308 to V12 conversion

I just saw the thread about the conversion of a 308 to an American V8 and it made me think of the car that was in Road and Track several years back that had a V12 installed. I remember that it was a single cam 365 and that it was installed transversely onto the 308 gearbox. It was a complete running car and Road and Track did a drive test. The installation looked very good and the magazine said nice things about the car. The people that did the conversion were even selling a thick manual with all the instructions and drawings of how this was accomplished.

Has anyone seen or owned this car? Did anyone get the manual and duplicate this feat?

 

several threads on this over the years, might try a search; although it doesn't always return what's in the archives.....

 

I have a manual.

Search for "atlantaman"..I think. He's got one of the 4 that were completed.

 

I have some pics JRV sent me years ago, he converted one, had 6 carbs and looked factory.

 

to me, the road and track car was/ is the perfect beast. 308 good looks and boxer power!

 

I think Atlantamans is EFI so he did not have to screw with the rear bonnet to get everything to fit.

 

Do a general search for V12 and 308. Atlantaman posted a few pix about 3 years ago. Some were in Tech Q&A, & some were in one of the general conferences.

Hopefully they've survived the hard drive problems.

If I remember correctly, he did go EFI.

He's had the V12 out for rebuild for a couple of years tho, has been running an EFI 328 engine.

 

Yes, I saw this with my dad while JRV was doing the conversion down in Houston....must have been around '89. It looked cool as hell and apparently was fast as hell...

 

David Goldsmith is the one who did the R&T conversion and wrote the manual. He lives up in Nor Cal (at least he did about 5 years ago).

 

Thanks to all for the information and the search tips. In general, I am puzzled about why so much money and effort gets put into projects like these, but this car seemed to be a very worthwhile exercise. More power to them, but I simply don't understand the American V8 project.

There is a 246 here that was totally gutted and turned into a track car. It has a 2V 308 engine in it. All the suspension is fabricated, tubular, heim jointed. It looks very cool and I understand that it is fast. I also understand that it was a very nice, chairs and flairs car to begin with and that the owner is sorry that he did the conversion.

Again, thanks for all your input.

 

Where are the pics?

 

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=66659&highlight=atlantaman+v12+308

 

Hi guy's, here a few picture's hope this will help.Rob
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The Goldsmith car showed up in the FML 'for sale' section about 4 years ago. It was in Europe at the time, and it's re-importability seemed dubious at the time.

 

As long as we have a thread dedicated to this, how about everyone dig up as many pics and details relating to this that are available and get it posted. Maybe someone will bite the bullet and give it a go.

 

Here is a link to the original R&T article

http://www.samnet.net/alfaguy/Ferrari/Article/index.html

 

I thought he had sent me some pics but this is all i could come up with!
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Ducatti-Dino?...

 

I have the manual too and since times have changed, you could buy an entire 308 for the cost of just the motor alone, this conversion would be cost-prohibitive nowadays...

...Although, it doesn't stop one from substituting with one of the more modern V-12's (there's now a few crashed 456's and 550's out there).

Hmmm, I can see it now: Dino 456 GT4

 

If this could be done to the 308, would there be any way to do it to a 246 Dino?

 

The V-12 would just barely fit in the 308 engine bay (SOHC V-12's only, Daytona DOHC heads were deemed too wide), so I doubt it would fit in the 246. A more suitable conversion for the 246 would be a 308 or 328 drivetrain.

 

You guys are asking for a visit from the Ferrari Antidesecration Police.

The way the 246 has gone up in value (unmolested) it probably would not be wise to change it much. It would be fun though.

 

+1

Also, the Dino 246 has a 65 degree engine. The 308 is a 90 degree mill, and I doubt that the extra width would fit in a 246 engine bay. The 60-degree SOHC V12 has a better chance of fitting in that direction; but then you would be trying to fit an engine that is 6 cylinders long in the space where one that is 3 cylinders long properly resides. Doubt that it could be done without major changes.

 

Actually he doesn't have one of those cars. His is a conversion in process.. Right now he has a badass 3.2 with all the extras in his 80 model. The V12 is sitting next to it. I imagine once he gets tired of the 3.2, he'll be dropping in the V12.

 

I know it used the SOHC heads because there was not enough clearance up front. But I cant for the life of me see why. Are the heads in cross section that much different from a 308 head? Perhaps a removable sub frame, ie 348/355, so you could drop it out from below, would allow the bigger heads to fit?
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Agree on the Dino, they have really moved into the vintage group. Would be kind of mean to alter one, and you would be throwing away a great deal of $$$$$$$.