208 GT/4

Any ideas on how to assess market value for a Euro 208 GT/4 in US?
This 208 is in California:
http://www.classicshowcase.com/CUVehicleZoom.asp?vehID=284

Have never heard of any 2-liter GT/4s being over here (US).
Not sure how to assess price--no personal experience in this realm.
No connection to car, seller, etc.
Nice looking car, though.

SDD

 

My hunch would be to value it as if it were a 308 GT4 in comparable condition, and perhaps deduct a bit for loss of performance. The rarity of this model in the US to me would not add a premium, and the lower performance would exact a discount.

Can you get it licensed in the US? If you're in California, it needs a smog check, as a 1977 MY car.

Andrew Watry
75 GT4

 

i agree that you should just pretend it is a 308 GT4. but i would not make a performance discount. the car is old enough now that the 308 GT4 is no blistering performer when compared to modern cars and the daily driver difference between the two models will not be huge. value it on condition and its desirability.

john

 

Aside from performance and other differences. How much better is the 208 gas mileage wise than a 308?

That's a nice looking GT4 BTW. I like the blacked out trims inside and out.

 

I called on this car a while back.
He was asking $40,000.

 

i thought the 2.0l were turbo charged. was it just the 308's with the 2.0l in europe only?

 

The turbo came along later, in the 80s.

 

I believe I read that this is the smallest V-8 put in a production car. That is some distinction - not sure it has a market value. I am sure this car was either on EBay or Hemmings. Smogging the car is going to be a challenge in CA - make sure they do it, because they are probably going to have to fashion cats for it, if not already done.

Most of the articles I have read about these cars claim they have no real value outside of Italy. Performance is going to be really off compared to a 308 GT4 which itself has a huge performance gap to anything on the road today. Ask yourself what u want of this car. If u want an oddity at the next FCA meet, maybe it makes sense at some price. If u want a driver Ferrari, get a 308GT4. This thing is just going to frustrate the hell out of u.

Pay a premium for this car? Heh, I rather buy a Maserati! (j/king)

 

Have you ever driven a 208gt4? If not, I think you would be really surprised that the performance is not significantly off that of a 308gt4. The 208 has much shorter gearing and very hot cams - these cars actually come off the line pretty hard (due to gearing) and rev much faster than the 308gt4. The performance of an (un-federalized) 208gt4 is not much less than a US Series I 308gt4 (I own an S1 308gt4, #10704) and truthfully is probably on par with an (emissions stangled and heavier) US SIII Gt4.

I was very surprised when I first drove one - fun little cars.

A

 

When I bought mine in Europe, I found that a 25% discount over a similar condition 308 GT4 seemed the going rate.

In a race against a 308 GT4 the 208 stayed with it through 1st gear, but had to change sooner and from there on in the race was lost. There's at least a 2 second difference over 1/4 mile. It's still more accelerative than a Mondial 8.

The 208 engine doesn't rev any higher, as the capacity was reduced by sleeving down the cyls rather than shortening the stroke. However, it does seem to produce it's power higher up the rev range than the 308 - probably due to the cam timing?

My mechanic, who specialises in Dinos of the earlier sort, reckoned the difference was pretty much the same as the difference between the 206 and 246 Dino.

To be honest many 30 year old V8 Ferraris are going to be humbled by modern machinery, but if it's the Ferrari sound and feel you are after the 208 has plenty of both.