308GTB wide body hack--is there a story on how it was bought?

This was the test car for widening the body, for the car that became the GTO. Here's a picture of it--red car with aluminum wider fenders pop riveted on

https://www.classicdriver.com/en/article/cars/rare-wonders-reunite-inaugural-pininfarina-concours

When I saw the car it was in a junkyard outside the factory, not sure now if it was Pininfarina factory or Ferrari factory. I didn't think it would or could be rescued from a junkpile.

 

I'm pretty sure someone in Europe (Italia?) owns that car and that it's been well cared for quite some time.

 

This car wasn't the test car for widening the body for the GTO, It was a design study that Pininfarina came out with in 1977 that was mothballed at that time - Long before the 288 GTO was even thought of!

5~6 years later when the idea of the 288 GTO was mooted, Pininfarina raided it's back catalogue of concept cars, took the dust covers off this one and used the basics of the design to create the 288 GTO.

 

That's the 77 aerodynamico millichoildi concept car that's been taken out of the junkyard and restored many years ago. Yes many of added panels inspired the alterations on the Qv and gto cars. The fender panels were fiberglass riveted on and painted silver for a raw aluminum effect.

Did you take any photos of the in the junk yard during your visit? I would LOVE to see em!

 

In the book, The Ferrari Dino 246, 308 and 328 - A Collector's Guide (1988, Alan Henry), there's a black and white photo of that car. The caption reads:

"Pininfarina hinted at the way ahead with this styling study which appeared at the 1977 Turin Show. Certain of the aerodynamic aids would find their way into production, but not the rivet-secured wing extensions over the wheels."

 

The photo has been posted here on the site, of it sitting in the junkyard.

 

Interestingly, this car's picture is featured on page 104 of Leonardo Fioravanti's book,
"Il Cavalino Nel coure", and the caption reads;

"...the 308 'Millechiodi' ( thousand nails) represented the origins of the GTO and then the F40: large front and rear spoilers,driving lamps,wider tracks"

( I'm a little confused about what appears to be Mondial rims and QV bonnet [hood in the US of A. ] )

Excuse the poor quality scan ,

Nick.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The rims are metric TRX alloys that were thought to be the ultimate performance tyre/wheel system "back in the day!".

Whilst TRX tyres/wheels did have a slight performance advantage over "conventional" tyres initially, they were massively expensive compared to "conventional" tyres due to their unique metric size, and it was nigh on impossible to find replacement tyres for the rims.

Eventually the "conventional" tyre/wheel system caught up with the performance of the TRX system and the tyres were a lot more readily available than the TRX tyres.

This condemned the TRX tyre system to being just an "also ran" in motoring history.

 

Can't quite remember if it was Fchat or another site but a few years ago someone was posting adamantly that the car shown recently at several European events is a copy and not the original millichiodi.

 

I know all about TRX availability, I've stored my original rims and tyres and replaced them with aftermarket 16's. Unfortunately the picture is not very clear,but it seems as if the rims on the car are Mondial and not 308 TRX rims, if I recall correctly the 308 rims are slightly more concave than the Mondial rims. I'm open to correction......

 

If you car comfused with the Mondial wheels what till you see the instrument panel !

 

This car was created in 1977, 3 years before the Mondial came along in 1980, so if the TRX alloys shown were originally on the car at the '77 Geneva motor show, they had to be custom made for this car and not Mondial alloys.

(Of course the pictures showing the TRX alloys on the car could also possibly be from 1980 onwards when Ferrari had TRX alloys as an option for both the Mondial and the 308 GTB/GTS, but then they would have used 308 TRX alloys surely? )

 

A 512 BB dashboard for some bizarre reason - It looks seriously out of place!

(BTW, this has pretty much all been discussed before way back yonder:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/308-328/7855-ferrari-308gtb-millechiodi.html )

 

Thanks for the link, interesting to note that the car in post #21 and # 26 wear different alloys.

 

The pictures in post #21 were taken in 2007 and I suspect the car was put on standard alloys at that time as it was far easier to find standard tyres than the TRX tyres


The pictures posted in post #26 appear to be period photographs from "back in the day" and show the car wearing the TRX alloys.

However, I can't determine if these pictures were taken @ 1977, making the TRX alloys special one-off's for this car, or if they were taken post 1980, making it possible that they were Mondial TRX alloys.

The picture of the car abandoned behind the back of the factory in post #17 also shows it with standard alloys fitted, but again it's hard to tell exactly when that picture was taken (The 308 GT4 in the picture does suggest that it is pre 1980 though). Plus, it could just as easily be that there was an issue with the TRX alloys/tyres at the time and so they were swapped for standard alloys/tyres.

TBH, I'm not sure that we'll ever get to the bottom of the TRX alloy wheel story with this car (it won't stop Me trying though! )

 

What found its way into production, was the deep front spoiler.
It was first shown on this concept car.

Best Regards
Martin

 

I was searching an old flash drive....here are some pictures, including the one in the Wrecking Yard....
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I believe the "wrecking yard" is actually round the back of the Ferrari factory "back in the day", where they used to unceremoniously dump the old test cars/prototypes and production cars that had been badly damaged at sometime during manufacture, ready for scrapping off.

It would appear that in this cars case, someone eventually decided it was worth saving it from that fate (not before the rear lights were taken off though! - Probably to put on a production car).

 

From the second picture, it appears (to me) that the front spoiler is a good 50mm higher off the ground than on my car......

 

It does look very "unsprung" from the ride height, maybe battery and fluids not in the show car?

 

The dash is crazy.

Looks like a cross between a Boxer and a Mondial. I was just looking at a picture of it last night.

It's in Nye's Dino book