Yahoo Autos One-of-five Ferrari 288 GTO Evoluzione up for auction
Ferrari doesn't normally dabble in the mundane, but some of its cars are rarer than others. A perfect example is the 288 GTO Evoluzione, a race car-turned-test bench that the company built five units of in the 1980s. While these rarely come up for sale, one is currently being auctioned.
Many enthusiasts are familiar with the 288 GTO, but the Evoluzione model remains substantially more obscure. Ferrari initially developed it to compete in the Group B rally category's tarmac events. You didn't need to be a seasoned car-spotter to tell the Evoluzione apart from the standard 288 GTO: it featured a specific, Pininfarina-designed body made with Kevlar and fiberglass and a carbon fiber rear wing. Power came from a 650-horsepower evolution of the road car's 2.9-liter, twin-turbocharged V8 engine. Ferrari quoted a top speed of 230 mph.
Had it raced, the 288 GTO Evoluzione could have given Ferrari's rivals a serious run for their money. It didn't get the chance to compete because the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) eliminated the Group B class from international rally events in 1986. Ferrari instead used the 288 GTO Evoluzione to test some of the features it later brought to production in the F40, and it's not a coincidence that several styling cues link the two cars.
