When it comes to restoration projects, few cars are equally as taxing and as potentially rewarding to bring back to life as a vintage Ferrari. The cost of entry is certainly lower than buying a completely restored example but that it hardly reason enough to get in over your head (quickly) if you’ve never attempted a projet at this scale before. The car in question is a 1978 Ferrari 308 GTB that has been stored in an enclosed trailer for the last 15 years and was apparently taken partially apart before going into storage for 15 years. It does not run and it comes with an assortment of spare parts.
When introduced, the 308 GTB was seen as the spiritual successor to the well-loved Ferrari Dino 246 GT, a role that required stepping into some fairly big shoes. The Dino was an instant Ferrari hit; would the GTB live up to the same lofty expectations? It’s safe to say that yes, it certainly did, offering stirring performance in the form of a 237 horsepower V8, mounted behind the driver’s head. 60 was achieved in under seven seconds, and the 308 GTB would happily punch 150 miles per hour. The bodywork on this 308 is in decent shape, but the seller does note that there is evidence of body damage on the passenger side fender.
The interior is in fair shape overall, with some period-correct OMP racing harnesses giving a clue as to the performance that lies within. However, if this were my 308 GTB, I would be going back to as close to stock condition as possible, right down to the seat belts. That’s because finding cars like these now demands you either seek out a bone-stock survivor or commit to updating a project like this one to match the current sentiment in the market that survivors are more desirable than modified examples. This counts double for any piece of vintage sporting machine equipment like Jaguar E-Types, Porsche 911s, Lamborghini Countaches, and of course, Ferraris.
The trouble is, your efforts to make return this Ferrar to stock condition may be hampered by the need to address untold years of deferred maintenance. The seller says nothing about recent belt servicing but it will absolutely need to be done at some point soon, along with tensioners, gaskets, seals, and more. The Ferrari belt service is almost as famous as the cars themselves, and be prepared to fork out over $10,000 to get it done right. This 308 GTB is listed here on eBay and it will come with a salvage title due to the accident damage on the passenger fender, and bidding is at $34,950 with no reserve.
Only 4 hours left, hurry get those bids in!!
This first bidder at $34,950 is already WAY upside down on this ‘project’! I do wonder why just this small amount of damage justifies a Salvage Title.
“Does not start” is always a red herring in a high performance car. One adventuresome bidder so far.
I don’t think you would have to pay $10k for belt, tensioner, etc., service. In 308s you can do all that work with the engine in place.
Located in: Elgin, Arizona
Yeah.. it seems an unusual place to find a Ferrari considering it had a population of 161 in the 2010 census. Elgin is some of the most beautiful country in Southern AZ and I think the first wine growing region so it makes me wonder if someone in the Wilhelm family (Wilhelm Family Vineyards) owned it at one time.
That’s not a project, it’s a money pit.
All that cash to flush down the toilet and wipe it with a salvage title.
Sold $35,050 two bids.
Once again, the Dino was not a Ferrari. It was a Fiat. “Ferrari “ appears nowhere on the car.
Hey Mike, why are you posting this again on an unrelated post? Do you research. A Ferrari Dino and a Fiat Dino are not the same cars!
Unrelated?? I post it because of the sentence “the well loved Ferrari Dino 246GT”. I could be wrong, but as I understand it, the Dino was a separate mark from Ferrari and, at least in the early years, was produced by Fiat. It had the Ferrari Dino engine, but the word Ferrari never was on a Dino and the word Dino never was on a Ferrari. Perhaps later in the 70s, but I don’t think so. When I was in Italy in the late 60s, the Dino was looked down on as a poor man’s Ferrari. Below is wikipedia’s definition of Dino.
Dino (Italian: [ˈdiːno]) was a marque best known for mid-engined, rear-drive sports cars produced by Ferrari from 1957 to 1976. The marque came into existence in late 1956 with a front-engined Formula Two racer powered by a brand new Dino V6 engine. The name Dino was used for some models with engines smaller than 12 cylinders, it was an attempt by the company to offer a relatively low-cost sports car. The Ferrari name remained reserved for its premium V12 and flat-12 models until 1976, when “Dino” was retired in favour of full Ferrari branding.
Dino
Owner
Ferrari
Country
Italy
Introduced
1957
Discontinued
1976
Markets
World
You’re right about the Dino badge. I thought you were mixing up the Fiat and Ferrari Dinos. The engine was shared between the two cars but I don’t believe the Ferrari was ever built in the Fiat factory. The V6 engine was built by Fiat though. It was also designed by the same guy who designed a bunch of other Ferrari engines.
My point is that there is no “Ferrari Dino”. There are Ferraris with Dino engines, but no Ferrari Dino. It’s either a Ferrari or a Dino The Dino came about because of the new Dino V6. Ferrari needed to homologate the new engine for F2. To do this they needed to produce X number of cars. Ferrari didn’t have the capacity to do that, so they farmed it out to Fiat. Fiat produced the cars, but I didn’t know they also built the engines. I thought Ferrari did that.
It’s not a Fiat. It is a Dino. Just Dino. The Fiat Dino was a different car with the same V6. Two actually as the convertible was different from the coupe.
…Except on the VIN/data placard that said it was manufactured by Ferrari. Certainly not a Fiat, even if they cast the iron blocks for the 2.4 L cars. I understand that this deliberately-ignorant brand of snobbery was widespread when the cars were contemporary and being marketed as a separate brand, but I thought everyone got over it at least 20 yr ago (as reflected by Dinos becoming quarter-million dollar cars).
Sold on Mon, Jun 3 at 1:54 PM.
US $35,050.00
2 bids
A tiresome side story here.