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FERRARI'S LATEST SUPERCAR EMBODIES EVERYTHING THE ITALIAN RACING AND SPORTS CAR COMPANY HAS LEARNED IN 80 YEARS

- WORDS JONNY LIEBERMAN

The Ferrari F80 has arrived, and a new top-line supercar from Modena is a giant deal in the car world. Think back a decade to the LaFerrari, a car so monumental it was not only named after itself but also given GOAT status as a member of “The Holy Trinity,” along with the McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder. Or what about the radical Enzo 10 years before that? What of the race-car-in-disguise F50 from the ‘90s? Or the poster car fantasy object that is the brutal F40? These machines define automotive decades.

Early next year, customers will begin taking delivery of the latest and possibly greatest of them all, the car built as a celebration of 80 years of prancing horses, red cars, and Enzo's singular vision. Let's take a beat and pause, however, and think about the granddaddy of them all, the essential 288 GTO. To most folks' eyes it’s nothing but a 308 GTB with some extra slots cut into the flanks. But to those in the know, it’s by far the most exciting of the vintage bunch.

The 288 GTO, Ferrari's first supercar (not the 250 GTO, as that car was built four years before the term "supercar" was coined) was indeed based on the 308. Said mid-engine exotic was then cut in half and its wheelbase lengthened by 4.3 inches to allow the 2.9-liter V-8 to rotate from transverse to longitudinal orientation. It was also upgraded to near Group B and Group C race car specs with twin turbos, making it essentially a detuned version of what eventually powered the F40. Some Ferrarists even maintain the F40 is just a 288 GTO in a body kit. This is important because if you look at what Ferrari is up to now, its 296 road car uses a 120-degree 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-6 (we round up its 2,992cc to 3.0) with hybrid assist, as does its Challenge series race car and its back-to-back-to-back 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning endurance racer, the 499P.