Video: Onboard a howling Ferrari 250 GTO

15th May 2021

Seán Ward

You know a video is going to be good when the first two seconds is a V12 screaming to high heaven as part of a full-bore, tyre-shredding launch. It’s even better when you realise the V12 is that of a Ferrari 250 GTO.

This is the start of the 77^th Members’ Meeting’s Graham Hill Trophy, a race for closed-cockpit GT cars in the spirit of the 1960–’64 RAC TT races. The car is a Ferrari 250 GTO/64, specifically that of Piet Roelofs, driven at 77MM by James Cottingham and Nicky Pastorelli.

The launch is ferocious, the car slithering its way off the line, smoke pouring into the cabin, before Pastorelli, taking the start, moves the long, metal lever of the dog-leg ‘box from first to second. From there on we’re holding our breath, as Pastorelli gets squeezed on both sides into the first corner. After that it’s three minutes of V12 bliss. What a car, and what an engine.