1980-82 Two Valve Injected - The "Rodney Dangerfield" of the 308 series?

I have a 1981 GTSi which I purchased new. I have had this car now for 23 years, and will never part with it. Lets face it, all Ferrari's have issues. We learn to live with them, they are like women you either love or move on from. My 2 cents.

 

yeah but if you part with a car problem, the car is gone, if you part with a wife problem, the house and the car is gone

 

Wow! I hope she does not read this.

 

Original owner of an '81 308... very cool!

 

It's the longest and most fun relationship I have had!(not counting my wife)

 

I love my 80i and get nothing but thumbs up and "nice car!" and "whoa a Ferrari!" and "Hey Magnum where's TC?".

Only place anyone even discusses the '80-'82 thing is on here or when i call somewhere about service or parts.

I've got no need to convince other owners of the virtues of my '80. They don't have to appreciate it the way i do.

It's an uphill battle i don't care to fight.

I wouldn't take their worn carpets and leather and nics and chips and dirty engine bay for my "like new" looking car.

 

I had an '80 2v 308 and loved it! It had a Borla exhaust (without cats) and sounded great! wish I could have kept it in the stable as I wanted to get a 328, so I had to sell.. As conditions changed (fast forward to now) I should have kept her!..
Don't get discouraged by these nay-sayers, the technology is constantly changing! That's why there's a constant change in the world land speed record.. The 308 is a beautiful car...enjoy!

 

They are rated the same as the 78-79 carb cars at 205...but they only ever made 195. They are the slowest of the the 308 series and the prices reflect that. The injection is less finicky than the carb and many people like that...but they tend to buy the QVs that have the injection and hp.

 

Well, as a new owner of a QV, I can tell you that the QV is not a rocket ship either. I love my little QV, only owned it about 2 weeks and already had lengthy conversations with strangers at gas stations and grocery stores. Its a great little car. But I owned a 2000 Porsche Boxster S before, just sold to complete the deal on my QV, and it would blow the doors off of my QV. That shouldnt be surprising, since there is 16 years difference between the 2 cars.

I drove an early 2V carb GT4, and it had a much better feel "performance wise", even if its the so-called "not-a-ferrari" dino.

All that said, the 2V i cars are STILL Ferraris (as is the GT4), so be proud and drive it like its meant to be driven.

James in Denver

 

Well, those early i cars probably will always bear that brunt of criticism.

But, in the scheme of things, you 2V injected owners are probably the wisest of all here. You got the looks, the drive, the experience, the engine, the reliability and the lifestyle plus a great deal. (Though I must say my old carb 308 has always started and never stranded me in the relatively short time I have owned it despite the shortcomings of its owner ).

For the life of me I cannot understand any questions or concerns regarding performance in any of the 308 or 328 series. It's just slow and slower.

I say enjoy it in good health.

Seamus

 

I too have a 1982 2V. I really enjoy it. Starts first time every time. Since the 2vcars are "relatlively" inexpensive many were purchased and NOT taken care of or properly maintained. If noy careful one gets to do the last five owners maintainance. I've, of course, heard the story concerning oil consumption. It would be interesting to learn a way to see if the engine in a car has been replaced. I haven't as many records as I would like.

 

Part of maturing is separating your mindset from the pissing-contests of those who will never grow up.

I bought my GTBi 2v 10 years ago because my kids told me my old clunker was an embarrassment...
so to quiet them up, I looked in the newspaper and saw a Ferrari...wrote the guy a check without driving it,
without any research, didn't know what a PPI was. Kind of like buying an old Buick.
So I don't qualify as any kind of car expert. I enjoy a fantastic red car which
has none of the anecdotal mysteries of oil consumption, electrical faults, etc.

All I say is avoid those who can't sleep unless theirs is 'longer' than yours, or more powerful,
or has better 'investment value'. etc etc etc.
They travel among us but do they experience the real joy? It's not for me to say.
Incidentally, the first sign of 'them' is their having to have the last word.

 

My brother kept the extra speedometer from his '80 showing about 8,000 miles after they replaced the motor. The motor was replaced presumably due to the "oil consumption" issue. A new speedometer was installed when the authorized dealer put the new motor in. He was not the owner when the motor was replaced but they were courteous enough to return the original. It conveyed with the car when my brother bought it. After he sold it he kept the old speedometer.

He is an honest person but one can easily see how it's easy for low mileage cars to appear.

Seamus

 

Normal people in the real world can't tell the difference. Hell, my black 328 got at least one 'Magnum' comment. 1982 was longer ago than anyone under 30 would remember anyway.

The reason to go with a QV would be that, in Ferrari terms, the price difference is trivial. Also, it's hard to say 'quattrovalvole!!!' without having hot women crowd around you.

 

dave: the high startup revs on the 2 valve i engines is a very easy fix. and otherwise the fuel injection system is one of the most reliable ever made by bosch and easy to fix. i've had my 81 gtsi for 4 years and i love the car, slow or not. pm me and i'll tell you how to fix the cold high revs. jon s.

 

If anybody is that unhappy with their "i" and their suffering from QV envy, I'll gladly take it off your hands for $10k

DKHIGHPERF

 

I have been a crusader for the 80-82 2Vi since I saw my first in the spring of 81. There is nothing wrong with those cars. Want speed? Buy a Corvette.

I have a QV. Lets go stoplight to stoplight and see how much difference there is with a 2V... None. The difference is only going to be noticed between 60-100. I don't know about you guys but I don't drive around town with the throttle to the floor and 7700 rpm shifts between 60 and 100 so I am not seeing that difference much these days. Top speed? No difference. Seriously, give me a show of hands; I want to know how many of us have seen the redline in 5th gear AND how long were you there? Really. How many times? Enough to make you pass over the 81 model for an 84 model? So what if your car can go 5 mph faster on paper? What if my 81 is tuned better and the weather is cooler and I am in Florida (sea level). Are you going to have a faster QV in Colorado in the hot summer? What's the practical point?

Lets talk about the oil burning issue for a minute. Instead of one qt every 700 miles you will burn 2 every 900 miles. Wow. What's that, about $20 more a year operating costs considering how much they get driven typically? Besides, it's a dice throw if the 2V you are looking to buy will even do it. Some didn't. AND if it is an "oil burner" are you going to worry that the engine may blow up? Why? because it has only lasted 25-27 years so far? Boy I'd be worried everyday too.

See my point? On paper in R&T or C&D 25 years ago there are some performance differences. When you get in, start it and drive off in 2007 there are none to speak of. The only way to feel the differences in the driver's seat is to do things that you really never do anyway.

 

I have a euro spec 1982 308 2v 'i' and absolutely love it. Being a euro model the horsepower is not that far off from a 4v US car and it weighs a lot less without the smog equip and the big bumpers, so power to weight ratio should be better. Any way I bought this car because I wanted the easy of injection and I wanted a euro model regardless. If I could have found a Euro 4v in great condition that was not red I would have purchased it, but instead I found a superb 2v euro model that was silver at the right time. It is funny reading the Forza article and them saying '308s have adaquate power, except for the 2v injected cars" when the difference is so little and nothing at all compared to most carb cars, only the very early cars that did not suffer from emissions had more HP.

 

Well, I have to concur with everything said so far on this thread. I can't justify the price hike for 16 more valves and a fairly minute power difference. I went from a Dino GT4 to the GTSi for many of the same reasons that everyone else has mentioned (tired of fiddling with carbs, improved electronics, etc...) and while the carbed cars are more 'pure', you can't dispute that, the injected cars are more than adequate for enjoyable driving and will run 100+ all day long on the interstates without complaint. I will say that the rustproofing of the QVs is certainly a bonus, particularly if you live in climates such as South Florida, where there is salt in the air, but if you're on point about keeping your car out of the wet and after washing it, make sure to dry it thoroughly (open the doors, let any water drip out, maybe even take the car for a run to dry it out even more) you'll keep rust at bay for a long time on an un-galvanized car. It's too bad that guys like Michael Sheehan are so stuck up about certain things. They fail to recognize that the GT4, 2Vi, 400i, 456, etc....are great cars....they're Ferraris, and that those of us who own them had to work hard to put them in our garages. Sure, we could spend the equivalent $25-$30K on something else with more performance, but we chose a Ferrari for many of the same reasons as those with more money to spend on their play cars do. Not to mention, I'd say that owners of classic Ferraris are purists, who do wrench on their own cars, unlike modern F-car owners (sure the modern cars limit what one can do....but probably far fewer F430 owners change their own oil than 308 owners do). All in all, I don't care what the snobs say, I like my 2 valve 308 because it's the right car for ME. Since I just sold my 400i, I could sell my 2 valve 308 and pool the cash together and buy a QV or 328 but I don't have any desire to do so. My car has gained my trust, after the 3,200 mile run to Miami and back this past March. And when you've found a 25 year old Italian sports car that will run that reliably, you don't give it up!

Cheers,
Aaron
'82 GTSi

 

I know there are beautiful QV's out there but every near perfect looking car i saw was an "i" car.

If i'd found a QV as nice cosmetically as mine it would have been at a dealer like Shelton or Algar and have been 45K or so. I had the smog pumps and cats removed and the power is great at high revs.

Short of a major engine rebuild these cars are more expensive to restore cosmetically than they are mechanically IMO.
If your engine goes bump in the night chances are your gonna fix it but if your paint and carpet and leather are old are you gonna pay to get it up to par????? Prolly not.

I've still not found a 308 in as nice shape as mine cosmetically..i paid a good bit less than 30k for mine with a recent reciept from Ron Tarkin for $9000 including a gearbox rebuild, belts and oil cooler. All hoses including coolant, fuel, and oil are new. $7000 paint job too. Leather and carpet are near perfect.

Would i have paid 10k more for a well worn QV????...NO WAY!!!

 

I bought my 1981 308 GTSi in 1981 and have loved every minute in it. I know it is not the fastest thing on the road and I have to laugh when every kid in a Honda or SUV has to pass me so they can feed their egos. Little do they know that most modern cars have more HP that I do. In the years I have had it I have had two parts failures. First was the electric cooling fan motor (Lucas) and the second was the smog pump (GM). No Ferrari failures yet.

The one thing I would change would be the TRX wheels. Tire technology has come so far in 25 years that the "stones" I have on the car can't be driven hard enough to really see what the car would do.

 

Oh the other great thing about euro cars is they had 16" wheels as an option for the 2v cars, I don't understand why in the US they waited until the QV.

 

I believe it was possible to get 16" wheels w/ Pirelli P7s on USA cars prior to the QV cars.... Some have original 16" wheels but are rarer surprisingly..