308 with sprint pack option, anyone have one?

We've heard and sort of talked about this backdoor option for years, but I have yet to encounter anyone who actually has one or has first-hand knowledge of the kit. If you can't tell, a Euro 308 with this option is a bit of a unicorn to me.

For those who don't know, the 'sprint pack' was a backdoor option for European market carburetor cars only. This kit included the following:

high compression Borgo pistons from the queen mother Ferrari V12

slightly different carb jetting and chokes

quad exhaust from Ansa

re cams:
I believe this pack very likely uses the early 206 Dino cams lobes as by all accounts I have heard this sprint pack conversion remains very street friendly. I very much doubt P6 race cams were used as they are pretty much not at all a road cam with the power band being on/off switch beginning at some 4000rpm. I tried ad-nauseum to get P6s to work on the road with a high compression engine and it just wasn't happening, at least not to level I would even consider leaving in the engine long-term. Early 206 cam lobes make sense to me as they are somewhere between a P6 cam and an early Euro 308 cam (used in US cars until 78), and 206 engines remain streetable.

I'm trying to confirm and have some level of documentation for this kit. All info I have is 3rd and 4th hand, and I have never found anything in the way of official Ferrari documentation other than a UK dealer sheet noting the sprint pack was indeed an option and noted the price.

 

Yes my ‘75 appears to have it:
Crackle black cam covers
Ansa quad exhaust
Borgo high compression pistons

Cams were specced as same profile as Daytona but that may have been stock in ‘75.


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Any story behind this?

Are Daytona cams the same as early 206? Hotter than early 308 Euro but not P6 cams.

 

My car may have an all or partial "Sprint Package" which was possibly available with varying degrees of performance options. It's a later car, s/n 30693, a 1980 German delivery 308 GTB Carb Dry Sump. I bought the car in Germany in 1985 from Auto Becker, and with <near> 100% confirmation, it came from the factory with the Ansa Quad Sport Exhaust, the deep Euro Spoiler and 16" Speedline wheels with Pirelli P7's (still has the original decal in the front windshield). At this time, I am unsure of the cam specs and if it has the higher compression ratio. I actually "re-bought" the car because I missed it, it was the fastest 308 I had owned, so whether or not Sprint Pack, I love it...

I had researched this a bit, attached are three links below, the first being one of the primary sources cited regarding the "Sprint Package" (Yorkshire Ferret), and two past FerrariChat threads. Also, attached is a picture from a period Maranello Concessionaries Brochure of the "High Performance Accessories" (although not referred to as "Sprint") and poor quality "pictures of pictures" of my car, circa April 1985 at Auto Becker in Germany when I purchased it. Hope this helps... /Paul

1- Yorkshire Ferret Article Regarding 308 Sprint Pack
2- https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/308-special-order-sprint-pack.524748/
3- https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/dealer-installed-lemans-package-for-308.496571/
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This is great thank you!

 

Thanks Paul. Fabulous car. I've seen a lot of that, dealer specific documentation. Is that official factory documentation though? Did the cars given this option ever roll straight out of the factory thus some sort of notation was present on the build sheet, or were all installed at dealers?

 

A prior owner (Marshall Buck in Los Angeles) used the car for track days so I assume he did the upgrades but unfortunately I have no documentation on the purchase. I posted the cam specs here some time back. Let me see if I can find them.


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A recent post on Instagram from an individual that was a salesman at Maranello Concessionaires when the 308 was a current car. Here's the image he posted :

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Original post : "Ferrari 308 GTB & GTS. Chassis 22513 & 25159. Grosvenor Crescent Mews SW1 1980. Poor photos but interesting as both cars had the rare Maranello Concessionaires Sprint pack engine. My records show only 6 308’s were converted and 22513 was the first and also original press car for the conversion."

Response : "What mods did the sprint pack involve?"

Followed by the same question from another contributor : "What is a Sprint pack engine?"

Answer from a Ferrari mechanic (not the original poster) : "We retro carried out two sprint pack conversions to 308 carb cars . Basically the parts from memory were high compression pistons high lift cams with longer opening duration complete carburetor larger jets kits which included all the larger chokes, emulsion jet main jets emulsion tubes air bleed jets .... could go on but many more to list. Had larger inlet valves and stronger valve springs for higher revs. We charged 16k installed inc parts n labour back in the nineties"

Response from original poster : "I think that’s entirely different and certainly more sophisticated than the Maranello conversion."

Response from another contributor : "Thanks. Horsepower?"

Answer from Ferrari mechanic : "Only managed an extra 40bhp. It was a pig to drive at revs below 3500rpm because of the valve timing overlap. Too much of the air fuel mixture was pushed back out instead of being sucked in . The cams came in around 5000 rpm and the revs was increased to nearly 8200. So you only had 3000 rev range to enjoy the engine. Incidentally the engine was a lot quieter top end at any given rev range due to the cam lobes having a long soft profile. This enabled the valves to close gentler as opposed to the original cam lobe profiles being very short and sharp. It was definitely a factory Michelotto sprint pack engine"

 

Great post, thank you. Yes, this was precisely what I experienced as well. Total pig under 3500rpm. This appears to solidify the setup used P6 cams. I have to wonder how the factory documented this though. Never seen something such as a new build sheet indicating one left the factory this way. There is a story that Ted Rutlands old partner, Doc Bailey, had the factory ship him an amazing engine for his 308GT4, which by all accounts it supposedly lived up to what it was supposed to be. Doc Bailey apparently had a very close relationship with the factory. No build sheet for that engine nor any other factory details though!

 

On a bored/stroked 3.4, 3.5 or 3.6 2 valve 308 motor, combined with some good quality modern ITB’s, a suitable ECU and a COP ignition system, slightly larger valves, along with some decent springs and retainers, I reckon those P6 cams would release some serious horsepower, and their benefits could be felt at least 1000 rpm lower down in the rev range (and possibly 1500rpm) than on a stock capacity motor running on carbs.

350-370hp fwhp from 3.6 litres spinning at 8,000 rpm. Nice !!

 

Maybe with larger capacity. The heads just don’t flow well is the real issue, specifically the intake. Modern cams options are out there and are Judy better. The romantic in me admires the P6 setup anyway

 

Can the 2 valve carb (or injection) heads be ported sufficiently to flow decently enough to produce the numbers I've quoted ? Or would it require 4 valve heads (either 308 or 348 items) ?

 

I've read here that Ferrari made changes to the oil or coolant (or both) passage configurations for the 4V 308, for both the block and heads - so 4 valve heads don't fit or passages don't line up with the 2 valve block. You need a 4V block to use 4V heads.

 

I've never heard of more than 350bhp or so from a 3L-3.5L naturally aspirated street engine. Big 2v intake port gains are tough with these simply due to the port design, it's just not great. I built a 308 engine using a 360 crank, slightly bored to 83mm (stock is 81mm) and yielded about 325bhp (276bhp wheels) at the crank, was plenty of power. As for head work, the only major change was I used a nailhead profile intake valve (stock is a tulip profile, really doesn't help flow with that design) that was slightly larger with slightly larger ID valve seats along with some light bowl work and throat porting. Exhaust ports flow plenty so they were left alone. Yielded about 5-7% more flow IIRC. All with carburetors running 34mm chokes. There have been ITB EFI builds on 2v heads, Nick's Forza did one and it was great with his yielded some 300bhp at the wheels, 3.5L total capacity IIRC

 

Hi John,
I read through your engine build thread last night. It was very educational, but not only that, it was a lovely build, and very impressive that it went together without much/any drama. I watched your videos too Your engine sounds, revs and pulls superbly, it reminded me more of these than the asthmatic stock motor :



or this :





It's a real credit to you.

Having read your 3.4L project build thread, it's clear that there's plenty of issues with and scope to improve the 2 valve carb motors.
Do you think the carbs are holding the hp and torque back ? I know you said in your thread you were considering fitting ITB's and a modern ECU to control them, did you ever get around to doing it ?

No doubt some further porting to the heads could improve matters ? Or are the port designs really so bad it would be a waste of time ?
I presume you're running stock headers ? They (and the collectors) have never struck me as being particularly efficient.

Are the ports in the valve 308 injection heads a better design than the carb items ?

 

I think it's the intake port that's really holding things back. I wanted to keep the car as stock looking as possible, so I left it with carbs. ITBs would have added a bit more but it just wasn't worth it. The 2v injection head is the same port as carb heads. The 4v injection head is great and those have been tuned with ITBs and EFI and have made fabulous power at very high rpm, but a there are other significant hurdles with 4v engines as they already run very hot in stock form.

 

Hi, I was wondering if you could tell me who the instagram post was by of the pictures of the the 308's. Many thanks.

 

The factory, or more likely Michelotto had a kit for the 308 marketed for hill climbs and is a real unicorn. It was a different outer drop gear cover allowing gears of double the width to be used in the idler and driven positions. It came with a selection of gears to allow for a number of ratios. I understand the shortest ratio was only good for about 100 MPH in 5th. At one time I was planning on building a lightweight GT4 hotrod/track car but came to my senses. I did locate one of the quick change gear kits but never did anything about it. Tom Shaughnessy had it. May still have it for all I know. BBLMs use a very similar set up but just put a spacer between the bell housing and the gear cover.

 

Alternatively ( done a lot in the U.K. 308 race series ) is simply retro fit a 208 final drive + gearbox ratios to a 308 .
You loose top speed but gain a “ sprint “ in gear times to about 130 mph .Great for hills + bendy circuits ie a lot of corners and few long straights .

 

I still have a set of P6 cams somewhere

 

I have a set of the Borgo pistons that I need to get around to listing on ebay.


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Are they new? With liners?

 

That is not inherent to the motor, only the 308. The bigger, more powerful 328 has no cooling issues with higher output. My modified 328 has zero cooling issues on the hottest Texas summer afternoons.

 

This package you speak of makes the 308 much less drivable in my estimation.

Big G

 

I'm done with K-Jet, I want carbs