Description
It was in December 2017 that I was first asked if I might be interested in producing a book on the Ferrari 250GTO/64s. I felt I owed it to the would-be client to put them off the very idea of a book on just these seven, albeit fabulous, cars alone …
To me, what a daft idea it seemed. There were only three GTO/64 cars built new, plus four more converted from 1962-63 ‘series 1’ 250GTOs. The entire group’s story has been told numerous times. There’s nothing new to find – nothing new to recount – it’s impossible to improve on what’s already known – we would surely be wasting our time … and the potential publisher’s money. If I told the client that once, I told him many times.
But still he persisted, and I had to admit there were two or three clearly unresolved mysteries within the GTO/64’s racing record. What had been long published – and long accepted – just didn’t stand up to investigation of the contemporary photo record.
Hmm – that was intriguing. So intriguing in fact that I began to think that pursuing the investigation might be interesting. Then I found myself digging deep into the true background of the GTO/64 … and further into the 250GTOs which preceded Ferrari’s concluding septet of 3-litre V12 front-engined Berlinettas.
The more I dug, the more I found, and once I got into the wonderful world of 1960s Italian and European hill-climbing – on often tremendously demanding and daunting mountain roads – the more absorbed and entranced I became.
From always saying ‘no, no, no’, one day I found myself instead thinking ‘yes, yes, yes’ and with such willing backing from this persistent client, plus the most fantastic co-operation, input and assistance not just from the factory, but from so many Ferraristi – old friends and new – in the UK, Europe and the USA alike, the years 2018-21 have sped by with ‘GTO/64 : The Story of Ferrari’s 250GTO/64’ as offered here the result.
It embodies a tremendous volume of work which has, I hope, enabled us to pay due homage to all those who invested an even greater volume of dedicated effort in creating, constructing, campaigning and conserving these wonderfully evocative examples of sublimely aesthetic automotive artistry, from 1963-64 to date …
If you now feel brave enough to invest in this volume, I hope you will find it as rewarding as it has been for our team to produce it. Absorption in the story is only a key stroke away. If you feel the Ferrari urge, just go for it. Enjoy!
‘Uber’ Edition Information
Published in a special edition of just 100 copies, the Uber edition books are hardbound in the finest black goatskin, into the front cover and spine of which are inset ceramic roundels bearing the ‘racing’ number 64. The books are numbered and signed by the author and again are presented in a matching leather-bound slipcase.
Doug Nye