1983 208 GTS turbo Vs. 1988 GTS turbo

I just take home and drove for the first time my 1983 208 GTS turbo. Here a small evaluation of the engine (except for the engine the car is like the 308QV) and a comparison with the later GTS turbo intercooler.

208 GTS turbo came out in 1983, one year later than the 208 GTB turbo. Three years later, in 1986, it was replaced by the GTS turbo (with intercooler). All two 2 liters, all two V8, all two turbocharged. 220 hp the turbo, 254 hp the turbo intercooler. So, you can think the engine is more or less the same. Wrong: the engine looks the same, but it isn't at all.

I think the early 208 turbo (1982 model) is the best looking 3X8 ever, with his black venting grid, the black wing and all those Naca and others air intakes.

It also has a fantastic sound when idling and a sinister and intimidating sound when the turbo starts revving fast.

A fantastic car? Yes and no. Why?

Because it isn't very powerful, it's something like the 2v injected cars 3 liters: enough, but not much and not so much as you expected.

And then because the turbo is disappointing when cold: it starts pushing (a bit) just when the water temperature reachs 80°C, when the water thermostate opens. Why? who knows!

It starts pushing strongly just at 4500 RPM, more or less. Until that range it's very slow, even if very smooth.

A disaster? No. Not at all.

If you drive the car thinking that it's a vintage car and the first Ferrari turbocharged road car, then you will like it: it's a piece of history and you have to consider that for what it is, the Ferrari first step in the '80 turbo era. It's very light and handles very well as the best 3x8 cars and has a fantastic look and sound, intake and exhaust. It's fantastic in a car parade at low speed and can be very exciting on a track, even if not very fast.

The intercooled version is another world: it looks to have twice the power, half lag and pushes very hard already at 3000-3500 RPM, saying bye bye to every other 3x8 car.

Three years in the eighties were enough to have a turbo engine revolution as performance, drivability and sastifaction.

208 turbo is a pioneering vintage car, the turbo intercooler is a mature and fantastic supercar.


ciao
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I'm sorry, I haven't. But I wil do something like that sooner or later and I will post it.

Ciao

 

Well after almost a year of search I (probably) found the reason why the intercooled version is way faster and works much better (expecially when the engine has not completely warmed up).

Small reasons are: 0,5 more compression ratio, intercooler.

But the real BIG reason is this:in thwe 1982 not intercooled 208 turbo the ignition system cannot measure the MAP in the inlet manifold and change the ignition timing following the big MAP variations there are. The same with Injection.

The intercooled version has a different ignition and injection sensor that can do that.



ciao

 

another difference is that the front grill is black on the 208 turbo and already with the holes for passing lights. The venting grid on the front lid and fenders are black too: it's very similiar, but it differs from the QV. And looks better...

ciao
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Ok. I wrote this more than one year ago, but that is WRONG.

I found that the silver 208 GTB turbo (that has a Tubi Stykle exhaust installed) is much faster and when cold it works well and it's not a disaster like this 208 GTS turbo. So we did some investigation and tests.

Here you are what we found:

-the 208 GTS turbo has a failure in the injection device that enrichs A/F mixture ratio when the engine is cold: that's the reason why it has no power when cold. It will be fixed, by changing or fixing that device (here they call it "fornelletto").

-The Tubi exhaust adds an incredible amount of boost at mid-low RPM and top end power too.

Then I tested the silver one with the OEM muffler (installed just for the Classiche ispection). The results are:

-under 3000 RPM almost no power.
-it doesn't push hard until 4000-4500 RPM
-same max power as the 2V "ì" 308 model (not much...)


With the Tubi (just the muffler, manifolds are stock), we have:

-power begins at 2500 RPM
-the same power at 3000 RPM that you had at 4000 RPM
-pushes hard from the 3500-4000 RPM
-much higher power from 2000 to 7000 RPM
-more top power than the 2V "ì" 308 model (less than the QV, but not so much)


The question now is this: the GTB/GTS turbo intercooler, that is already as fast as a lightining stock, WTF will become with a Tubi installed, a rocket?

ciao

 

here below you can compare the sound of the OEM muffler (first two videos, after the car body restore) and the Tubi one (last video, before the car body restore)

Hope it can help you.

ciao


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcvgUOSFjwk after the body restore, OEM exhaust

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVIfD0y4fiA after the body restore, OEM exhaust

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CnvHO7xHsk before the body restore, Tubi Style SS exhaust (highly recommended)

 

talking about 30+years old cars, very similar each other too, the big differences among their chassis are cars conditions rather than the model year. In any case, comparing same great conditions cars, I would say that differences in the chassis are very small (if there are any) and you can feel them just at high speed, as at low speed they feel exactly the same. This is just my opinion, I'm not a test driver nor a professional driver so maybe someone else here can add something more, but my sensation is that the differences are more on the paper than on the road.

The only big difference I can feel in the chassis is between a GTS and a GTB: the GTB is much better already at low speed.

Car conditions are the big differences among the chassis: pay attention to them when you buy one, not to the model year.

ciao

 

Yes, it is. When cold the turbo has less performances in any case as exhaust gases are less hot and so they have less energy to move the turbine, but my GTS really has too much: that WUR must be tuned/changed and so on. It will be done when the mechanic will have the time to do it (that means who knows when...). The silver one (all new, just redone) hasn't any problem when cold, with or without the Tubi: It means there is something to fix in the GTS... the mechanic says it's 99,9% the WUR (fornelletto). But he didn't tell me why he didn't fix it when he serviced the car...

I think you WUR has some problem too, as acts like my 208 GTS turbo.

When you will have you turbo well serviced (and with the Tubi...) it will be another car, trust me.

ciao

 

It could be 118586, but it says NLA.

Ciao

 

they fix it for you, you send your bad working one and they rebuild it. See your WhatsApp...

ciao

PS
It's just a Bosch standard K-Jetronic: someone somewhere will fix it