It's not sad IMO, it's just practical. Intake grilles are official Ferrari SpA components designed and applied for a purpose, if the car is driven these screens will prevent debris & rocks from entering vital & sensitive places. The German grilles simply make the GTO more usable and only compliment other grilles already on the car, we all know the GTO had a short gestation period and 200 cars had to be hastily built to meet FIA Homologation requirements, IMO the German intake grilles should have been there in the first place, good for the German TUV for recognizing their application as important. They finish off the car in the same manner as subsequent Supercars. Ferraris have a proliferation of intake grilles for the aforementioned reasons, GTO, F40, F50, Enzo, LaFerrari, and many more besides. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Intake grilles have become an accepted application, even on components affixed under the skin. Can anyone guess what component this is? Image Unavailable, Please Login
so according to your records, how many 288 GTOs have suffered engine failures due to leaves or debris entering into the intakes of non German 288 GTOs?…failures that would have been prevented by these comical screens?
1 would be 1 too many, the old adage of prevention is better than cure applies, but l'll make it a point to check my records & revert. Meanwhile, I'm confident any Ferraris you might drive have similar screens affixed by Ferrari themselves for the same reasons discussed above.
its a rear carbon brake cooling duct that sits under the F50 on the inside edge of the rear wheel, they often get damaged as they hang just below the line of the under tray, replaced several of them over the years. Even though we are in a 288GTO thread that looks to be the one used on an F50, without seeing the rest of the unit, its hard to say if it the right or left side component 11 & 12 in the attached diagram Image Unavailable, Please Login
That's right and left brake cooling duct circled on the rear of an F50 Image Unavailable, Please Login Sent from my ELE-L29 using FerrariChat.com mobile app
actually I will correct my comment above, given I can only see part of the carbon duct in the photo, I would say its left side Part number 165971
Joe, I think you got your photo for the quiz from here: Ferrari F50 Carbon Fiber Brake Intake Air Cooling Duct_165971_Front Left Side_OE | eBay but the seller has the item description wrong in the listing, its actually a rear brake duct, not a front as he has described.
Mesh grills on air intakes (288's): You guys are all wrong. It had to do with the law at the time in Germany (1985). Germans said pedestrians could be badly hurt if arms or other body parts are sucked in. That is why the German TüV requested such mesh grills. No other reason. Nothing to do with leaves etc. Seriously, not a joke. Marcel Massini
I would like to buy a German 288, remove the mesh, and have it remade in the same 'hex' style as the mesh behind the rear gills of the car. Then I'd put the screens back and see if anyone ever noticed. I do like the mesh and I can see the practicality, I just don't like the pattern.
56333 on display during the Inaugural Cavallino Classic Concours in Modena, 3 July 2021. Marcel Massini Image Unavailable, Please Login
Nobody is wrong, because nobody has made any claims as to why the TUV mandated these intake screens. We have simply observed that they were affixed by the works to German-bound 288 GTOs when new, and we are discussing that they are well-designed, discreetly-applied and practical. The latter is obvious to anyone who ever owned any type of performance car because intake screens are a universal application to prevent debris entering places where it's better if they didn't enter. Regardless of why the TUV mandated these items, the fact is Ferrari SpA has adopted and applied them to all their Ferraris, including all the Supercars thereafter, F40, F50, Enzo etc which speaks to the acceptance of their function. I believe these were installed at Ferrari SpA based on the intended destination of the car, they are identical for all the German 28 GTOs, and having done some checking, I've established they were in the cars at the point of delivery - more on this to follow. You'll also note that the mesh screen used is the same in pattern as that used in the front of the F40, and identical in application with prong-to-hole and rivets to secure them. The factory production variance for certain jurisdictions is similar to that of Lamborghini in the same era making a Swiss Downdraft to slightly different specification with protective under-tray etc. You've made this point a number of times, we get it but you're flogging a dead (prancing) horse. So everyone you knew in the 80s was a screen-hater, I believe you, but today 35 years later, who cares? Ultimately, the people who actually owned the screened 288 GTOs were happy to keep them in place because they could see clearly that they were discreetly applied and served a purpose, and furthermore, Ferrari SpA themselves adopted them entirely, which speaks for itself. Ferrari SpA are screen-lovers, if you check a current Ferrari you'll see screens similar to those which the German TUV mandated. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The square mesh screen pattern has been adopted by Ferrari over the hex pattern FWIW, but no worries that there is a combination of hex (honeycomb pattern) & square on the German GTOs. Have you seen an F40? Every one built has that combination of square & hex, the front screens are square pattern and the rear panel grille is the old hex pattern. I wouldn't change a thing with a German GTO with the screens, they were put there for a still relevant purpose and I think they are neat, here's the hex pattern on the GTO of which you speak. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Information & images for the following GTOs courtesy of Andreas Birner, here's 54781 delivered to Archibald von Wegner, founding member and former president of Ferrari Club Deutschland, this image is from 1985, to the point that the screens are discreet, you can hardly see them but they are there. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Here's 55163 delivered September 24, 1985 to Hans-Albert Zender of Mülheim-Kärlich in Germany, screens affixed upon delivery, again, hard to spot but they are there in this image and still are today I believe. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Here's 54229, sold new on March 19th, 1985 to a gentleman in Hamburg, Germany, can you spot the screens? Image Unavailable, Please Login
54229 sold new in 1985 to a gentleman in Hamburg, Germany and rarely-seen, it which exists as delivered, screens in-situ. Image Unavailable, Please Login
