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Mark A Cella and the Ferrari 250 Grand Touring Sport Coupe
Before the Berlinetta or Sport Coupe, is the Ferrari 250 GTO. What made the GTOs strong were the record braking V12 GT racing engines. GTO, or Gran Turismo Omologato, translated from Italian, meaning Grand Touring Homologated, and homologated is Official Agreement. 250 is the measurement of cubic centimeters inside each cylinder.
Mark A Cella Officially Agrees This Car is all About Racing
The SWB was built from 1953 to 1964 and really put Ferrari in the limelight. It became Ferrari’s most successful car line of that time. It was their first all wheel disc brake vehicle. One model was their first four seater. Its V12 engine weighed about half as much as the competition’s. The higher tuned ones hammered up to 280bhp at 7,000 rpm. They had a four speed manual tranny, all of which exploded the car to more victories then I can list, here’s just a few:
The first four places in its class at the 1960 Le Mans 24 hour race, leaving Chevy and Aston Martin far in its dust. With three consecutive Tour de France wins, taking the first three places at the 1960 Tour de France, 5500 km race. Later that season the SWB won outright, at Goodwood when Sterling Moss lapped the entire field in it, making it the second consecutive win. Then in England, Monza in Italy, Spa, Nurburgring, and Monthlery.
The car weighs only 2,314 pounds which equates to a very high power to weight ratio. Its top speed reached 152 and it hit 60 from a dead stop in 6.2 seconds. All of these figures were superb in 1960.
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 A 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.
Check out the latest of Mark A Cella Ferraris, and visit www.Mark-Cella.com to read adventures of Mark A Cella.
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