HY-KERS vettura laboratorio
Presented at the 2010 Geneva International Motor Show: the first Ferrari hybrid with the unusual opaque green livery.
The Ferrari 250 GTO Makeover
Taking Apart and Putting Back Together a $15M Ferrari
A fair old debate has been going on in the world of historic cars. Should cars be restored or preserved? We profess to liking our historics careworn and with a certain degree of patina, as if they were lovely old contraptions. Ever seen a scruffy vintage Bugatti, where every grease nipple is oozing with fresh lubrication but the paint is wretched and chrome has been wantonly rubbed through to the brass?
Of course, this sort of debate intensifies when a rare and important machine like this Ferrari 250 GTO is concerned. Just like every one of the 39 Ferrari 250 GTOs built between 1962 and 1964, chassis number 3527GT's history has been detailed in various books. So when the current owner purchased it in 2005, he had to decide: leave it as is or restore it?
A tough decision, made more so when you factor in that a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO is now worth north of $15 million.
The Patina Quotient
While 3527GT had been a lovely original car, it has survived a tough racing life. It was sold new to Gottfried Koechert in May 1962 and was promptly entered in the Nürburgring 1,000 Km, but then sold right afterward — probably because the owner realized he had more car than he anticipated.
While 3527GT had been a lovely original car, it has survived a tough racing life. It was sold new to Gottfried Koechert in May 1962 and was promptly entered in the Nürburgring 1,000 Km, but then sold right afterward — probably because the owner realized he had more car than he anticipated.
Next the car came into the hands of racer Lucien Bianchi (later a great friend of Mario Andretti), who entered it in the 1962 Tour de France. Bianchi and navigator Claude Dubois led this fierce combination of high-speed road rally and circuit-based road race until the last day, when they collided with a milk truck. The lightweight aluminium nose of the Ferrari was stove in, but the pair leaped out and cut most of the front of the car clean off and got going again, although they could only manage to finish 7th.
By 1965 the GTO had been retired from racing by its new owner, Swiss banker Armand Boller. He had raced it extensively since 1963, but when his Swiss friend Tommy Spychiger was killed in a Scuderia Filipinetti Ferrari 365P2 at the 1965 Monza 1,000 Km, Boller withdrew his GTO from the race and retired from driving
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