Hi everyone, thought I'd report back on the huge road trip I seeked advice on earlier in the year. I'm pleased to announce that my 77 308 performed extraordinarily well on our 12 day driving holiday around France. Conditions included searing heat, some torrential rain and astonishing road surfaces. You were all correct: the car never overheated, there were no funny noises, no engine failures. It drove beautifully. I'm very proud. Preparations made before embarking (including a basic service - oil, filters, plugs) were flushing out the cooling system, new thermostat, fans switch, rad cap (I also replaced the water pump about 2 months previously). And of course Birdman's fuseblocks, All that went wrong was: - one of the headlights wouldn't pop up a few days in - missing nut, found it (what?! that never happens), fixed it in 5 minutes - One of the fasteners for the front license plate broke giving the car a comical wonky look, fixed with a tie-tag - the crappy plastic engine compartment strut broke - pain in the butt, had to load and unload the boot holding the lid up with my head. There were also a few issues which made me vow never to do anything like this again in anything other than a normal car: - Among the brilliant driving roads in France there are some rough uneven ones, continually scraping the underside of the car and becoming genuinely frightened of speed bumps made me constantly curse my beloved car (although to be fair it's lower than usual thanks to some idiot previous owner cutting the springs. How I longed to smash his face in) - ALL french drivers are tossers. They are extremely impatient. Everywhere I went there was always some Renault up my arse - The big one: my car creates too much attention. I only saw one other ferrari (pictured), they are rare in France. The car would create a scene, not what I want when I'm trying to back out of a narrow road I didn't mean to drive down. Leaving the car somewhere was a huge problem also. I know, 'it's a Ferrari' but I wanted to own a 308 GTB because they are beautiful, well-built pieces of mobile sculpture and are a blast to drive; I didn't want to show off, never seems a problem in this country, maybe I've just never noticed the attention. This has put a question mark over my future of f-car ownership. The bottom line is I can't treat it as a car. Enough gloom, we still had a good time. I took a bunch of photographs and the wife wrote an amusing travel diary which I might make a webpage out of if anyone's interested. a few pics: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Man, that sounds like the trip of a lifetime. I dont know as I would care to tour France, but Italy would be nice. In a Ferrari it would be over the top? I have had my 77 GTB out a few times lately with temps above 100*F. Never seen guage's go above 190*F coolant, nor oil above 200*F, with speeds above 100 per. What a blast to drive too.
Congratulations for having the stones to take such a long trip. I know that for myself, I tend not to drive further than 2 hours from home. The 308 is fun to drive...but it can tire me out after a couple of hours. Hope to see more pics and your travel log. Cheers!!
France has some great roads. I was in the Bordeaux region a few years ago for a friend's wedding and we had a blast cruising around on the back roads in a little rental job. I bet a 308 would be a hoot. Birdman
Great post! We are thinking of doing the same next year, my mate is also leaving on Wednesday morning for France. It seems a very popular thing to do at the moment. Your car was in great shape when we had a look at it, I knew it would be OK "thats what they were made for" DRIVING! pop in for chat if your passing, the kettle is always on. Mark...
I am gonna go to italy from 9 september till 17 september. we are driving the same route as the millie miglia. in total we are going to drive 3600 km,(1600 km in italy). we are going to visit the mille miglia shop in brescia, going to maranello, sam marino. when i am back, i will post some photo's of it. i can't wait to go (better than my honymoon holliday..... i hope that my wife won't read this....) gr micha
Yeah exactly,and on the 4th one,you can see that his windshield wipers are gone...LOL Speedman PS I agree,yellow 308 are nice...
I'm still looking to buy my first 308, what makes driving these cars so difficult that you can only drive one for a couple of hours before you get so tired!
I was in northern Italy this summer with my motorcycle (Triumph Sprint ST) and plan now a trip to the Dolomites (<-- written correct?) with my 308 GTB (build 1979 ) end of September this year for a few days. I will do the trip from north of Germany in two days to get there. Just hit the autobahn for a few hours and in the south of Germany change to the nice roads beside the autobahn. At the end of the A7 go to direction "Ötztal", then "Fernpass", "Timmelsjoch", "Jaufenpass" and the to "Arabber" where some nice Hotels waiting for tourists. This summer was great to stay in height of 1500 m, the rooms where cool enough to find some sleep at night. In lower regions it was 35 degrees (Celsius) every day. There is no problem to go longer distances in the 308, for me it is comfortable enough.
I drove my 308GTSQV for two days thru torrential rain, 22 hours 1800kms and never even came close to a sore back and have had back problems all my life. I find the seats quite comfortable and the car very reliable, probably jinxed myself as I am about to embark on a near 5000km drive for the annual rally with the FCA
Some 3x8 owners consider a couple of hours driving their cars to be a tiresome activity. Obviously theirs alot of you that like to drive their cars for days at a time. I will confess that I have not driven a 3x8 yet -even though I'm actively looking to buy one! -I'm still interested in knowing what it is about the drivability of the car that would make some people think it's a two hour driver? Could it be the stiffness of the clutch or steering? ride? Or would it be a reliability issue? Thanks in advance.
I'm 6'3", 225 lbs, and I find my 308 GTB to be more comfortable than my 2001 E46 M3. The reclining driving position must be partly the reason why. I've never driven it for more than 1 hour, however. Maybe a longer trip would prove to be more difficult, but that's true in any car.... Greg
I know that when I had oversized tires on my 308qv it was a "workout" steering it when parking or moving slowly. I recently switched to Goodyear F1's in the stock tire size and WOW, it was like having power steering ! Oversized tires might be part of the reason why some people get tired after a couple hours of driving.
Awesome trip. I often dream of shipping my 308GT4 to Ireland and then Scotland for some decent twisty roads. And then onto the continent. I had the great pleasure of getting a ride in Tom OShea's GT4 in July, on twisty roads. What a blast (plus he and his wife are great hosts, esp. considering they had never met us before!) We don't have a lot of twisty roads here, just long straight boring ones. I think for Bernardo66 the tiredness is a result of driving in Montreal. It often takes more than an hour to get out of the city So 2 hours doesn't get you far Seriously, I have driven Toronto-Montreal (5-6 hours with a few breaks) 3 years in a row in the GT4. First year I had muscle spasms in my left shoulder, but it was my own fault. I hadn't figured out how to be comfortable yet (had only purchased the car 2 months before). Once you get the seat back at the correct angle and the seat in right place relative to pedals and steering wheel there are no comfort issues. And of course you have to remember that your feet and the seat angle you into the centre, you don't sit straight ahead. There are several people who have posted about long trips. One person from BC in Canada went coast to coast return in several weeks in a 308GTS. He had a great time. Gerrit http://dino308gt4.com
good point often overlooked Steve, I had 245s on the GT4 and it made it understeer badly and a lot of effort was needed. On the QV I've got the standard TRX tyres and it handles like a dream plus needs minimal effort. Why does everyone think they know better than Ferrari who tested it for years ????
All that I can say is thisn my first Mondial 8,with the original TRX tyres,the car was heavy,and a lot of power was needed to make the steering wheel turn around... On my actual 3.2L(Mahony Mondial),with the same TRX's,the car is a real pleasure to drive,and can be turned with the force of 1 single hand at low speeds...The 308 QV is between them... Speedman
Hi everyone. Thanks for all your kind words. There were a few questions and comments about comfort: I agree with many of you that the 308s seats are very comfortable I never suffered a bad back. This could be due to me being under six foot. A tall friend of mine cant stand being in the car for more than 20 minutes. What IS still hurting is my leg from that heavy-ass clutch! Contrary to a lot of people on fchat, I found the air conditioning acceptable. Its not as effective as most modern cars but it certainly made the cabin a more bearable place to be. The most tiring thing was having to concentrate on driving on (the other side of) unfamiliar dangerous winding roads with an audience. That was surprisingly draining. Also, the wife complained of not enough compartments to put things in which is fair enough. Having said that, it wasnt all that uncomfortable a place to be. I havent driven it in about 2 weeks thanks to unrelenting rain and Im rather missing it.
