Vitaloni Californian, but which one?

One of the greatest aspects of 308 ownership, working on all of these projects! To answer your question, none of the mirrors that you have pictured are correct for a US 78 308. These are all euro mirrors. A US 78 should have what is referred to as Flag style mirrors, pictured here. Also pictured is the correct euro style mirror as well for comparison. Notice the location of the Vitaloni logo embossed on the side of the mirror.
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While I believe that the euro mirrors look best, they are terrible. Can’t see a thing out of them. The US flag style, doesn’t look as nice, but they work really well.

 

Ehhh, at the risk of being argumentative, I’m pretty sure carb cars had the ovoid Californians, and flag mirrors became standard on the injected cars. Anyone??

All my US advertising literature, and Magnum PI press image poster featuring the ‘79 used in the pilot, have the ovoid mirrors.

 

My 1980 (#33589) injected car came with a single Californian ovoid mirror, on the driver's side only.

 

USA 78 308 Vitaloni California, not flag style.

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FWIW, the one attached to the car in the OP’s pic looks right. My 79 mirrors are adjustable only up and down, with the wide hinges like the pic. Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Shortly after buying my '89 328 in '08 I decided I wanted euro mirrors because they looked better. Luckily I had the chance to sit in a 308 that had the California euro-style mirrors at a local get-together in Annapolis, MD. I immediately decided that having side-view mirrors that were actually usable as mirrors was more important than having a mirror that looked better on the car.

My decision was greatly based on the fact that the car was my daily driver. If it had been a car I drove on an occasional Sunday mornings for 20 minutes to a local restaurant/venue, I may have made a different decision. The flag mirrors do not look stylish as do the euro mirrors but functionally they are orders of magnitude better for 'normal' driving.

 

Correct, if you look at various USA magazine road tests of the period the carby USA market cars were fitted (usually) with only a drivers side Vitaloni California mirror.....matching passenger side mirror was a "dealer fit" option.

The California was also fitted to early 3082vi USA market cars as well.

Having said that the view out of them was terrible and many owners/dealers chose to fit the square Vitaloni "Tornado" mirror(s) which were different to the square "flag style Elektra " German mirrors that were used on later (1981) 2V injected cars through to the end of 328 series USA Market cars.

Grim

 

Sorry but the square Flag mirrors in this picture are Vitaloni Tornado's and were NOT factory fitted, but owner/dealer aftermarket fitted on USA cars!

Grim

 

Over the years it is likely that value would have been engineered out so whatever base is currently used is probably different to the original and similarly for the writing on the body which is almost certainly deleted on the latest - also what looks to be EU markings (post 2 photo 3) would probably not be on the very original units

Also there is some adjustment to the mirror in the body so that together with the up/down already mentioned means that they are less useless than suggested above

 

Don’t agree with this! Properly set up I’m very happy with them. Yes they aren’t massive like modern car mirrors but I can see the rear wing and the road behind. Also they look great!

 

I’ve done >60k miles on the left, on the right, across UK and Europe. No issues at any stage. You need to set them up correctly and be aware of blind spots as for any vehicle …

 

You’re both right re visibility. It’s total crap with the Californians, but passable if they’re properly adjusted. Problem is, adjustability is limited, and depending on your height and driving position, can be very hard to get right. The original style had a mirror that could be crudely tipped left or right, and a housing that could be adjusted up or down. But no ability to rotationally adjust from top to bottom, so - since there’s no one size fits all perfect viewing angle - can be challenging. My driver mirror kept sagging because the housing needed to be tightened, and I will say that merging onto highways was heartburn-inducing.

 

My North American '81 GTSi, November 80 Build Date, has the 'Flag' mirrors on both sides.

 

Theoretically, if you set-up your mirrors correctly, there are NO 'Blind Spots.'

In my current VW Golf, that's the case.

 

Yep, proper mirrors properly adjusted eliminate blind spots - that's their purpose.

 

Over the years I must have read hundreds of Ferrari 308/328 GTB/GTS road tests, mostly based on UK/ European versions, and I can't recall any that mentioned the Euro-spec mirrors being an issue.

That's not to say that the US spec mirror don't do a better job, in the same way that US-spec park-bench bumpers probably do a better job, but as with the bumpers, the US mirrors look terrible!

You've got this fabulous, slim, low, curvaceous car, and then it get's fitted with a pair of square mirrors larger than most found in bathrooms (A slight exaggeration! )

The 308/328 GTB/GTS is a wonderful, elegant design, and the US spec mirrors (and bumpers) ruin a portion of that elegance (Forced on the US customers by the US DOT, who in general, do great work, but at times, try to solve problems that aren't really problems, resulting in unsightly compromises)

I remember ready an interview with the designer of Ducati's 916 motorcycle when it first came out (bear with me here! ), and the interviewer pointed out how the exhausts swept up, underneath the seat, and suggested that it wasn't the most efficient exhaust design.

The designer replied: "For sure it is maybe not the most efficient design........But sometimes, it is better not to be efficient, but to look good!"

 

I run the smaller rectangular Vitalonis.

I can only offer that's an interesting revision to the base, seemingly to cant the mirror more to the driver?

That was the limitation of the original hinge, and base, was that you could move it up and down, but not inward.
I wonder how the holes in the base would line up in a swap.

 

When I bought my 308, it had the smaller rectangular side mirrors with the Ferrari badge glued on. The original Vitaloni California mirrors were stored in a box.
My smaller rectangular bases have large slots which allowed the mirror base to be installed easily.
I installed the California mirrors and still have the smaller Vitaloni mirrors.
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Good point about the US bumpers; bet they do a better job but I don’t see anyone wanting to covert their cars to US spec!

 

Since I bought it in '08 I've kept track of the number of times people have commented on my 328 but mentioned how much better the car would look without the flag mirrors. So far the total is...zero.

 

Since you have half a dozen sets surely the way forward is to buy another five cars ……