Ferrari replicas, especially of the 308, are a dime a dozen. It’s just reality, and there must have been a period of time when there was money to be made in the exotic replica industry. As with any industry when there was a serious run-up in popularity of product or service, you see lots of players enter the space and only a few of them may actually have a product worth buying. In the case of kit cars, there was a Canadian company called Stinger that made an extremely compelling replica of the 308, and very few of them are floating around today. This is one of those cars, and it’s listed here on eBay with a Buy-It-Now of $35,000. Thanks to Barn Finds reader T.J. for the find.

It’s ironic that the company’s name was Stinger, since that’s now the foremost brand in the creation of million dollar “restomodded” Porsche 911s. I doubt there’s even a remote connection between the two, but the fact that a company in the 1980s with the same name built one of the best Pontiac Fiero-based Ferrari kits is quite a coincidence. Regardless, Stinger was already a bit of a household name in the replica exotic world, especially since the company had already been sued by Ferrari once for its realistic Daytona replica used on the original Miami Vice set. The 308 kit went to painstaking lengths to get the details right, with only a few variations from the real 308 like the back window.

There’s a great post on a Fiero forum that details the history of the Stinger kit, which apparently used fiberglass molds copied directly off the original 308 body panels. From what I can deduct, the creation of the Stinger used a variety of details from the 308 that went far beyond what most replica builders were integrating into their kits: the deep door scoops, hidden gas cap, Ferrari door handles, and even the proper spacing of the headlight pods. Obviously, the width of the Fiero was different and the rake of the windshield was also impossible to change, but really, all of the other efforts made to match the cars proportionally made up for the relatively few shortcomings of the Stinger kit.

The seller reports that Stinger was apparently sued for the 308 kit as well, which may explain why only 12 or so were ever made. I also don’t know how many ever made it out of Canada, but this one is located in Houston, Texas. The engine is a six-cylinder mill sourced from the Fiero (big surprise), which is really the only aspect of the Stinger that’s a bit of a let-down. A V8 swap, if the body will allow it, would be my first project with a car like this, along with the most exotic exhaust I could find. Other than that, the wheels could use some spacers to fill out those gorgeous arches. Have you ever seen a Stinger kit car in person?