The GTO was an FIA Homologation special revered and tracked from day one so there's little danger one will turn up that nobody knows anything about.
A friend who likes to remain private has 288, F40, F50, Enzo, La Ferrari, La Ferrari Aperta and FXX in his Supercar line up. The only place I have seen all together
The beautiful 288 GTO we've just sold that will be staying in the USA, this is a car we've known for @ 15 years when we first sold it. Image Unavailable, Please Login
It's a rare German delivered car, characterized by factory-applied mesh screens to meet 1980s German TUV mandates, very cool. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Mesh screens at the aperture of the vents, I detailed this in my GTO book. Image Unavailable, Please Login
The German TUV mutilated 308s of the same era in that same manner. All the Germans I know hated that.
It's no worse than the ugly US front bumpers on European vehicles of the 1970s and 1980s and the side lights on US vehicles
I think they're a pretty cool period component, the screens are obviously carefully designed & affixed, and they are a practical safety feature which is exactly why they were designed and applied. If I had a 288 GTO with these unique features, I'd never remove them, and judging by the number of German-delivered GTOs with these still remaining, other owners feel the same way. The current owner of 54247 will keep it as-delivered. The screens are not even comparable to the horrendous DOT bumpers and ugly side-markers! These mesh screens are actually quite appealing in person, I think they should have been applied to all GTOs and unlike the aforementioned bumpers, nobody I know wishes to remove the screens.
Yes but you can't compare them to the USA DOT bumper monstrosities affixed to certain cars of the era, the screens are actually well-designed, discreetly-affixed, and in keeping with the cars overall design, bear in mind that all GTOs have mesh screens affixed inside the other bodywork apertures. Image Unavailable, Please Login
As regards the German TUV-inspired items, as I mentioned before, there are a number of cars (which themselves have had multiple owners each) where the screens are still there 30-plus years later and none of the owners thought to remove them even though this would be relatively easy to do, the reasons why are likely those I mentioned above. Frankly, several people whose attention I've drawn to them have said they never even noticed them, because they are discreetly applied. Here's another German GTO with them affixed. They remind me of the factory-applied mesh screens on the trailing lower edge of the F40's front hood to catch stones, also a cool & functional application I would never think of removing. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I lived in Munich in the late 1980s and routinely saw many 308s and several 288 GTOs (including the Lauda GTO) most with and some without. Literally everyone hated these mesh screens - the dealer S&T, the service folks at Irber, and all clients. It was viewed as a solution to a problem that didn’t exist and was seen as needless meddling by the German Government. The only reason no one dare oppose this Byzantine law was to come under scrutiny of TUV during the required TUV inspections and leave holes where the rivets attached.
As far as I’m concerned, if the car left the factory with the screens, like then or not, they should stay on the car.
Perhaps Germans of that era were not happy with the idea that the government mandated them, and probably weren't happy with anything the government mandated just because it was mandated. But nobody based elsewhere minded. The reason for the latter is, not only are they well-executed, the screens do in fact serve a practical purpose by adding an extra layer of safety by eliminating the possibility of debris entering those apertures. Similarly, every F40 ever built has 3 of the same type screens in the lower frontal area for the same reason, and nobody complains, they look good and serve a purpose. @ 20 years ago the first GTO I encountered in the USA with these screens belonged to a famed hotelier. Having just bought an F40, I thought they were cool and wondered why all GTO's didn't have them. I still do, and that car still has them.
