my memories of him and the car start with my earliest days with the Siata and CSRG, of which he was one of the founders.

I don't recall anymore which of the following events happened in which order. I do remember both of them as clearly s if they happened today (though at this point in my life perhaps that isn't saying much), though the events were 40+ years ago.

The first one, or maybe it was the second, was a “follow the leader” series of laps at Sears Point. Actually, as far as I can remember, both events happened at this track. Anyway, David would lead a small group of us around to show us “the racing line” around the 12 turns. I put that in quotes because, of course, as you gain racing perspective and experience you realize there is no one single correct line for all cars in all circumstances, but what David was no doubt trying to do was keep us from hurting ourselves by picking lines that would be safe if not necessarily the quickest way round for each of our cars.

We would all line up behind David and, after a lap or two, the first car behind him would pull to the side, the others would move up, and the former first car would drop to the back of the group, thus giving each of us a chance to be directly behind our instructor. When it was my turn I had to fight to keep from just being mesmerized by the sound out of those stinger exhaust tips and the light off the voluptuous curves of the car. I am, after all, a photographer with years of training my eyes to concentrate on composition, color, light, shadow, and movement.

When we came in after the session David asked me if I had learned anything.

“Yeah,” I replied...”that car is just bloody gorgeous.” We both laughed in appreciation.

The second event (or maybe it was the first) was an actual ride around Sears in the car. I recall we did several laps, and in part due to the wind noise, in part due to David's quiet and calm voice, and in part because I was overloaded on the sights, sounds, feel, and smells I did not pick up much in the way of driving points...yet again. But I remember clearly, when I sat down in the passenger seat, taking note of the coin drop from an ancient pinball game which David had fastened under the dash on that side of the car. It was a forged brass piece with a nickel or quarter sized slot in it, and “Insert coin to begin game” embossed onto it. Unfortunately I did not take, nor can I find, a picture of it, but I sat there and stared at it the whole way down pit lane, only pulling my eyes off it when we hurtled into turn 2.

Totally summed up David's attitude about the sport, and was the biggest and most enduring lesson I got from him.

I was not confused when I bought my 2+2. I was well aware that the same basic components of the motor in this car were shared with both the 250TR and the 250GTO. The main differences (aside from the move away from hairpin valve springs) is that the cam in those cars was more aggressive, and my 250 had three two barrel Webers while both the TR and the GTO had six two barrel units and, of course, different intake manifolds. But the rest was very similar, and beneath those carbs the engines looked virtually identical, though the SOHC cam covers on the TR were of course red and not black.

Oh yeah, those cam covers. Why are the ones on the GTO black? Why indeed does is the serial number odd rather than even? Canny old Enzo at work again.

To be accepted as a “production” model and thus allowed to race in the GT rather than Prototype class, the FIA rules at the time required a production run of 50 units. Well, in 1962 and 1963 Ferrari managed to squeeze out what I believe was 34 only. I'm not sure how many still exist, but every one is now a $40-50 million work of art.

I have never ridden in one.

Hell, I've never even sat in one.

But I have peeked into a number of them, and learned something interesting by doing so.

One day I had my 2+2 in for some work at Bill Morton's Modena Motors in Redwood City, and sitting there was a dark blue GTO, obviously builtfor endurance races such as LeMans, as there was a number light on one of the doors and the rear deck. When I asked whose it was Bill's mechanic pulled the registration from the glove box. To my surprise the serial number was 4219GT. My own car was 4217. Since “production” cars used serial numbers ending in odd digits, this car was right behind my 2+2 on the production line, and was being built at the same time as my car.

So though Enzo promised to build 50 of these “production” models (hah!)...by the end of 1963 he had not. But in the “if it quacks like a duck” line of reasoning, he named it “GTO” (Grand Turisimo Omologato”) to indicate it was homulgated as a production GT even though it really did not meet those specifications in terms of production numbers.

But Enzo did finally make good, with a slightly modified variant, in 1964. This car came about because the FIA did not buy into another attempted sleight-of-hand trick. Note that earlier I mentioned the 250LM. From previous blog posts you are no doubt aware that this was a mid-engined car that was radically different from the GTO. Not the least of these differences was that, though called a 250, to the best of my knowledge no LM ever got any motor other than the larger displacement 275 variant. But Ferrari tried to claim the car was merely an extension of the GTO.

The FIA wasn't buying it, which meant the car had to race as a rather uncompetitive prototype. So Ferrari was left without a car to compete in the GT class. Scaglietti rushed to the rescue with the GTO/64. The rules meant the chassis had to stay the same as the earlier 62-63 car, but a wider track was achieved by using wider wheels. Some slight tuning for a wider power band (though the same horsepower) was also done, and Pininfarina sketched a new body, though it was built, as usual, by Scaglietti. Though this was a slightly wider and lower car, it actually had more drag than the earlier car. 

Rarest of the Rare
Either two of three or two of nine
Either way a site never seen again
250GTO/64
Riverside Raceway
circa 1979
Author's phot

You may note a resemblance to the replacement for the original Corvette Stingray. However, that car came out four years later (1968), and no doubt copied some of the visual cues of the GTO/64.

I have sat in one of these.

In fact, I did some pretty insane laps as a passenger in one.

It happened like this. Bob Epstein was an attorney, and his main client (perhaps his employer?) was one of the two biggest professional photography companies in San Francisco. Bob was known throughout the FOC as “Crazy Bob” for his, shall we say, enthusiastic driving style? He once was stopped doing something like 140 in his 250LM (obviously by a roadblock and not some Dodge CHP wagon coming up from behind him). He supposedly had a copy of the speeding ticket done in gold and hung on his office wall.

Bob had recently traded the LM on (you guessed it) a GTO/64. I had actually seen two of these twice before, and once was on track at one of the first Monterey Historic races I went to, with many of the FOC members. We had a tent up by the scoring trylon on the hill containing the Corkscrew, and were there to support Steve Earle's new venture to bring vintage racing as a spectator event to California and the world. In fact, if not for the FOC, there is some doubt if what became the “Monterey Week” would ever have happened.

Anyway, there were actually two of these cars on track together, as they were in the photo. While I somehow thought there were nine built, Supercars.net claims there were only three, so 2/3 of that claimed production were on track together. One was owned by Bob Donner, a longtime pro racer from Colorado I think. I don't know who was driving the other, nor do I know which serial number car Epstein bought.

What I do know is that my ride occurred sometime after my big off in the Siata in 1987...so maybe 1989 or so. I was still pretty spooked by my “tumble dry” experience, and add in that being “along for the ride” in a race car is a whole different ball game than driving one, and I wonder to this day whatever possessed me to get into a car with a mad man. On the other hand, he did not scare me nearly as badly as Gary Kuntz did in a similar ride in his 365GT 2+2 “Queen Mother.” While under complete control I would not have believed you could fling that 4000 pound monster around with such verve and still keep both yourself and the car together. A track car a Queen Mother is decidedly NOT.

Bob, on the other hand, was nowhere near under control...but the LM was so damn good it took all his machinations in stride and was part of what convinced me that no Ferrari will intentionally ever jump up and “bite” you. Yes, you need to drive them with the respect they are due, but as long as you are not a total driving idiot they are just so damned good they make even half-fools look competent.

So those are my $50 million ride stories, triggered by the fact that Tom Price offered rides in his Series I GTO at the CSRG Charity Challenge event this Fall on Bring a Trailer...and the winning bid was $6500. Not sure I think a car ride is worth that, but looked at that way...I've had $13,000 worth of time in these spectacular cars.

250GTO
The Most Expensive Car in the World
And one of the lovliest
Author;s Photo

Sometimes I wonder if my life with cars was just something I made up.