Napa Valley doesn't even know what hit it. One minute, there is nothing but the pastoral quiet of daybreak spreading over the foothills and vineyards. Then, without warning, nearly two dozen Ferrari 250 GTOs rev their engines — a chorus of combustion that's music to gearheads — for laps around Sonoma's Infineon Raceway. In a mix of raw velocity and amazing grace, they're participating in Day Three of the Moët & Chandon Tour, a once-every-five-years rally to celebrate perhaps the most coveted vintage sports car in the world. Only 36 GTOs were ever built — all between 1962 and 1964 — and for this event 21 of them have been flown in from as far away as England and Japan, forming a holy-roller motorcade of guys who live life in the passing lane, from business barons (luxury goods financier Lawrence Stroll, Hong Kong industrialist William "Chip" Connor, and Mexican billionaire Carlos Hank Rhon) to British knights (Anthony Bamford and Paul Vestey) to rock royalty (Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason). But with horsepower comes hazard, and when ex?Microsoft guru Jon Shirley flies around one of the blind turns at 70 mph, his right-hand-drive 1962 GTO 3729 (painted with a 10, its old racing number) suddenly fishtails and then spins out, careening off the track. A nearby Infineon staffer frantically waves a yellow flag, and the cars zooming around the corner slam on their brakes just in time, averting harm to Shirley — or, heaven forbid, the vehicle.
The Gran Turismo Omologato — meaning homologated, or certified, for official racing — has become so mythical that each one is worth up to $20 million. (The owners, of course, would never put a price on their babies and are so devoted to the cause that they have their own version of the Little Red Book: Jess G. Pourret's The Ferrari Legend, the definitive vintage Ferrari volume.) Built in the sixties by Enzo Ferrari to dust the Jags, Porsches, and Aston Martins threatening his racing supremacy, the GTO — with a top speed of 180 mph — dominated the competition from Goodwood to Le Mans. The design was a revelation: a five-speed gearbox and 300-horsepower, 3-liter Colombo V12 engine in an undulating aluminum body with a low nose, like an anteater on steroids. Of those original 36 GTOs, every single model, even the crashed-and-reborn, is still accounted for today. While there's no single MVP, among the richer pedigrees is Ed Davies's left-hand-drive 1962 GTO 3705, which won the GT class at Le Mans in its first year and went undefeated in 1965. I get a bone-rattling sense of what it was like back then when NumeriX CEO Greg Whitten takes me on a couple laps in his 1962 GTO 3413. There's no heat or soundproofing in the all-business cockpit — lest any unnecessary weight slow down the car — and as we roar down the straightaways at 100 mph, our helmets bumping against the roof, the road has never felt closer.
