By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. Or so goes the myth. Champagne as we know it today did not emerge until two centuries later. The latter enabled the abbey to become perhaps the first winery in the Champagne region to produce truly white wine—instead of pink—from red grapes.
In Italy during that year interim, an ex-artillery grunt and self-taught car builder named Enzo Ferrari was working for or collaborating with Alfa Romeo—at various times as a test-driver, racecar driver, dealer, or racing-team director. In , Ferrari left Alfa Romeo and formed his own company; by , the firm was building Ferrari-branded racecars.
In , the company crafted a machine that established a new standard for sports cars. It was equally suited to road and track, and equally ferocious on either. Today the GTO is considered, with few quarrels, the finest and certainly the most coveted Ferrari ever.
Di Montezemolo was standing inside a semicircle of mostly scarlet GTOs, meeting and greeting Ferrari owners. Ferrari built only 39 examples of the GTO, from to 36 in what has become known as the first series and three in the second series, which has a slightly altered design. Because these cars are considered masterpieces, it follows that owners are reluctant to allow strangers, especially freewheeling automotive journalists, to drive their vehicles.
With a car such as this, no accident is minor. Indeed, rally participants Christopher and Ann Cox, while motoring toward Le Mans, collided with a civilian car. A GTO does not deliver a luxurious ride. The interior consists of bare aluminum, naked chassis tubes, and seat cushions that feel like paper napkins. Noise levels approach bedlam, necessitating headphones to preserve eardrums and allow conversations via intercom.
