Grand Turismo... again

Jeremy Clarkson happened to say in last Saturday's Top Gear that the 599 GTO was not a real GTO... and I disagree.

Not long ago I blogged about the car I consider the ultimate Ferrari. Not only it was a GTO, but a revised, upgraded, monstrous GTO, the 288 Evoluzione. It was as hardcore as a huge piece of granite covered in diamonds and almost as rare as one's choice of mothers. The problem is that it hardly lives up to GTO standards, or in other words, way too much over the top.

JC included the compliment that the 599 GTO was slower than the 458, too hardcore without traction control off, too much of a computer with it on.

I have been thinking about this in the past few days and I came to the conclusion that it was the 288 that was NOT a real GTO.

Before you kill me, I tell you why.

First, it's the layout. The 250 was a traditional FR layout with a N/A V12. Same with the 599, but not with the 288, which had a mid-fitted turbocharged V8.

The 250 was designed for road rallies, while the 288 was aimed at hardcore racing. It had all the GT-style interior, but with Group B regulations in mind. This would have made it a perfect track racing and asphalt super special rally car. Group B was folded and the car was left without a competition. But, as we saw it, the Evoluzione version and the successor F40 moved even further away from road rallying. The latter one showed what Ferrari could have been in Group B and started the tradition of the "F" cars. The evolution showed its real face - the F50 has become a Formula 1 car with a body... and it is as far from road racing as you can get by any means.

The Enzo and its variants just deepened the gap and there was no return.

So the GTO needed a fresh start. The 599 was a good starting point. Every mid-engined Ferrari since the company's Schumacher supremacy is encoded with F1 DNA. And that's a bit of no-no. No rocket science needed for road racing, just playing it plain and simple, in a more traditional way. Not outdated, but has that pedigree as it needs to be a pleasure car. It can afford a bit more flamboyance over lap times.

...and since GTO designation lost its true meaning, it should rely on tradition and the feel.

And that's what it exactly does.

Evoluzione

Evolution.

Not many words generated more controversy in the world than that one.

Evoluzione.

Car fan paradise.

You see, it is not only Mitsubishi's perversion to attribute a car as EVO. In fact, there is a whole magazine dedicated to the underlying meaning.

It's the Italians that make the most emotions out of that word. Whether you take an Alfa, a Lancia or a Ferrari, this is meant to leave you with the aftermath: "You've seen nothing yet. There's more to come when you sit into this one, and even more when you get out... because it is not over yet."

You can have Abarth, XX, GTO or whatever badge on the car, this is the one that marks ultimate supremacy and points to an even higher peak.

This is however an indirect reference to a specific category the car fits into. Except maybe the Quattroporte, which is a simple upgrade for Maserati. If you talk about the Alfa Romeo 75 or the Lancia Delta, it is aimed at Group A regulations. Delta marks a change itself. And if you make two evolutionary versions of that, that goes somewhere extraordinary.

Like winning 6 WRC titles.

And then you go to the extremes. For the Ferrari FXX Evoluzione. The ultimate fo the ultimate of the ultimate supercar of Ferrari. Not even road legal, you are not even allowed to touch it if Ferrari tells you so. It is a beast for extremely limited production and usage. It is like an extinct animal you can't even look at in a Spinal Tap burst.

Simply not real.

But let's get to something even less real then, shall we? This Evoluzione comes from the FXX, which comes from the Enzo that is preceeded by the F50, which is a direct afterthought of the F40 that is in my opinion the essence of what Ferrari is all about. Yes, it breaks some traditions by not using a naturally aspirated engine. Yes, it has small displacement motor because of that. Yes, there are faster ones than that TODAY. And yes, this was the last car blessed by Enzo himself. And basically it was an earlier F1 car with a body.

The final frontier of "real" Ferraris.

Or is it?

The F40 was born to conquer the Group B era. Only it was born the worst moment. Because by the time the car apeared on the market, Group B was long gone.

But it wasn't the first attempt to do so.

Ferrari tried it even before. They had the insanely beautiful 288 GTO that was again aimed at Group B. But as every Italians in history - they were late again. Again, when it arrived into competition, Group B was the kingdom of rally cars only.

Sure, Ferrari tried asphalt rallys with the 308 gtb on which the GTO was based, but they wanted even more than that.

That's why they kept it almost a secret they had a new weapon.

Another Evoluzione.

Evolution in the sense science has the most struggle with: finding the missing links.

Well, this is the missing link between the 288 GTO and the F40: the Evoluzione.

Only 5 were produced, 3 in existence and in it's strangely beautiful in a pervert manner. It has the stunning  curves of the GTO and the agression of the F40.

It looks like a really messed up Ferrari, and in fact it is.

But it's a machine of purpose. A machine of lack of compromises.

Evolution doesn't ask how you like the way you are. Evolution doesn't even care about you. Evolution leaves you with one fact only: survive or die.

There are survivors.

Even for the greatest dinosaurs of them all.