"All this summer there has been a bit of a rhubarb in FIA circles over Mr.Ferrari

and his 250LM rear engined Berlinetta GT car, and recently things came to a head,

and there were shouts and screams in all directions. The simple facts are that in

the past Enzo Ferrari has cheated, like all the other GT manufacturers in racing,

now the FIA have called his bluff, and it hurt.

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The rules say that before a model can be homologated as a GT car for competitions,

100 examples must have been made and sold, or at least there must be the

intention of making and selling 100 examples. If 50 or 60 cars have been built,

and the rest are under way, then the FIA homologation committee will usually

accept a car for GT racing, without waiting for completion of the full 100.

With the 250LM, application for homologation was made when only a handful

had been built, and it was turned down. Further application was made after

the introduction of the 3.3 litre engine, to replace the original 3 ltr, and it was

still called a 250LM, though in fact it was a 275LM. 

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Again it was turned down, for the impression was given to the FIA that very nearly 100 cars had been built, which was not true, and the committee looked deeply into the matter and found that double figures had barely been reached. Recently the car was again proffered for homologation, even though some 13 or 14 have been built and another dozen or so are under way, and whichever way you look at it, this is not 100 examples.

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At this refusal to the the application there was a fine old rumpus, and threats by Ferrari to move to another country, to give up racing, to stop racing in Italy, and so on. He was grieved, not so much with the refusal to give homologation to the 250LM or 275LM, but because the Italian Auto Club had given him the impression that they could fix it with the FIA to accept the car. They failed to do this, and Ferrari got justifiably angry with them. I say justifiably because they had obviously done a fiddle in getting the 2ltr Abarth and the Alfa Romeo GTZ homologated, just as there had been some jiggery poker in getting the competition E Type Jaguar accepted, when less than a dozen had been built, and the last of the Aston Martin models, of which 2 or 3 were built.

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As I said earlier, it was alright when everybody was cheating, and Ferrari got away with the GTO Ferrari, even though he admits to only building 34, but as soon as someone plays honest, and very obviously so, then everyone else must toe the line. Once a particular model has been homologated it is possible to alter it beyond all recognition, providing the specification on paper appears the same, and the alterations can be described as optional extras. In this way the original Europa Ferrari was changed to the 250GT, which was altered from a long to a short chassis, and then to the GTO.

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The original E Type Jaguar was changed to a racing version, and then to a lightweight competition model, with 5 speed gearbox and so on. Alfa Romeo obviously pulled this one when they developed the Giulietta Sprint into the Giulia Sprint, and then the tubular space frame TZ model, and Abarth fudged over the changes from his Abarth 1000 to the Abarth-Simca 1300 and then to the Abarth 2000. All this was legitimate cheating, as the parentage of the car did not really change, but when Ferrari set out on the 250LM project there was a radical change, the engine and gearbox being taken from the front of the car and put in the back, and an entirely new layout was used. By no stretch of the imagination could this car new considered a development of the GTO."