Prototype 308 - questions !!!

Dear friends!

If possible, answer the question.
Recently I found on the Internet a copy of an article from the British automobile publication with a Ferrari 308 diagram. This diagram shows a car without a front spoiler. is it possible that there were transitional models of the 308th series?
Also interested in the question of the test prototype Ferrari 308.
1. What color was it? Having taken the photo through the program, I found out that it was seemingly yellow.
2. Was the headlamp leveling system like the Miura or Porcshe?
3. Maybe someone has a perspective of this prototype from the back?

Thanks for the answer! Below are the photos that I managed to find!
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Even more interesting is the pic of an early front end with a horizontal rectangular recess for - a Dino badge.

 

keep in mind when this car was rolling around the current production Boxer lacked the front air dam too.

 

Sorry to contradict, Dr Tommy...but it is a well known fact that the 308 prototypes (If my memory, etc: there were three cars...) were indeed badged "Dino". There were quite a number of pics in the european press at the time.
Have a close look at the wheels, too...

Rgds

 

Took me a few moments to find it again: see post #21 in the enclosed thread.

Rgds

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/ferrari-308-gtb-the-car-niki-lauda-developed.437965/

 

I have never seen one with a Dino badge, only a picture of a mould (or something similar)

It was in an issue of Prancing Horse. I think I even posted a pic of it many years back

 

It has always been my belief that the 308 GTB was intended to be a Dino, it was the replacement for the 246 after all. However it was also intended to be made of fiberglass and because of production quality problems with that the introduction was delayed (the GTB design had been finalized by about 1969) Meanwhile the GT4 was introduced prior to the GTB and I think that because it bombed in the market the decision was made to abandon the Dino brand so we never saw a GTB or GTS with a Dino badge. If the GTB had been introduced as scheduled it is entirely possible that there might still be Dinos today. Perhaps all subsequent V8 Ferraris would have been Dinos.

 

Correct. The GTB was intended as another Dino.
The global slump in the seventies caused Ferrari to go with its strength and sell only Ferrari badged cars.

 

The images above show quite a bit of design evolution from the initial static body models to the driving prototypes. All of the early prototype images I have seen showed a front valence missing the chin spoiler and I think that was scrapped before any series production. The use of Dino wheels on the prototype would be expected as wheels are normally created late in the design process.

Interesting details on the headlights but I believe that the 308 always was going to have pop up units. One of the photos even looks to be missing the front hood so it is possible that the headlight units were either incomplete or missing in that car.

Regarding the design of the 308 being finalized by 1969 this is the very first I am hearing of this. I have seen some evolutionary design sketches showing a car more similar to a 246 wearing a pointed nose with (presumably) pop up headlights. I have also seen design documents dating to 1972 showing the chassis that would house the V8 however this could also have easily been transferred to the Bertone GT4 body.

As for the Dino brand it is my understanding that pressure from the USA made the GTB a Ferrari rather than a Dino as it was already common practice to re-badge 246's and GT4's Ferrari which ultimately led Ferrari to relent the idea of a Dino brand for non v12 cars and make the 308 a Ferrari.

Attached are a few historical images I have to substantiate some of my observations (note the abandoned body buck with the Dino shaped emblem opening):

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Thanks for the great photos.
There’s some confusion about dealer rebadging. When Ferrari decided to switch branding on the GT/4 the factory sent out Ferrari badge kits for the dealers to put on the many unsold cars in inventory.
I’ve never seen documented evidence of dealers rebadging cars before the factory sent the kits. It’s not unlikely though that owners had previously sold cars rebadged at this point.

 

There is a service bulletin by Ferrari showing the drilling locations on the GT4 to affix Ferrari badges. This included the horse, rear script, and rectangular hood emblem to be placed above the Dino one on the flat of the nose. This was the 'official' Ferrari response to the well established practice of dealers and early owners to buy badges and fit them to the cars. I have seen lots of 246 Dinos sold new with dealer installed Ferrari badges. Back then things were nothing as structured as they are now and dealerships took many liberties with cars in order to sell them.

 

Rear script?
I’ve been told that the “Ferrari” badge on the back of some GT/4s wasn’t factory approved.

 

The design of the 308 was not entirely "finalised" in 1969, that would not be true, but a general draft of what was to become the 308 GTB was indeed ready in 1970, according to the master himself, Leonardo Fioravanti, in his own book, published in 2017. This story has already been told many times. Suffice to say here that he started to work on a successor to the "Dino 246" in 1969, at his own initiative and pace, as he had not received a firm commission from anyone on that. He stopped all work on this when he received a commission from Pininfarina, who got it from Ferrari, to work for what was called a "superberlinetta" at the time, and would become the 365 Berlinetta Boxer. He then shelved the "would be GTB" work, although the common inspiration between the BB shape and the 308 GTB shape is obvious: it comes from the fact that one draft inspired the other.
His work on the "would be GTB" was to remain shelved for some time, as Ferrari initially decided that the successor to the "Dino 246" would not be a "two-seater Berlinetta", but a "2 + 2" and not done on a Pininfarina study, but on a "Bertone" one.
At the end of 1974, when Enzo Ferrari himself decided, in reaction to the slow sales of the 308 GT4, that the "Dino 246" needed a true "two seater" successor after all, he asked Fioravanti to do the work as fast as possible: Fioravanti took again his previous work of four years ago on the "would be Berlinetta" and actualised it, and this gave us the 308 GTB.
See Fioravanti's book for the story in his own words.

Rgds

 

Have you ever seen a "double front badged" 308 GT4?

 

Did they only release Fioravanti's book in Italian text or was it also translated into English?

 

It's available in English, Mark; for instance directly at Giorgio Nada Editore, the original editor in Italy; but I'm sure some others have it as well...

EAN: 978-88-7911-622-0
Size: 26x28,5 cm - Pages: 256 - Photos: 343 in b/w and 260 in colour - Hardbound with jacket - Text: English
In Stock
Price: (75,00 €) discounted at 49,00 €
Author(s): Leonardo Fioravanti
"Il cavallino nell cuore"
Rgds

 

[QUOTE = "Рози, пост: 146849059, участник: 186634"] Вы когда-нибудь видели "двойной фронтальный бейдж" 308 GT4? [/ QUOTE]


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Pronounced more or less (sounds from Russian are difficult to reproduce accurately in other langages: Vy kogda-nibud' videli "dvoynoy frontal'nyy beydzh" 308 GT4?
Which, if my russian is not too rusty: "have you ever seen a double front badge on a 308 GT4?"

Rgds

 

Thank you very much for this information. It does make a lot of sense and is very believable.

 

I have personally seen at least two with one having the Ferrari badge crooked

 

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Brings back alot of memories. Saw these pictures on AutoSprint (Italian race car magazine) way back in the 70s when I was a kid.
Really nice to see them again.

 

Great thread, great comments and great pictures of the pre-production 308 GTB all in one place.

Let me add this scan from the french magazine "L'auto-journal" (issue 14/15, 1975). Note that also here the 308 prototype is shown in the Dino section.

Robert
www.308gtb.de
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Yes, but the mock up pictures are quite interesting as they also show the strange headlights. It's not logical to omit headlights on a mock up. They do seem to be similar to those on a Porsche 928.
Also interesting the two different side profiles on the mock up. The right hand side has more of a NACA air intake as well as a more flattened roofline for the side window. The left hand side is softer.

Thanks all for posting these pictures!

 

I noticed that too. Never been a fan of the NACA duct myself.