Ferrari 288 GTO: Enzo’s olive branch to Niki Lauda

The Ferrari 288 GTO was the brand’s first supercar, the beginning of a lineage which has produced the likes of the F40, Enzo, and LaFerrari. Suggested to have been built to meet Group B homologation requirements (GTO standing for ‘Grand Turismo’ and ‘Omologato’ – homologation in Italian), the road-going car was not actually under Ferrari’s direct control but rather that of Fiat’s leadership, including CEO, Vittorio Ghidella.

With roots in the advancing technologies of Formula 1 and with a 2.8-litre V8 engine for which it is named, the GTO was a turbocharged supercar, the first Ferrari to bear the GTO badge since the 250 GTO of 1962. To be expected, its exclusivity meant the car was highly sought after, and each hopeful owner received approval from Enzo Ferrari himself before they acquired the keys.

It is this exclusivity in which the tale of Ferrari and Lauda finds its sentiment. Niki Lauda joined Ferrari in 1974, at the dawn of his F1 career. A year later, he was Drivers’ Champion, and delivered Maranello a first Constructors’ Championship in over a decade. He was on course to repeat the feat in 1976, until a fireball crash at the German Grand Prix threatened to end his life.

While Lauda recuperated in hospital, Carlos Reutemann was prepped to fill his seat. But remarkably, the Championship leader returned to the track having missed only two races. He came fourth on his return at the Italian Grand Prix, as team-mate Clay Regazzoni finished second and Reutemann, in a third Ferrari car, came ninth.  By the time it came to the season finale in Japan, Lauda led rival James Hunt by just three points, but as the rain poured in Fuji a still-recovering Lauda had decided that some things were more important than glory. He chose to retire after two laps, citing his inability to see through the rain with his damaged eyelids, while Hunt’s third-place finish saw him take the Championship by a single point.

“My life is worth more than a Title,” Lauda would say, an approach hardly compatible with Enzo Ferrari’s ruthless desire to win. Ferrari did win the Constructors’ Championship in 1976, but Lauda felt as though he had been let down by the team who were adding to his pressures by calling on Reutemann. Both Ferrari and Lauda would triumph in ’77, too, but the once happy relationship was severely tarnished.

With the silverware secured, Lauda departed two races before that season’s conclusion, further aggravated by Ferrari’s decisions to run a third car with newcomer Gilles Villeneuve at the penultimate race of the season, as well as to stick with the increasingly outdated 312T design. Lauda ultimately retired (for good) in 1985 as a three-time World Champion.

After all that had transpired, it was unexpected for him to accept a consultancy position at Ferrari and Fiat, but once he was there, he wanted a GTO for himself, just like fellow F1 drivers Michele Alboreto and Keke Rosberg. Except that all the cars had been bought. So, Lauda approached Fiat CEO Ghidella (not Ferrari) to assist him with his request, though Ghidella and ‘Il Commendatore’ worked together on the construction of one more model.

The 272^nd and final 288 GTO to be built, just for Lauda, was presented to him at Reggio Emilia in March 1986. Ferrari would only live for another two years, so at this stage in his life, perhaps it is not so surprising after all that years of disagreement and stubbornness would fade away at this opening for a settlement. A fibreglass olive branch in shining Rosso Corsa, gifted to the man who knew firsthand more than most what it meant to risk his life in pursuit of success for the Prancing Horse.

 Images courtesy of Getty Images.