Produced in the middle 1980s the Ferrari 288 GTO was an awesome machine that was designed (on the racing side) for Group B competition, believe it or not. When that program got cancelled, the road car hung on until the 1987 model year before giving way to new models. Powered by a 2.8L V8 engine, it made all the right high pitched screaming noises that Ferrari fans are known to love. One of the reasons for those nice noises? The factory muffler which was a dual inlet, dual outlet piece a factory version of which is displayed above and below. This is actually a used muffler that is currently for sale on eBay. The seller advertises it as only having been on a car for a couple of hundred miles before it was swapped off. That’s good to know because the asking price is…drumroll…$21,250!
Only 272 examples of the 288GTO were produced so there are very few of these mufflers floating around and we’re guessing that Maranello does not have a dude named Luigi back in the parts department picking up the phone to drop ship these to potential customers so what we have here is a supply and demand issue. The supply is effectively one and the demand is likely going to come from a very rich guy who would sign off on something as insane as a $21,250 muffler.
Don’t get us wrong, we’re not going after the seller for the price. We’d do the same thing if we were in his shoes. You charged what you think the market will bear and if not, adjust your expectation. At the time of this writing there are not bids but five different people are watching the auction. Imagine having the jack to buy a $21,000 muffler. That’s effectively 100 BangShifty cars in the shape of a can that makes screaming noises. We live in truly amazing times.
Here’s the eBay ad for the $21,000 Ferrari Factory OEM Muffler – Can we get 2?
So you’re saying I can’t get one of these for $26.95 down at Meineke?
How much would it cost to have a custom one off muffler fabricated?
Ah well, it is a good problem to have… Where to get muffler parts for my 288 GTO
If you are restoring a 288 and you need this muffler, what are you going to do?
I would think someone with some fab skills to make you one cheaper, though. I read a story about a 63 Super Duty Lemans that was restored recently. The restorer had aluminum fenders fabricated because GM versions were just available.
Absolutely a good fabricator could make one for a lot less. I hope the seller has his high priced muffler for a long time.
Dual inlet????? Sure looks like THREE inlets to me of course my eyes could be playing tricks on me because of the large bowl of frosted flakes I had this morning.