This car looks interesting: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1979-ferrari-308-gtb-15/ Any thoughts on it? It seems to ride a little high. And the gap between the top of the front bumper and the leading edge of the nose is higher in the center than on the corners. Great looking car. I had a ‘76 308 GTB that ran great. Do the ‘79s have less power? Can stripping off the cat and smog pump restore the power or do you have to go into the engine? Thanks, Lew
Engine rebuild at those low miles? Broken belt maybe? Custom exhaust and non stock wheels. It does look a little off with the ride height like that. Wrong springs installed or shocks not correct?
I like the car, with that being said, it does seem to ride a little higher than normal. Exchanging the rims for 17s would fix the gap perfectly . I like the fresh engine, I would not be suspicious about that. Thank you
Depends on who did it and what parts were used. If I had to pick factory sealed vs rebuilt with unknowns....
Tommy - I know what you are saying. My ‘76 had 78,XXX miles on it with never being apart other than replacing of timing belts. It was as strong as could be and could rev to the moon. Same with the transmission. Never apart and it shifted like a bolt action rifle.
Unless I missed something in the description, I saw no parts replaced consistent with a broken belt. New piston rings, main and rod bearings, seals... I've replaced all of those on other cars, for reasons unrelated to belts.
The new speedometer ‘shows 21k miles’. New paint, engine overhaul and other work suggests a lot more than 21k miles on chassis. I would carefully inspect a car like this prior to purchasing.
US spec 78-79 had the the most mild camshaft grind of all 308s with some .305 intake lift and about 10 degrees less duration when checking @ .050 lash. By comparison, US 76-77 and all Euro spec 308s had some .345 lift and much more duration. Ferrari tried to save this situation with the awful later cams by closing the intake valve at the same crank number so the peak power was realized at approx the same rpm. When both are tuned/jetted/timed correctly and in good running order, an early car makes 10bhp more at the rear wheels or 13-14 at the engine. Early cams make a difference
Thanks. Great looking car. But I think I would be happier with a ‘76-77 black GTB is there ever is one.
The power output on these things need not be part of the deciding conversation in 2022. It's a great car. Looks great, sounds great. Enough said.
Couldn't agree more: almost all 4 door present days battery cars or 8 speed DCT sedans outperform a vintage Ferrari, 50 M+ 250GTO included. You don't buy a vintage Ferrari because it has a lot of HP, but because it's gorgeous and emotional ciao
Im still wanting to say that I really do wish the 308 / 328 came with 300 HP, with that being said, the 308 / 328 are two of the best driving machines ever built, and for me, that makes up for the lack of power. I am not willing to cannibalize my car for 100 more HP. I have two of the fastest motorcycles built in the world, so theres that . Thank you
Tommy: was that “no, you can restore power by stripping off external smog gear” or “no, you have to go into engine” to bring power up to ‘76 specs/feeling? Does stripping off smog gear without going into engine help at all? thanks, Lew
You need to go in the engines on these things if you want to wake them up. Smog gear removal will give no return on seat of the pants performance.
Replacing the cat converter with a test will lower the temperature in the engine compartment noticeably . I believe that a Tubi exhaust and a test pipe will make the care wake up so to speak, but like the gentleman said, no seat of your pants increase. The only way to see if the cars HP increases is to put it on a Dyno. I also use 101 gasoline, these 3x8 motors were not designed for the crappy gas their peddling in this country today. Thank you ,
That combo wakes up the sound but also makes it stinky. Even gets on your clothes. I drove mine with a Tubi/test for about a decade. Finally had enough of the smell and put a hyperflow cat on.
This is all very similar to the way I had my '77 GTB set up. Yes the car does smell in general between the carbs and no cats, but with the Tubi it's a great sound.
Wow, $114k????? Hopefully this means the market is waking up. Why the 308 sells for so much less than the 246 is a mystery to me.
I do not believe premium fuel really makes difference on a stock engine. I checked a 2V injected engine with a Whistler once, and it was even lower compression than the factory spec. Think it was about 8.6 or 8.7 to one. Yes, your 101 octane may have a faster burn rate if it is a race fuel, but in the whole scheme of things, not much of a real difference.
I think its a slower burn rate, meaning more of the fuel gets used, or burns more efficiently , and yes, its probably not much of a difference, other than being non ethanol . Im not really sure what the stock compression ratio is on an 89 328 . On my car, it seems to make a little difference at higher revs, Thank you
Jesus.....$114K for this car. The '79 cars would need all four cams replaced by earlier profiles (same cams could be reground) and all the "Test Pipe" talk is illegal on the street. Also know that there ARE no OEM pistons left, so cracking the motor gets expensive, quickly. To me the CAT equipped carb cars are highly dangerouus as a float hanging up or a misfire charging the exhaust with unburned fuel, is a bomb.
