15 Manliest Cars On The Road
6. Ferrari 250 GTO
Think back to some of the guys who’ve driven them: Steve McQueen had a Lusso, and Clint Eastwood had a 365 GT4 BB.
Edging those and all other models is the original GTO. It was built to win races, so the design was the result of wind tunnel and test-track refinement, not an attempt to appeal to customers.
Nevertheless, the manly V12 dominated the track and has become a legend. To this day, it’s just your average “streetable” race car – if you dare to attempt it after finding a willing seller and parting with many, many millions.
The Ferrari 250 GTO was a sports car and auto racing car made by Ferrari in the early 1960s. It is widely considered to be the quintessential Ferrari model, and one of the greatest sports cars – indeed, one of the greatest automobiles – of all time.
The 3 liter (180 cubic inches) engine was a version of the Gioacchino Colombo short-block designed V12. Continuously developed from then on, this engine would power many racers and road cars. The engine was fitted in a simple but strong steel tubular ladder-frame that was suspended by wishbones with a single leaf spring at the front and a live axle at the rear.
The numerical part of its name denotes the displacement in cubic centimeters of each cylinder of the engine, whilst GTO stands for “Gran Turismo Omologato”, Italian for “Grand Touring Homologated.”
In 2004, Sports Car International named the 250 GTO number eight on the list of Top Sports Cars of the 1960s, and number one as the Top Sports Cars of All Time. Similarly, Motor Trend Classic named the 250 GTO as number one in their list of the “Greatest Ferraris of all time”.
