The orphan Duck becomes a Queen

There’s a lot of talk about the Ferrari 250 GT0 and its stratospheric market values. But who knows how it was born? It was 1961, and Enzo Ferrari wanted a winning Grand Touring car to counter the growing performance of Aston Martin and Jaguar. With his histrionic style, the famous Enzo, instead of commissioning the racing department, asked one of his engineers, Giotto Bizzarrini from Livorno, to make a car with performances already superior than ever, working almost secretly in an isolated garage. Bizzarrini, starting from a Ferrari 250 Boano, by now dated, revised the chassis and shortened the wheelbase, moved the engine 20 centimetres further back, to best distribute the weights, and lowered it to reduce the frontal section.

The bodywork follows the shapes of the mechanics and has a front so flat and low that the car was immediately called “duck”. The first tests on the track say that the path is the right one, but the project foundered with the departure of Bizzarrini, Chiti and other engineers from the company, after a historical quarrel with the owners. However, Bizzarrini’s fine work was not lost and in 1962, with the appropriate modifications made to the mechanics and the magnificent bodywork that we know today, the duck changed its name and became the famous GT0. From that moment, born fatherless, the 250 GT0 (Gran Turismo Omologata) makes everyone forget its origins thanks to its successes.