My perfect Ferrari?

[Esceptico]

Saw this article and fell in love!

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/motorsport/ferr...

Love the shape of the 308 but when I finally drove one it seemed a bit tame. This seems about perfect. Retains the shape, loses weight and adds some serious thrust. I have a groups of friends in the UK who do road trips to Wales and once a year to the Alps - mainly in early 911s. Think this would be a magnificent alternative (with earplugs).

I wonder how much it would cost to make something similar.

[Esceptico]

4rephill said:

I suspect, as with most race/rally cars, the reality of driving them outside of their natural environments (race circuits or rally stages), is a lot different to the idea of it, because usually, they are just too compromised for any other use.

A modern purpose built rally car - I’m sure you are right but for old cars that were converted from production road cars I think that with a few modifications they can be made to work. Of course I’m not talking about using them as daily drivers. But as weekend cars probably no more extreme than a Caterham. I had a fairly extreme hot rod early 911 that I generally drove with earplugs but I changed the exhaust, added back a little bit of sound deafening material and swapped the tyres to more normal road tyres and it became much more liveable (having said that I managed a road trip up to Scotland from London in its earlier state without a problem).

I think my ideal 308 would be to strip out it to lose the weight with some extra power and better suspension but not going to the extreme of making it a copy of the rally car. I’m sure that with a weight of one tonne then 280-300 bhp would more than enough (for reference my 911 had about 215 for just under a tonne and that was the most fun car to drive I’ve owned).

[Esceptico]

MDL111 said:

Spent way too much time yesterday looking at rally videos of 308s and thinking about doing stuff like the Tour Auto.... too bad I don’t have money / uncertain income, otherwise I’d probably be on the phone after the weekend. I kept looking at 911 ST, RS reps in the past and was always a little worried about my driving skills/experience vs a short wheelbase rear-engined car. I suspect a 308 would suit me better.

As a pure weekend A to A car, I think a rally rep is probably ok. I suspect it is not what you want to use for a 200km plus Highway slog on a regular basis

Please ignore all the BS written about early 911s being tricky or dangerous. Mainly nonsense. If you drive like an idiot you can crash anything. I’ve driven 911s for decades and not had a problem. 911s are actual perfect for the road if you drive properly (ie quickly but safely), which is to go in slower, wait until you can see the exit then accelerate. Having the weight over the rear gives you great traction. Of course, if you are driving too fast for a corner and then have to brake hard it might get difficult but that would be the fault of the driver, not the car.

There is also similar BS about mid engined cars being tricky and dangerous. I never had a problem in my 360 CS or 355 (and I’m a long way from a driving god).

If you can raise the finance I would urge any petrolhead to experience an early 911 and a mid engined Ferrari if they can.