Mark A Cella and the Ferrari 250 Grand Touring Sport Coupe

Building on the successful history of the V12 GT racing engines that made the GTOs so substantial, brought the 250 Berlinetta sport coupe about. GTO stands for Gran Turismo Omologato in Italian, and in English means Grand Touring Homologated. Homologated means Official Agreement. So, the GTO was Officially Agreed to be a Grand Touring car. Anyway, the 250 simply is the measurement in cubic centimeters of each of the cylinders.

Mark A Cella’s Official Agreement is the Car is for Pure Racing

The car was built by Ferrari from 1953 to 1964 becoming Ferrari’s most successful line of cars to date. It was the first Ferrari to receive four disc brakes. Versions of it were the first four seater. Having a lightweight V12, 260-275bhp, 4 gear trans., competition engine launched its success at winning so many races recounting in detail would be endless, so here’s a few:

In the 1960 season it took 1st-4th place in the Le Mans 24 hour race, leaving it’s nearest rivals to eat dust. It took 1st-3rd in its third consecutive victory of the 5500 km Tour de France. Later that season for a second consecutive win at Goodwood, driver Sterling Moss took a victory by lapping the entire field. Then it won all over the rest of the season.

The Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione weighed in at only 2,314 lbs., giving it a very high power to weight ratio. Top speed was approximately 152 mph, and 0-60 was done it 6.2 sec. Great numbers for this era.

Mark A Cella Agrees it’s One of the Greatest Ferraris Ever Built

Owners of this car back in the day could drive it to the track and race it with very minor modifications if they chose. Of course they’d have to slap on their numbers. The competizione models were built for strictly racing so were even lighter with up to 40 more horsepower and a shorter wheelbase making them faster in curves. Nothing could compete to either version.

Sports Car Intl placed it as their 7th Top Sports Car of the 60’s. Motor Trend voted it 5th on their top ten Greatest Ferraris of all time and Mark Cella rated it first place on his list of top Muscle Cars of the 60’s. It leads over his 67 Corvette Sting Ray and 3rd place 68 Chevrolet Camaro.