To mod, or not to mod...that is the question!

Modifying a Ferrari isn't like modding a ricer.

By the time a ricer is a few years old, only the DIY set will be interested.
Those not looking for a tweakmobile will be looking down-market.

But you don't want to restrict the buying market for a used Ferrari.


At one point, I considered upgrading my 328 to a modern electronic injection system with coil-on-plug ignition.
But that would be a DIY system that nobody else could service.

That would pretty much exclude selling the car, without reverting it back to stock.


Sure, if you have time to wait for a once-a-decade buyer to happen by -- but that wouldn't be as much "selling" the car, as having someone buy it out from under you.

If you put it on the market, the reduced number of buyers will degrade your selling price, unless you have time and garage space to spare.

 

Mods you can't see? No one should care.

Mods you can see, should be reversible.

 

Ditching the US spec park bench bumpers and fitting the more elegant Euro-spec bumpers?

 

To each their own, personally I don't see why anyone should care what anyone does to their own property. If someone is more concerned about the next owner then they've missed the whole point in owning something to enjoy. We have but one turn on this spinning blue marble, enjoy it for as long as you get.

 

Im with you.

Mod the car if you want. Look at it this way, everything costs money. It costs money to go on vacation and you have nothing left after the money is spent except memories and trinkets. Food, drink, cigars, bullets, my underwear, dog food, etc all costs money. Modding your ferrari may lower the sold price but if you had fun then thats what matters because when you die you're a long time dead. My modded boxer will remain modded in my ownership and Im driving the wheels off of it. Im even going to paint it the wrong colour in the near future because thats what I want.

 

You've made a steering wheel cover out of my underpants?

 

I could have written this ^

When I bought mine 20 years ago with the help of Ric Schumann (from FAF), I remember him mentioning to me something about keeping it original as possible because the purists in the Ferrari community prefer them that way. My immediate thought was, "screw them, it's my car now"

My first experiences with these cars at 13 years of age were with the 2Vi's They were the ones I saw first and all their little unique details burned themselves irreversably into my memory. When I finally could afford one I bought a QV because it is a better car - but I wanted mine to look like a 81-82 model. On went the Nardi and twin slow down lights (the dash was already out being recovered). In went the 2Vi headliner (I think I bought the last roll available on earth). I have a non-vent hood in my garage. I drilled two holes in the back to move the "308" up so I could put the GTSi on below it. That's what I remember as kid, that's what I drew pictures of in my Geometry book in High School, so that's want I wanted on my car.

Then there are the odds and ends I installed to fix a few areas I thought could use the improvement.

It's my 308 and I want it the way I want it. I'm the only one that drives it anyway, so who am I trying to impress besides myself? The next owner - who will get it only after I am dead - can do what he wants to with it but in the meantime, when I look at it, I see 1982 again and that just makes me feel real good which is what this owning a Ferrari thing is all about in the first place.

PS: I drive the wheels off mine too. I am the proud owner of a 308 QV that is closing in on 120,000 miles. I wear that like a badge of honor. I didn't buy this thing to stare at it in my garage.

 

Mods only easy reversible ( an exhaust or a rim, for example) or not visible (inside the engine, for example). Always keep the original parts. Any other mod is a loss of value

Ciao

 

I bought mine 13 years ago. They weren't worth the high dollar they are now, but that's part of what attracted me to it. I modded the hell outta mine - engine, suspension, wheels, little things.... but I bought it cos I wanted it, not cos I was making an investment. I wanted the hot rod I wanted and don't care too much about the investment potential..... no one cared about the purity of these cars too much until a couple years ago....

 

It may be a little more or a little less. It shows about 116,000 but I put about 2000-2500 on it with a broken sending unit. It was the summer and I was making several trips back and forth to Atlanta and Florida so I had a pretty good idea the distance traveled.

Also the records show it was replaced by a previous owner - so who knows how long or short it wasn't working then.

So that 120,000 is a guess but it's an educated guess.

 

Totally Agree

Also has anyone done an EFI conversion? Im looking at getting it done. Would like to hear from someone that has done it

 

I would suggest you to buy a preowned cheap Chevrolet Corvette that you can mod at very low cost and buy a very expensive vintage Ferrari that you don't mod and just put (a lot) of money to keep it healthy and as fast as it leaved the factory.

This said, everyone can do what he wants with his money, of course, but as I was asked to write my opinion by the discussion title, my opinion is that modding a vintage Ferrari is one of the easiest and craziest way to waste money.

ciao

 

Buying a 308 is a waste of money. No one needs a 308 to get from point A to point B. They are purely for enjoyment. As an investment, only a very very select few make the cut and, still there are better places to put $60,000 or $70,000 or $275,000 for a glass one or whatever it costs to get one now. Add in maintenance, gas, etc... Add it up and what you have is a dollar amount you are spending only to provide enjoyment for yourself. Nothing more.

I don't work just to pay taxes and provide enough food for myself to stay alive. I also want to enjoy life.

I spent 34K on a 308 20 years ago to put a big smile on my face. That GTSi I drilled on the back of it makes my smile bigger. Was that a waste of money on my part for me?

Nope. Money well spent. It's my money to waste. The next owner can waste his filling the two holes and repainting it, either way that's his problem not mine.

 

It's a good feeling when you pull up even to the old man in his new Corvette who tried to leave you at the last stop light.

Some of you have pristine over restored factory exact examples of the breed. Most of you don't. Make the car what you want. I certainly did.
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You obviously don't know Corvette's, their owners or the costs to modify them. It would give most Ferrari owners a shock.

 

Why? I guarantee you can find a set of 8 Tundra coils easier than finding two Ferrari distributor caps.

Chose a name brand ECU like Haltech, Motec, or Link and there are hundreds if not thousands of shops that can service them. These days it's a lot easier to find a guy that can read an ecu datalog than a guy that can rebuild a warm up regulator or diagnose a digiplex box.

Aaron

 

It will really really wake up a 2Vi car.

I drove an 81 GTB that had it for about a week. It wasn't "faster" per se but is was much quicker from a dead stop. I guess the ignition stays advanced just the right amount to pull better immediately. Just a guess, but is was VERY noticibly different than my QV. Huge difference.

 

I like the work of Magnus Walker on Porsche's. It is, mostly, subtle and quite nice. I hope to do that to my 308 when it becomes my current project. Years ago I restored a 356A to original and as I kept putting on parts like the bumpers and hood badging and rear license light I liked it less and less. So a few years later I took a different approach-I didn't know it was an "outlaw" car, but it lost the bumpers and holes, the chrome hood handle, the rear chrome light, and a small air dam was added. It was black and I thought it looked great. I hope to do the same to the 308, lose the side marker lights, the rear indent for the license plate, add a deep front spoiler, maybe even a rear GTO spoiler, who knows? I have hesitated to mention all of this in other posts because of the "feedback" of how it will ruin the car. I bet if you asked the original designers-they were not happy of having to add side marker lights and accommodations for a license plate to their otherwise perfect design. So maybe I could argue it is more like the original design? I would be curious if anyone has pictures of original mock-ups of the 308 during the design process?

 

Ok, you stumped me. I've been an owner 15 years, on this site a month longer than that, have spent more than the cost of the car on repairs and maintenance, and have never heard of a windage tray. WTH is it?

 

Chevy 350 Roller Hi Performance Turn Key 400 HP Engine by Cricket CR EHRB12 | eBay

You don't buy any working 308 engine with 4695 USD

A shock are my Ferrari specialist invoices.

ciao

PS
I did not understand why "obviously" I cannot know anything about a Corvette. There are several American car specialists in Italy too, exactly like there are many Italian car specialists in the USA. You probably don't know that here there are a lot of USA cars lovers, expecially of the '50 and '60 era