3X8 Heirarchy - fun thread

I understand the point of your post, however, we all own Ferraris....we're all pretty friggin lucky to be members of this exclusive club. In over 60 years Ferrari hasn't even produced 200,000 cars. How many did Ford produce last year? It doesn't matter if you own a 308, 288 or 458....we all own Ferrari's. 84 Rosso Rubino GTS QV Euro.....and proud of it

 

1. 328 GTB
2. 308 GTB QV
3. 308 GTB ( 1975-76 glass or steel)
4. 308 GT4 (Series One)
5. 308 GT4

6. 308 GTS 78-79, 83-86

the rest i dont care about. i just dont like the 328, but i do admit the 328 GTB is one i would consider, if i wanted the melted jelly bean look, as opposed to the classic wedge of the 76 GTB.

ps. i will never own a 348 or 355. you guys can have all of them.

this is fun.

 

I know where my Ferrari is in the hierarchy. (LOL)

 

I got an '81 GTSi

PLEASE KEEP HATING IT-- PLEASE. It, and the 308GT4.

P L E A S E .....

Then I can buy another.




And my Horsey was made in the same place by the same man as your Horsey.

 

I think we can take the (early) lead with my vote for the Mondial, as well.
Rob

 

Call me nuts, but this is how I see it...

308 Dino
308 GTB, carb'd
308 GTS QV with the black glass roof (looks like a GTB)
328
348
Mondial (not a hater, just not my favorite)

 

Nothing wrong with an 81 GTSi.

All of our cars use oil.

 

Yep, they can dislike us 2V FI and Mondi guys, but ....... they CAN'T DIS-OWN us.



Gotta love it.

 

You bastard children!







(COMPLETELY KIDDING! LOL sorry...just had to...)

 

No ..... You are not. And, "YES," I know you "Had to."

 

I was kidding I swear...I love the whole 3x8 line....one of the sexiest cars every built in my opinion.

 

They're all great - just minor variations of a truly great model. I don't think there's any hierachy at all.

The best one is the one you own.

 

I know, I know.

Just HAD to JERK YOUR chain.

All is good.

 

Clearly the order is something like
1) GTS QV V12 with GTO front.
2) everything GTS/GTB runinng boost
3) everything else GTS/GTB
3) mondial/GT4

 

This is a malicious p|ssing contest with no merit MODERATOR PLEASE remove it from TECHNICAL forum

STOP THE REPLIES

 

The Mondial is not part of the 308 series, so why would it be considered, one way or another, in this particular discussion?

apples and oranges i say. i see them as a separate model, and i do like some of them.

the 348 and 355 was the further development of the 308 series, they just have too many documented issues, documented by the professional and expert Ferrari wrench turners mind you, for me to ever want to own one.

i would take a well sorted GTB(i) , but it would have to be priced properly, as a QV is just a better car. no slight meant against the GTB(i) as a member of its species.

far as i am concerned the 288 GTO is the best looking damn modern CAR ever made, Ferrari or otherwise. i just dont like the melted jelly bean computer crap cars.

the "wedge" is the shape i dig the most..... Miura, Countach (early) early 308, 288, ET AL.

the 288 is "exempt" from the 3x8 series discussion, because it is, and always will be an ICON.

we could include the F40, if we "really" wanted to, but me thinks the OP did not intend for these tangents to be considered, and i answered as best i could, given his original parameters.

 

My personal heirarchy:

308 Fibreglass
308 GTS/B Carb
308 GT4
328 GTS/B
308 QV GTS/B
308 2v GTS/B

 

LMAO

 

This idea of this thread is like a dcik swinging contest for people with small dciks, and nothing new to F-Chat. Please, no one take offense to my comments -- I mean this in a fun way!

It's like going to a Nifty-Fifties cruse-in night at the local retro-style diner where there are a bunch of people with hot rods, old Camaros, and '57 Chevies sitting around on lawn chairs, all trying to justify over each other why their car is the most bad-a$$: "Mine's one of only 5738 in 1964 to have the 389 Tri-Power setup, his-hers shifter, and no vinyl top." Good for you. I'm glad that worked out for you.


We all know the real outcome of this thread:

The early Euro carbed cars duke it out for supremacy against the QV, until somebody comes up trumps by saying "fiberglass," meanwhile everyone knows that the 328 is the best of the 308/328 body style hands down, but people who couldn't or wouldn't cough up the extra ten grand use the bumpers or interior switchgear as an excuse, the same way the 2Vi owners justify their purchases based on value/maintenance costs/not enough difference in performance. While all this is happening, the catalyst-carbed owners sit quietly, hoping nobody notices them, but prepared to talk about how much they love induction noise just in case, GT4 owners play the "underappreciated/great drivers car" card, and Mondial owners roll their eyes and shrug.


We all know the hierarchy. Market values define it. So, let me try with a ranking, that should be pretty near dead-nuts accurate:


1. Dry sump Euro fiberglass 308. Boo-yahhhh!!!! The proverbial mine is the largest of 308 ownership! Gold medal!

2. Any other fiberglass 308, except the one on eBay, because it has a later engine or something.

3. 328, despite the protesting of the styling and interior of people with cars further down the list. Doesn't matter whether it's a GTS or GTB, because there are so few GTBs anyway, demand/supply are about equal.

4. Euro GTB QV. Because it's rarerer-er, and we can talk about pure lines and stuff.

5. Euro GTS QV. Because anything "Euro" is always better than anything "American." We're all sofistercated, yer'know! (Otherwise we'd own Corvettes...) Oh, and it has little bumpers and stuff.

6. Early carbureted steel car. Because the raw sound of the webers is music and all that, and they make 240 hp. Or is it 250 hp. Or 255 hp. Or lots more, but Ferrari rated them conservative. Whatever, they're fast. But 308s are all slow, of course, but a pre-catalyst 308 is like a vintage Ferrari, which are all fast enough to peel your face off under acceleration, except, of course, it's not a vintage Ferrari -- it's a mass produced FIAT.

7. American QV. Because carburetors sound better than fuel injection and galvanized steel. It was a close call between #s 4-7. Maybe next month it will be shifted around a bit, kind of like national top law school rankings. We're lumping the GTBs in here, because if any actually exist, there aren't enough of them to be on a list. There are rumored to have been a couple dozen, and there is even some period marketing literature for them, but one has never actually been seen, and people are claiming that Ferrari traveled back in time to photoshop the literature.

8. Other carbureted 308s. These, of course, are the catalyst carb cars. But if you take off the cats, LOOK OUT!!!!! NOW THEY'RE FAST!!!!! Despite anything someone says about cam profiles!!! And webers sound soooo cool, anyone who prefers them is obviously a connoisseur. They are cool, in an old skool, Robert-Redford-driving-a-vintage-911 way. GTB/S doesn't matter here, because all of these cars just ride on the coattails of the non-cat carb cars, and quietly let people keep thinking they're 240/250/255/lots more horsepower.

9. 2-valve GTBi. At the bottom of the Pininfarina list we have the 2-valve injected cars, which, of course, have an actual horsepower output of only 150-160, when the intake scoop is force-fed with a leaf blower on a cool, foggy morning in April. Here is where the "I like the pure lines of the GTB" defense really shines. When you've got nothing else going for you, and you even have the less-popular body style, you can play this card, bolstered by comments from people with more expensive berlinettas (QVs and 328s), touting that they really know their stuff and have good taste. GTBi sneaks an undeserved extra place on the list! [The author of this work owns a GTBi, and is suspected to be showing favoritism, so rankings 9-10 are likewise suspect.]

10. 2-valve GTSi. Here we have the "plain vanilla" Ferrari 308. They're everywhere, in a land where people try to buy the car that no one else has in order to distinguish themselves. Heck, there are times when they're all over eBay and classified ads, outnumbering the more plentiful QV GTS! The easiest to find, cheapest, Pininfarina 308. They have nothing going for them -- not even rarity; one would think a removable roof would count for something here, but when you get this far down the ladder (i.e. the Ferrari nobody wants, the 2vi), When you got nothing else going for you, you play the uniqueness card for justification!

- - - - - - - -

And the list continues (but please note the dotted line above, just to be as divisive as possible, and create a further separation of Pininfarina/2-seat cars from the rest):


11. 308 GT4. Although there are non-cat cars and catalyst cars, and of course Euro models, GT4s get all lumped together (see #8 above). Despite being a "driver's car," and that for the past five years they've been finally getting the respect they deserve, they still rank below all of the Pinninfarina cars. Why? Because the PF car is shaped like supermodel lying on her side, a GT4 is shaped like a shoebox that fell off of the top shelf in the closet onto the hardwood floor. No 12-year-old ever had a poster of a GT4 hanging on his bedroom wall, but when he hit puberty, he did hide the "classy lady" poster with the Pininfarina car under his bed. At the end of the day, when you've finally scraped together the dollars (or took out that home equity loan) to buy your first old, neglected Ferrari, you have to make a choice: driver's car, or poseur's car. The market speaks. We're all a bunch of poseurs. We'll hold out for that extra few grand to have the sexy shape.


12. Mondial 3.2 or QV convertible. Many 308 owners forget (or don't even know) there's a difference between these cars, so we'll just lump them together. If you're going to buy a Mondial, you have some very specific intentions, because you can almost afford a decent 308 for the money you're spending here. But you wouldn't be caught dead in a 2Vi, so you mutter something about "gentleman's grand tourer" or "kids" or "convertible," and drive around on clackety old TRX tires. [The Mondial T doesn't fit into the equation, because it's really a 348, well, sort of (and Luca said 348s suck), and we can't figure out why someone who could afford a 2-seat Ferrari would buy a Mondial. The Mondial T remains an enigma, kind of like the one with the clutchless auto-sort-of-matic gearbox that you heard something about.]


13. Mondial QV or 3.2 coupe. That blue one that was for sale on eBay in Florida last year for about a thousand weeks that couldn't generate a $16k bid reassured the convertible's superiority (if there is such thing in a Mondial). If you're going to buy a slow, heavy, 4-seat Ferrari (which no Ferrari is supposed to be, don't you know?), you can at least use "convertible" (or "kids") as an excuse. Nothing says, "hey, look, I'm really stretching it just so I can say I own a Ferrari" like a red Mondial coupe. Go for blue or silver (just fix the rust by the fuel filler before you try to sell). Admittedly, there is a small, select market for a car like a Mondial coupe of people who aren't in desperation to own a Ferrari, but they're rare, and a breed to themselves, like people who collect transcontinental airline spoons, and far too few to affect the car's rankings. Their cars are not red.

14. Mondial 8 convertible. Did I say something about "just so I can say I own a Ferrari" above? Oops, I meant to put that here! Well, at least it's a convertible! Better make it red!

15. Mondial 8 coupe. Just when you thought prices couldn't get any lower -- which of course translates to "nobody wants it" -- you see a nice, shiny Mondial 8 coupe in better shape than many lower end GTSis, struggling to sell for $12k-$14k. The market has spoken. Mondial 8 owners, hang your heads in humility, and make sure you give respect to the 308 QV owners when they pass you on the street. . . . or smile secretly and quietly to yourself, knowing that you are the only one who paid anything near what these cars are inherently worth!


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Not listed / Not ranked:

All of the 2-liter versions of the above listed cars, because we are so ethnocentric, many of us have never even heard of their existence, and if we have, we quickly forget. When reminded, we use the excuse that (despite being a nearly identical car) it's not really a 308, as it's a 2-liter, never mind that with any other manufacturer, a different displacement in the same car doesn't make it a different car. If we had any notion how slow a 2-liter, non-turbo Ferrari was, we'd be speaking praises of 2Vi 308s using the most-syllable words we know, patting 3Vi 308 owners on the shoulder and welcoming them into the 308 country club. . . . but there aren't any in America, so, like a 328 GTB or American GTB QV, it doesn't exist.


So, there you have it. I saw what a fun thread this is, so I just thought I'd add a little fun to it.


- Tony K.

 

As an owner of both a Mondial 8 and a US Spec QV GTS what am I supposed to do based on this comment?

Besides, the whole 308 line is where the line that real Ferraris have a V12 came from. Got one of those too, same model as Enzo's...
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I'd have to agree with Tony that the only hierarchy is what the market dictates. Anything else is just wishful thinking or personal preference. Certainly, the market can change and if it does, so will the hierarchy.

 

I'll take the Mondial 8 Convertible

 

Tony that WAS FREAKING INCREDIBLE!!!!

and of course, you make many valid points.