Why did you choose a 3x8 ?

Hi all, I've been thinking the other day why I got a Ferrari in the first place, I've visited my brother in Cape Town a while back and over a BBQ someone ask me, why would I do something like that ? and then a friend of my brother's wife asked me the same thing, she actually asked(why would you buy a FERRARI ???) then I thought to myself - WHAT ? seems these people don't understand what this is all about. So I told them about dream cars and childhood dreams, living that dream etc, still they could not understand fully, one asked - why did you not buy something newer instead, hahaha, by this time I said that the Ferrari is not my daily car - nor something to show off with - but its a pure love of a classic car and in this case a 328...

growing up in a small town with local cars back in the late 70's and 80's I've always starred at exotic cars, on Television, car shows and books...I've had toy cars - Countach and a 308 GTB before age of 9 and my brother tossed the Countach,,being 4 years younger always playing with big brothers toys etc.

then at about 11 I've saw the 328 for the first time, my mom got me a poster back in 1987 of a 328 GTB with a smaller GTS at the bottom of the poster. Since then I had this car in my head and kinda forgot about it during my teens, only discovering my poster again at age 19 when I left for studies and after I've moved out of parents home at around 22 I was fortunate to purchase my own 2 bedroom apartment. I drove a well looked after 2nd hand VW Golf MK2 Jumbo GTi at the time, cheap car and easy to work on, DIY / services etc and I've always like to fiddle around with small repair work on cars...not worried about purchasing a new car giving me the advantage of saving for a possible family home later on and I figured the only way to afford a Ferrari is to keep on saving and not selling my apartment, rather rent it out hoping property value would rise...

At the time up to around age 26 (back in 2004) I haven't really looked at prices, thinking it impossible for a poor fellow like myself to afford a Ferrari, I was not aware of the current 308/328 prices but often saw 360's for sale and then I started searching on Auto trader and so forth for a 328, nothing were available at the time in South Africa, most cars were advertised around Johannesburg/Pretoria region and also around Cape Town and sometimes Durban but still and later mostly 360's / 355's and 550 Marenello's popped up and still to expensive for me at the time...

Then I left it for a while, concentrated in finding a home,,,myself and the lady got engaged and my thoughts were elsewhere, I was worried about house prices skyrocketing...

I got lucky finding a decent place from a private seller, negotiated the price, I only qualified for a limited amount and it was less than the asking price. but the seller game me some slack, luck on my side ! within around 3-4 years home prices boomed and around 2009 I realized we probably would not be able to purchase this home today.

So by now I felt more confident and searched for information on taking ownership, service costs etc, the do's and dont's and came across some good articles and I spoke to some dude's with experience realizing it's not that hard at all ! I've learned the a 308 QV or 328 will be the best start - but at the same time..this is the cars I've been dreaming off...

after working hard, saving, putting extra hours and running a small business from home for an extra income, I stayed focused and glanced at my poster from time to time and back in 2011, I found an mint and 'complete' 328 and to make it short - this is my story !

how did you choose yours ?

cheers
Johnny

 

was going to buy a 911 sc someday. drove by the local 3,000 dollar suv lot on the cranberry highway in wareham and what to my amazement was the red nose of a 308. forget the porsche i said; you always wanted a ferrari and it came to you (sort of). car was very clean, had new, excellent driver paint and of course, no service records. paid top dollar contingent on a good local ppi and immediate new belts and have been happy and poorer ever since. not too many cars you can spend that much money on restoration even if you do the work yourself. jon s

 

Mine found me.
I wasn't even thinking Ferrari.
And I'm soooo glad I listened when opportunity knocked.

 

It's the one car that grabbed and held my attention, from pre-teen to adult. I've driven faster, quicker, more "exotic" cars but I never catch myself staring at other cars like I do a 308. It's proportionally perfect. It's simply a stunning, iconic automobile that obviously affected me, like so many others here.

 

Because it is friggin' gorgeous, sounds amazing, and is a blast to drive. It helps that it does not cost silly money to attain or maintain but that is just gravy. Did I mention gorgeous???
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I love the 308 and TR!!! I wanted open top driving and didn't feel like spending $60K on a TR. My original plan was to buy a cheap 308 and keep my 2005 Corvette while fixing up the 308, but that plan went away when I got orders for Saudi Arabia. Then I found my 85 Euro A+ for only $27,700, left the 308 with Wade, sold the Vette and here we are.

 

Magnum PI
Great lines
I knew I could work on it

 

Because the GT/4 was the oldest Ferrari that I could afford.

 

I bought mine because it's been "singing" to me since I was 10 years old.

 

Always liked Ferrari's, saw a lot of friends parents drive them when I was a kid.

Then there was Magnum PI & Miami Vice. Rifeldriver being my brother didn't help either.

One day I sent my wife an e-mail with the pictures of a red and a black 308.
I asked which she liked.

She sent an e-mail back saying she liked the red one, I said good, cause that is the one I just bought!

When I went to her office a few minutes later her jaw was still wide open.................

 

I always knew I would have one, this since the 308 appeared on the market when I was 15 in 1975. During the course of time, the definitive choice became the 328, and it has stayed so.
Never told anyone about it; nursed my project quitely and without telling anyone. Then one day about six years ago, I decided that all stars were aligned and told my wife: "I'm going to buy a Ferrari now, but no worry because it is an old one, so no showing-off, more or less a big Fiat."
And so came 81085, my GTB, afetr about four months of research; I tried to find a non-red one, but did not succeed.

What I didn't foresaw at the time was that life with 81085 being so easy, I would buy a second one about two years later...so came 80515 my GTS, more or less out of the blue. An add on the Internet, a few pics...I just sent an E-mail to have its chassis number, and it so happened that the car was not in Switzerland as I believed from what was written in the ad, but exactly at 300 yards from where I live in Paris...went to have a look at it, and here came n°2...

There is still at least room for another one in the garage...
I sometimes think that I did not choose them: they have choosen me!

Rgds

 

I was an air cooled Porsche guy until I drove a carbureted 308.....once, that's all it took. The 911 was up for sale exactly two days later and sold within a couple weeks, then I immediately found my early GTB. That was May 2006.

Any car can be fast, but it's very rare to run into one that makes you feel good each and every time you drive. Bad day at work, fixed. It's therapy that no other car could provide before.

 

Weirdest thing. It just followed me home one random day. Thats what I told my wife anyway

 

cool explanation for the wife Nerofer, one way of getting away with it !

most of us here has similar stories so far, thanks for the replies...

just a photo added of my baby, one of the first pictures I've taken.
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It came and brought its friends. They all refused to leave. So, I gave them all a home.

 

I do like the 328 profile without the added top spoiler. The spoiler is there to promote turbulence at the rear window to suck out the heat. Do you have any problem with running hot?

 

I am a serial monogamist when it comes to cars: I keep them for a very long time. A big part of the hobby for me is maintaining them myself, so I only am interested in cars before the advent of the Check Engine light, or at least with minimal electronics. I also strongly prefer fuel injection. That puts the window in the '80s.

My daughter took my track car off to college (a 1991 BMW 318i w/ Dinan suspension etc) and I needed to replace it. Started shopping. Looked at E30 M3s: $20k. Look at all sorts of other cars. Kept asking, "what would a little more money buy." Had always admired the Ferrari's at the Turn 5 Car Corral at the Monterey Motorsports Reunion. Looked at eBay. What the heck??!!?? I can afford these things?!!?

Spent a lot of time in 2012 Monterey Motorsports Reunion pressing my nose against people's windows looking at the various models (sorry for the smudges). My priority order was 308, Testarossa, 328, 360. I reeeeealy liked the 308 because, to me, the interior was sexier than the other more modern "electric switches" cars.

I had always thought that a proper Ferrari had to be red in color. It is the Italian National racing color. Rosso Corsa: Racing Red. However, once I started looking, I thought I wanted something different. Everyone had red. Blue, I thought (hey, I like France). I didn't rule out red and, indeed, a red 308 fell into my lap. Funniest thing, I was lamenting my purchase of a red Ferrari to a friend and he immediately and very sternly said, "Ferraris are SUPPOSED TO BE red." I smiled and agreed. That helped; I really like Italian Race Red again.

 

With, or without roof spoiler doesn't change a thing: my GTB (81085) was ordered without it, my GTS was ordered with it (it was a paying option here).
Both cars operate at exactly the same temperature, which is normal as temperature is regulated by the thermostat, but I haven't noticed any difference when opening the engine compartment, etc...
P.S: not willing to go out of topic, but to sum-up another topic on the roof spoiler, the spoiler was necessary on the 365/512 BB to create turbulence and extract heat. On the 308/328, the most probable explanation is that it is here only for aesthetical reasons.

Rgds

 

thanks yelcab....

No never, the 328 runs cooler in general with larger radiator fans and thicker water pipes/hoses towards engine. my fans hardly ever kicks in except on a warm day idling long periods in traffic and then still the oil and water temps were always normal.

 

great story Nerofer, and on the heat -

there might be a small difference in heat between Euro and US models though because of the cat converters, I remember someone mentioned a while back getting better temperatures replacing cat with a blank or Hyperflow cat.

I also regularly replace my coolant/water and clean my air filter for enough airflow for a little extra cooling...

cheers
Johnny

 

Let's be honest. As soon as you hit your teens, you start creating your bucket list. And the first items are a supermodel and a red Ferrari. It's as simple as that.

 

I was going to buy a 355 back in 2004. I loved them--the sound, the looks and the power. I found an awesome looking 2-owner 355. It had all the books, tools and service records. I liked it and put a deposit on it pending PPI. I arranged the PPI.

The books had the original owner's name in them, I located him via Google and called him. He gave me a lot of good advice. He said he'd owned many Ferraris and that particular 355 was a lemon. He rattled off probably a dozen expensive repairs, none of which were in the service records. He told me to run away from the car as fast as possible and to look for a 550 or a 328.

PPI came back bad, the leakdown showed issues with the valves. I backed out of the deal.

During my subsequent search I found Ferrarichat and a bit later on I found Tim Stanford, a local mechanic. I scheduled a meeting with him and he basically sold me on the merits of the 328. Got my first one in 2005.

 

I would tend to agree with this, Johnny: I once took a friend with my GTB to drove another one he was considering for a buy; that car was a late swiss model, so with cat, and I recall have been rather mildly surprised after our common drive when the hood of said car was opened; temperature indeed seemed to be higher than in my own engine compartment...and that cat was making strange clicking noises when cooling for about fifteen minutes after engine shut-down...

Rgds

 

because i think it has the best (beauty x brand)/price ratio of every single car i know. And then because it was at the second place overall in my youth cars' ranking.

ciao

 

Because, when I was Ferrari-searching, I discovered I couldn't afford a 355. So since I couldn't afford performance, I went with my favorite, appearance wise…the 328.