3x8 Production Numbers by Year of Manufacture

Probably built Dec 76.

 

on my 308 GTSi door tag says December 1980 (1981 model year) which puts it having 1743 produced, so does this mean that my car is count as in 1981 1 of 872,and from what i have been reading there is really no way of knowing the number of different colors were made that year or production run

 

Yes Mark, your car is a 1981 model, like my 1984 has a production date of December 1983.

 

Thank you ,

Does any know how many of 1743 are still on the road today or what different color combos are in that production run

 

I’m just curious, this is not my first Ferrari but is my first 308 not trying to make it be a special one or an investment just wondering

 

If someone say "yes I know", don't beleive it

 

I don't know if you could ever get the info you desire. The location of the autos has no tracking tool, and what you uncover would be difficult to verify. Keep at it if you must and there is a chance you will pick up a lead...Happy hunting.

 

Don't know how many times I have written this, but...well, let's do it one more time. for the sake of it.

First thing first, essentially for Ferraris of this vintage, "Model Year" doesn't mean a thing. More on this below, after a few lines of "warning" (so actually, no, first thing is not first; well...)

"Calendar year" would be slightly better than "Model Year", but only slightly, because the factory did indeed publish production figures by calendar year, sometimes sales figures by calendar year, but these are notoriously difficult to cross-check, especially for some years such as (guess which?) 1980 and 1981, when production shifted from carbed cars to injection cars; remember that at this time, the production of one model didn't stop abruptly with the start of the new one: both models were usually built together for sometime, the start of the production of the "newer" superseeding the tail of the "older" production only slowly and progressively : for example, the very last 328 produced is #83136, with a build date of September 1989, whereas 348 production started just after #80600 in March, so during six months, 328s and 348s were built together.

What doesn't help is that:
1. The factory figures are notoriously difficult to reconciliate (= when you take the figures of the variant for each market and add these, the total you obtain does not always match the factory total; production figures and sales figures do not match; some markets are shrouded in mystery, as there are no production figures availabe and some of them actually imported cars from other markets: the japanese market is a madening example of that, for about 10% of the production.
2. for almost all published figures, either on the Internet or in the press, either in period or today, sources are never quoted, which means that most are unreliable; some MIGHT actually be true, but most are wrong; some are "corrected figures" by the authors, who know better than the factory, or try to know better, but trip and fail: the famous 712 or 808 "Vetroresina" produced ("Glass car", for our american friends), for instance, when a very reputable expert challenged and corrected the factory figure of 808 to 712, which became the admitted figure, even after he published an "addendum" to apologize and explain that he was indeed wrong after all, having forgotten the "RHD Rest Of the World"; that was forty years ago but some still quote the "712" figure today (to be followed...)

 

(...part two) At least the factory figures do exist, but they must be taken with a pinch of salt, and quoted exactly for what they are (production figures? sales figures? Number of cars sent to any market from January 1st to december 31st? Number of cars arrived in any country from January 1st to December 31st? Where do these figures come from? etc...)

Remember also that a "Market version" of a Ferrari model might not be specific to that market as a COUNTRY: the swiss-model 328 was also sold new in Sweden; we know of a very small number of Japanese-market 328s sold new in Austria (because they had catalytic converter earlier)...the Japanese-market Ferraris are Left-Hand Drive...the Japanese-market 328 is essentially an US-328 variant (same engine as the US car), etc, etc, etc...

Now for the "Model Year"; "Model Year", as such, is usually in the automobile world a concept whereas a manufacurer starts to prepare a twelve-month update of an existing model by stockpiling some slight modifications, and put these all together at a strarting date, making the variant "model year N+1" of a car slighlty more advanced and "newer" than "Model Year N" of the same car.
But back in those days, Ferrari didn't work that way : they added the modifications on their cars when they saw fit, or when they were ready, or...whenever convenient, but not with the "Model Year": 328 production had only one big change, the new suspension (which has bulged wheels) which was added on the cars in March of 1988: it was important enough to warrant a new road certification by the italian deprtment of transportation, and even a different chassis code, but it was during the production of the 1988 MY...on the contrary, after chassis 79660 (if my memory, etc...) the production standard was frozen: nothing changed anymore; but the very late cars, produced in July, August and September 1989, are recorded in some countries as "MY 1990" (in many countries, such as France for instance, the change of MY always was on July 1st.)

So, the "Model Year" thing does not work with factory figures: the factory itself never used it at this time; perhaps it could (could) work with importer figures, that is, if the importer has reliable figures. "Rifledriver" on this forum knows a thing or two about the american market, trouble is, to the best of my knowledge, the only "definitive" importer figures I know of are those from "Maranello Concessionaires" in the UK (Managed by the very helpful Tony Willis); but they give a good picture of the UK market only. The German importer of the time, for instance, "Auto Becker" is long gone, and its archives with him.

As for numbers of cars produced in such or such color, the answer is even simpler: no-one knows for sure, and when quoting figures, no-one is able to quote a reliable source. Take any figure you might find with a pinch of salt, and consider it rather as a ballpark, unless it comes from someone who knows what he is saying.

Figures, numbers, colors...have you figured it out?
By all means, don't look for precise numbers or figures, and listen (read) only to (from) those who know.

Regards.

 

Additionally for American version cars. As a matter of US law manufacturers are required to declare a specific model year to comply with safety and emission regulations for the time period. It does not however define a specific production time period or VIN range. The legal model year is encoded in the VIN. Also the existence of a US VIN is no assurance the car was actually sold new in the USA.

 

See my two previous posts regarding numbers, figures, etc...

What I have are figures printed by the italian magazine "Quattroruote" at the time, and quoted by my (our) very dear friend @Albert-LP
(hope everything is fine, Alberto...)

Sales figures, 308 GTS, Calendar year (= from Jan 1st, to Dec 31st):
1978: world total: 885, USA: 558
1979: world total: 1060, USA: 656
1980: world total: 1250, USA: 918.

Remember: whatever you might read about the 308 GTS being an "hairdresser's car", etc...that car saved Ferrari from oblivion...

Rgds

 

thanks for all the info.

i have seen on another site there is a registry to follow ownership is there one on f-chat,

 

@ nerofer first i have very little hair left lol and when i pick my wife up at the hairdressers all the women who work there even some of the men are well dressed and very attractive, so someone calling my car that i will gladly take as a complement,

new is nice but a 308,328 which in some eyes is old is also more elegant, like fine wine beauty and body comes with age.

 

Alberto must be fine. He bought a 575.

 

Will be turning 65 in January (on the 29th, just like...guess who? Tom Selleck, ha! but he is a few years older than me) and still got all my hair...
The "hairdresser's car" was one of the desparaging monikers the car got here in France: not exclusive enough, missing four cylinders, etc, etc...
But without it and its sales in the US, Ferrari would not exist anymore; so it is a VERY important car in Ferrari's history.
And I do agree, that design has aged very well; in fact, it has not aged at all.

Rgds

 

Great! Beautiful car, beautiful engine; Alberto is a man of taste. Would be even better if it would have been a manual, but "575 with stick" fetch absurd prices nowadays...

(Brian, N.D is indeed reopening to the public...)

Rgds

 

Having a modern Ferrari with a manual would be a great experience in so many ways. And can be the best anti theft device because there’s not a lot of people under the age of 40 who can ride a stick lol