Which 250 GTO is the best of the best?

I perhaps wasn't specific enough but 'specification' for these cars seems to be their record of race history or lack of as a way to rank each example.
There was lots of competition to buy a 250 GTO even when they were new. David Clarke tried to buy 3869 from Col Hoare but Ron Fry bought it. Then later Carl Richardson owned that GTO. Eventually Richard Clarke did get his RHD GTO.
Very interesting about Lord Bamford and his choices, thank you!

 

Not exactly.... when they weren't "new" any longer, there were more than a few owners that could not, and did not sell the GTO's they had easily or quickly. I wish I had a time machine now!

 

3647 GT didn’t have the easiest of lives during its in-period competition days.
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PLEASE NOTE: The second photo in the post above (which shows #30 upside-down), is NOT #3647 GT. Apologies for the error.

 

No... it certainly did not have an easy life early on, but it was fixed back in the day by the factory, etc. And never a restoration.

 

3851GT.

 

GTO's were "tools" as new race cars. They were built to be used hard and then discarded. No different than a carpenter's hammer and screwdriver. Do you want an antique hammer that was never used or an antique hammer worn out by building the White House.

 

Discussed here who rebodied the GTOs in period: https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/who-rebuilt-rebodied-the-250-gtos-in-period.533174/#post-144935457

See posts by Marcel Massini. IIRC Lusso123 has said that 3647GT was last rebodied by Fantuzzi according to the owner of 50+ years.

 

I agree with Dyke. Give me the old tools with great history and involvement any day of the week.
And yes, Per Ferrari who used Fantuzzi, 3647GT body was repaired by Fantuzzi hence still done by/per factory, back in the day. Same as very many significant race cars. And this one was raced hard.

 

For the sake of the history of 3647GT it would be good to know what proof there is that Fantuzzi repaired 3647GT after its last accident and what was done to it. Perhaps the owner also has the history or documentation as to who repaired/rebodied it after its previous 2 accidents???

 

I understand your points and questions, and about the history, but not everyone wants to put it all out there. I try to stay away from or completely out of a lot of back & forth in these forum discussions, which is what I've done with other topics - I just read, but don't post (learning my lesson...again. Guess should keep away from the keyboard). I do know that my friend has extensive information - documentation on his car, and I'm also sure he's not too keen on posting anything here about it. Sorry.

 

I too understand your points. I'm sure the owner doesn't give a flying fig what is written about 3647 on the net but to balance what may be perceived as the negative information and pictures of the 2 Goodwood crashes and at the Nurburgring which come up regularly, and also for fans of the car and other GTOs, I think that if there is documented proof that the car was properly and very importantly authentically repaired/rebodied by Scaglietti and by Fantuzzi on the instructions of Ferrari then that largely negates that adverse information and just makes 3647 all the more interesting. In fact thinking more about it, 3647 is owed the Scaglietti/Fantuzzi positive information to be out there, if that is the case. Just my opinion.

 

Cavallino #226 arrived today. The beautiful image of Ferrari 250GTO S/N 3445GT is by out fellow F-Chatter, Peter Singhoff.

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if a current uninformed Ferrari buyer ordered a Carfax on a 250 GTO, they would run away from the car they were looking at... the cars were raced and otherwise enjoyed... with little of the original left in some cases... don't know if there if a "virgin" car exists, same goes for the 330LMB.... these cars sell on how their history presents itself and how well they have been refurbished... the "best" would be of personal opinion or by a consensus of opinions with a split going between the chasis and history for total score

 

I believe this car just came out of the shop for damages sustained in Europe during a Ferrari event a couple years ago

 

It did but it has been without its original body for decades, so no harm done basically.

As for GTO originality, there are some very well preserved ones. Overall I think most of the GTOs survived the period racing quite well, if you compare it to the 250LM. The LMs are extremely prone to fire and quite a few have been burned beyond recognition. I would be more concerned with such a car than with a GTO which may had a "usual" racing crash back in the day.