1976 308GTB Mystery

The car's data plate is stamped November, 1976 and was delivered new to a Bernd Wild in December of 1976. According to the 2nd owner , Jim Roten of Sacramento ,Wild took delivery of the US spec car at the factory, drove it around Europe and shipped it back to his home in CA. I was able to get in touch with Roten through Retzlaff's web site.
According to Roten, and I have no proof of this, he remebered the car as the third or fifth steel car produced and was used in promotional photo shoots by the factory. The car is painted Rosso Chiaro (light red) as opposed to Rosso Corso, because it photograph's better.
Judges have told me that they believe I have original paint on the car. The car's interior is near perfect and original.
There's nothing I found out that I can prove or take to the bank. I just know that with 84,000 miles on the odometer, the car runs and drives like a dream and looks great.

 

Hi,

My original, steel '76 GTB is #20575 and I know of another steel with #20441 - the published mainstream book are a little off when it comes to this information as told in the above posts.

Also, my car had a Baby Tornado mirror installed at purchase instead of a California - I wish it had the California as I like the looks better, but I am not about to drill new holes in my car door : )

Anthony

 

Only five cars apart...that is close.......per Dr. Barry W. they were made in batches of 20 at a time...hard to say where the breaks were in the numbering scheme of things , though.........

 

GREAT INFO !! THANKS FOR SHARING !

 

Hey Bubba!

Right, Gerald Roush had an article in the FML a while back listing the 100 US fiberglass GTBs. They were made in three groups in mid-1976: 20 in May (19397-19435), 40 in June (19505-19583), and a final batch of 40 in July (19725-19805). Each batch of cars had consecutive (odd) serial numbers.

My Californian mirror is mounted perfectly. If I see gray, it's safe to change lanes. If I see a color other than gray, I stay put. I worry about gray cars!

Welcome Rich and Anthony. I extend that same *secret handshake* to you both!

Barry

 

2 lane roads here....no lane changing! LOL!

Here's a riddle for you, Dr. W...at the height of the frenzy, late 80s I guess, I saw a white 'glass car with blue leather interior, in FL, IIRC.

I noticed 'cuz I was thinking "cool, NART stripe on the hood would look GREAT!"

It was listed for sale at $115K......I've never seen the car again.....have you??? Strange color, for sure! I guess it's red by now, maybe......

I was al ittle short, on the 115K, obviously.......

 

$115K?!?!?!?!?!?

 

...late 80s......my yellow/black carbed car was $60K, back then!


RARE!

DESIRABLE!

ROTFLMAO!



All that bs.....I saved that ad for a long time, as the color combo was so rare.
Obviously I waited another twenty years, for the "market adjustment"! LOL!

 

Hi Bubba,

I have the Gerald Roush's Fiberglass GTB article at home. He lists all the US Fiberglass GTBs with whatever details he had at the time. I'll see what's in there about a white GTB.

I've seen a steel GTB in white with a black interior. It was quite nice. Real crisp!

$115K......I don't think we'll see that again in our lifetimes.

Barry

 

Thanks, Barry!

Anthony

 

bump so i can find it

 

Hey Bubba, Had to laugh at the price of our baby (20127) I think I paid 32,000.00 for it in Mar. '93. Someday we need to compare notes on the car as I saved copies of all the docs. on it. I assume the info that I gave with the car stayed with it but you never know. Regards, Vern

 

I can assure everyone that those darned mirrors have been replaced with a driver's side only Vitaloni.

 

34379 is mine and it is definitely steel and carb.
The information on Robert's site he got from me after I wrote a letter - a handwritten one back in 1996 - to Ferrari and got this information. But it seems to be impossible to tell the 'historians', that 34349 was not the last carbed GTB.

Best Regards from Germany

Martin

 

Your 20621 is right after another steel GTB, 20619 - Dec 1976 production rosso chiaro/black

a little earlier was 20611. Another Dec 1976. It was a red/tan US car

20531 steel

20445 steel black/black LHD US car

20441 steel 1977 (interesting) fly giallo/black LHD US car

20389 steel

20209 steel LHD US

20191 steel

20173 steel 10/76 red/tan LHD US car later exported to France

19999 steel (as noted earlier)

19881 steel 1976 black/tan LHD euro exported to the US

19367 steel 1976 red RHD UK engine # 00240

I counted 15 more confirmed vetroresina's before another confirmed steel car (20717)
after yours.

This is out of Matthias Urban's "Handbuch Der Ferrari Seriennummern 1947-2007" A really great book. Thick too, nearly 1000 pages of nothing but Ferrari chassis numbers and info.

 

I live in Belgium,and i am the proud owner of the ferrari 308 GTB vin 20805. indeed the first steel body , but there are still body parts polyester.de car is also the prototype for the group 4 cars
wheels:front:225x16 and rear:345x16

how to send pics?

 

Welcome 20805 !
I am very interested to learn more about your car.
To post pictures, you have to use a web hosting picture site then put the link in your message for the picture you want to show.
You can PM me if you need/want.

 

Interesting reading! I have just purchased a 77 308 GTB euro - dry sump with the VIN number 20005 - engine number 00677 and body nr 682. Unmolested original car - except from the wheels and the color. From what I can see there are two other 308 in the US with this VIN number. My car is a steel car - but the VIN and engine number suggests different? Is it possible that parts, chassis, engines etc were mixed in transition from glass to steel?

 

Hi Andreas,

Could you post pics of your car by chance ?
Because chassis 20005 is a 1976 car, definitely not a steel car from the factory, engine F106A021-00677 is from 1977 but it is installed in one friend car, and built 682 is a later body number from September 1977. i would be really interested to learn more about your car if you are sure it is "unmolested original"....

 

Good morning! Thanks for your reply. I have sent you a mail.

 

Your friends car 21125 (?) does it also have a engine numbered 00677? Would it be possible to get a photo of this? Thanks!

 

Since I participated in this thread years ago, I have also owned 308GTB #20405

It was late 1976 production November from memory, and was definitely a North American steel car!
It was red/black but Ferrari info reflected it was Blue originally...but my #22641 was blue so I left it red...

So that blows the claim for 20805 out of the water.
So many of the books are simply "off" and even the Factory records from those days did not make it from paper to electronic media.

Thanks Llenroc, it's actually your VIN #22127 that is "still here" in the garage!!

 

I have not seen any early 308s wearing the 20005, only my old 20405.
What is your source of this info??

 

Alan, given that s/n 20005 is a Euro LHD dry sump engined car, it should definitely be fiberglass bodied, not steel. There seem to be several cars around with this serial number, in the USA and in Europe. As Triple Black wrote, the chassis number, engine number and assembly number of Andreas' car don't seem to match.

 

I missed your post Robert. The mystery is the chassis number - that indicates that this is a Vetro from September 1976. Could it be that the engine in my car 00677- was wrongly stamped - for instance 6 was mixed up with 8? If so - both gearbox 884 and engine would be period correct with build nr 682 - built in Sept/Oct 1977.

The 21125 Vetro in France with the 00677 engine - did this have build nr 681?

Another thing I have noticed - the paint sticker - mine has the manually carved color name and not only the code itself, according to 308-328.com this disappers once the steel body production began.