Hey guys, Guess I should introduce myself first as I've been lurking on this forum for a while, and dreaming of owning a Ferrari since (well, early childhood but in reality) 2010. Briefly, I'm a youngin' at only 25 years old, but I run a Ducati Specialty shop (link removed) and as it happens have a love of most all things Italian, and was first given a tour of the Ferrari plant at 21 years old. Lucky me I found a nice looking 328GTS that had a 288GTO conversion kit for sale on ebay this past February and got it for only $22k. My initial impressions driving the car were very positive, as the handling was pretty amazing. Here's what it looked like when I got it. http://ugc.ducati.kontain.com/photo/20120316/prod_47b91ef2-f98c-4744-8b84-5505d0200fd8/tb_1920x1080.jpg
Thanks guys, and sorry for the delay, but work keeps me pretty busy these days. Anyhow soon after receiving the car (3 days), a semi truck lost a complete wheel on the highway (I 40 in Knoxville), which bounced off a wall and destroyed the lower valance and some other bits of bodywork. That is why I call it a project. At that point I received a check for $26k from the insurance co (making the car free!) and got to keep the car, with a clean title. So now I've got it out for paint (all the body has been finished very nicely) at a high quality local shop and expect to have it back towards the end of next week. Pics to come soon!
the price of the car seems very low. but a 288 GTO - Targa is nonsense. anyway - we would like to see more pics. what s/n is it?
Anything as old as these cars are getting winds up with lots of interesting tales, do tell us more! ...and what your serial number is. Be sure to show us how it turns out after the repairs, we all love looking at car pictures!
Apparently the previous owner set it up for club racing at his local track. There is a roll cage and he had lightweight fiberglass doors installed (will be for sale in the classifieds or on ebay soon). The racing doors required him to remove the windows (easy to do apparently if you live in CA and TX like he did), but I'm in South Carolina - I need windows! Naturally I already found a couple doors with windows and they're being prepped and put on with all the new paint and body work. Here's a picture of the car - post highway wheel / tire collision. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Since I live close to the Griffin Radiator plant I had them build me a new high performance radiator. Image Unavailable, Please Login
The bodywork on the car seemed to be impossible to find an exact replacement for, so I had to get a 288 GTO lower from someone off ebay in CA, and have my bodyshop cut and trim it to fit. I don't have pics to post of the lower post cut, but it actually made the lower and the car look much better, the gto lower shown in this pic looked a little bloated on this car (due to it's headlight placement, etc...), and the way they customized it was a huge improvement. Image Unavailable, Please Login
All bodywork removed, getting prepped for paint. They're painting everything Rosso Corsa FER 300/9 with 3 coats of base and 3 coats of clear (I think). Image Unavailable, Please Login
Those are Simmons wheels from Australia. I had a set of those at one point. Too bad they closed, really nice wheels.
Once the paint is finished (I expect to have her back early this week) I'll snap some more photos for you guys. I expect it to look better than ever from the outside, and the engine bay is pretty clean so I'm expecting to have to do anything back there aside from the usual services. I did pick up the Remus exhaust for it at an absolute steal (it helps when you sell a lot of their motorcycle exhausts), and will be adding that asap. The interior is really the only flaw I see with this vehicle. Sure the seats are really nice, but the racing seatbelts need to be fitted for a man my size (6'1'' 180 pounds) as the previous owner was about double what I am, and the dash was modified to give more legroom and eliminate many non-essential features. I may pick up a 288 gto dash and console and work with that, but one step at a time here...
Here's a couple more pics of her from before the accident Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Ohh and couple quick questions... Is it hard to add AC to a non AC 328? Anyone use one of these? http://www.928motorsports.com/parts/ferrarisupercharger308-328.php
Hey guys, Sorry about being MIA with updates on this, but things are really coming together now, and soon I'll have her back to join my new white Testarossa. Question though - Anyone ever try to add AC to one of the non AC versions of the 328 GTS? Success? More pictures to come soon!
Check out http://www.retroair.com/ferrariairconditioning.html they have a kit A/C system for 308's that you could easily adapt. Ferrari easy that is.
