328 buttress wing

See this thread for a discussion of exactly that modification.

 

I think it does counteract the dead air area at the glass that results at the rear lip of the roof, when underway..

There's a metal 'scoop' under early 308 engines as well, trying to increase upflow thru the engine compartment for cooling.

So it probably does have a slight beneficial effect.

I agree with you the early GTBs without it have a better visual line...one of my 1977 cars has one as it sat unsold thru 1980 and they added the rear wing and black anodized front fender louvers to 'update' the car......since these were Dealer installed I am reluctant to rework it, but may be tempted with a coming total repaint of the car!

HTH

 

Maybe it's because my car's a dark color, but I like it. The 328s I've seen without it look a little bare.

Ditto on the Boxers -- if it came that way from the factory, I'd leave it alone.
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I prefer the rear wing on a 328, as thats what I grew up seeing in the US. To me, it looks like something is missing without it. 308s can get away without having one as the early 308s did not have one.

Best regards,
Dino

 

It works for me, but stock isn't high on my list of priorities
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I like the shiny wheels.

 

I was just going to beat him up about that...

 

I bought it because of those wheels. Fact.

 

If anyone has one gathering dust, drop me a line. My 308 doesn't have the wing, and I like the looks.

Happy motoring,

Jack.

 

You would be visited by three ghosts.

I'm the ghost of 328s Present.

 

I'm the ghost of 328s Future, telling you all will be well

 

Nobody going to be the ghost of 328's past?? Then I will do it. I will take people back in time to the factory and watch those beautiful 328's rolling down the production line, all of them with their rear "spoilers" sitting majestically atop the cars. For a little "extra" on the side, I will coordinate your trip to coincide with your cars "birth" so you can watch her journey through the factory.

 

Clearly you need to cherish the wing.

 

Hmmmm. My first reaction was to respond with something impolite. However, I shall attempt to explain:


There are many people out there who believe in pure stock configurations (except, for some reason, exhausts). That's great, and we can thank those people for maintaining those examples so that enthusiasts in the future can marvel at the factory's interpretation of the fabulous 3x8.

There are others who, for various reasons, have a need to make the car a bit more 'theirs'. Thankfully, the joy of individual ownership of property is the ability to use that property as one sees fit. In my case, that means replicating a 77 GTB using the much better 87 GTS platform. For others, it means shoving 10 lbs of engine magic into a 5 lb bag. For yet others, that means a custom designed suspension and braking system built from supercar parts. All are perfectly valid ways of enjoying the 3x8 Ferrari experience.

Take care
T

 

I happen to LIKE the "basket handle" look better.

 

Can't recall the exact source but what I liked were the claims that it was quite functional. Not just for looks but a device designed to direct cool air towards the engine. But, I never heard why all the American cars got that cooling device .

 

It's very common among European makes to send the loaded-up cars to America.

 

USA Cars are loaded down with barbell bumpers and cats and they have to work harder and get hotter to move compared to the unmolested pure production euro's.The wing is upside down to force air over the vents? The spoiler looks to make lift not downforce and I shopped hard in 1990 to get my 84 euro sans stupid spoiler.As to drilling 4 holes in a Car to mount that salute to stupidity please dont. When asked about the sweeping new USA Govt regulations of 1973 Enzo replied "if they want stupid give them stupid". Americans are too stupid too drive a motor car over 55,now 65,maybe 70 in west texas,they must have barbells for bumpers and their engines strangulated. They are too stupid to bear arms to protect themselves,speed limits and G control have worked wonders in places like Buffalo NY, my old home town and Buffalo is the National template.15% of folks in Nevada voted tonite to say NO to Federal Foolism.Washington can F*** Up the world but when they messed with Enzo they crossed the line,to say that The Cars benifited in any way by govt regulation at any time is moronic,have you heard of the latest legislation? The Shuttle is being tested for emmissions!

 

If you take it to the Track this wing helps to suck the hot air true the vents you can see it sits a lttle above the top of the car this forces the air over the motor vents.there is no other use i think only for the track

 

I don't know about the Space Shuttle, but with regard to Ferrari you're confusing several issues. First, yes, the U.S. version 308s got stuck with heavy bumpers (100 lbs each?) and cats that hurt performance. Blame the government. (Of course, the F430 has cats and it runs OK... so maybe blame Ferrari for being unable to quickly adapt an old car to new laws.)

I've never heard of a 1973 government regulation specifying the 'basket handle' spoiler on the 308/328, but I do know that over the course of the 308/328 series Ferrari made an effort to improve the cooling features. Thus we get bonnet louvres on the injected 308s, and even more on the 328 (to match the Boxer design), and lose the superfluous fender louvres. We also get a larger area of decklid louvres on the 308s with cats, telling me they were updating the car to cope with extra heat. I have not seen documents to prove it, but from the shape of the underside of that spoiler it is clearly designed to direct air down over the decklid vents.

You will see that same spoiler on the Boxer, which was never marketed -- or intended to be sold to -- the U.S. market. So the "marketing gimmick for the Yanks" explanation doesn't work for me.

With regard to creating lift, I suspect a thin, mid-mounted spoiler would do next to nothing in that regard. But aside from a front spoiler (on Euro 308s and all 328s) and the subtle lip on the rear edge of the decklid, I doubt aerodynamics were a huge consideration in these cars. Remember, the 308/328 design is from the early 1970s. I think there was a lot of "discovery" over the 1976-1989 model run, and one of those discoveries (I'm guessing) is that a cooling device that worked well on the Boxer -- with its massive array of rear deck vents and spoiler -- might help out on the catalyst-equipped 308/328.

Many Euro cars seem to lack the spoiler, but they also lack cats.

If we have any physics majors here, I'm open to any critiques on this. As far as looks, I agree with Mike C -- it's one of those signature details on the 308/328 that makes it recogizable anywhere (except at a Boxer owners convention...) Kind of like the intricate door handles and those air intakes -- functional, but then they also became iconic.