Rear View Mirror: HOT DATE WITH A FERARRI 308

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Jun 13, 2004 | by Brian Twomey

FERARRI 308

IT was cool enough for Magnum PI.

It raced, rallied and made it quite clear to everyone concerned that after a few duffers, Ferrari was well and truly back.

Released in 1976, the 308 GTB remains one of the prettiest Ferraris ever. Designed by Pinninfarina, the devastatingly beautiful bodywork was originally available in Fibreglass though Ferrari switched back to steel from 1978 adding 250lbs to the weight. Powered by a 2926cc, dry sump V8 producing 255bhp the 308 could knock on the door of 150mph in 1977. The US market loved the Targa-roofed GTS version with its lift out panel, indeed it was the 308 GTS that was Magnum's mount when he was crime fighting in Hawaii. The runners for the driver's seat had to be removed and the seat bolted right to the floor in order to accommodate the 6ft 4 inch actor. In 1981 the 308 gained Bosch Digiplex fuel injection in place of the four Weber Carburettors. It ran cleaner but power dropped to 214bhp. To address this, the V8 gained four valves per cylinder and power rose to 240bhp in 1983. In 1985 the 308 was sort of replaced by the 328. Bored out to 3185cc the mid mounted V8 now gave 270bhp and 160mph. The popularity of the 308 was due to the fact that it was beautiful, glorious to drive despite the slow steering and had a high profile thanks to a certain TV detective. Ferrari's increasing success in F1 at the time helped as well. Between the 308 and 328 models, 19,555 were built making it one of Ferraris most successful models. It replaced the 246 Dino and 328 was replaced by the 348 in 1989 which in turn spawned the F355 which was replaced by today's 360 Modena. That's quite a lineage.