The first Ferrari 308s had bodies made of fibreglass
Ferrari's 308 GTB arrived at the 1975 Paris Motor Show with a surprise under the red paint: its body was glass-reinforced plastic, keeping weight to about 1,050 kg. Barely two years later the factory switched to steel, and over the following decade emissions rules would sap, then partly restore, its V8's power.
The 308 was a mid-engined two-seater that replaced the Dino 246 and ran from 1975 to 1985, when the 328 took over. Leonardo Fioravanti at Pininfarina, already responsible for the Daytona, the Dino and the Berlinetta Boxer, shaped its body, a deliberate contrast with the angular Bertone-styled 308 GT4 with which it shared its tube-frame platform. Scaglietti built the bodies. The coupe was the GTB; a targa version with a removable black roof panel, the GTS, followed at Frankfurt in 1977.
Its transversely mounted 90-degree V8 used a flat-plane crankshaft, two belt-driven camshafts per bank and four Weber carburettors, driving a five-speed dog-leg gearbox. European cars made 255 PS, while American versions lost some to emissions equipment. In June 1977 fibreglass gave way to steel, adding roughly 150 kg; only 808 fibreglass cars were made, all coupes.
Emissions rules bit harder in 1980, when Bosch mechanical fuel injection arrived and the cars were renamed GTBi and GTSi. The injection cut pollution but dropped European output to 214 PS. The fix came at the 1982 Paris show with the Quattrovalvole, Italian for four valves, whose new cylinder heads pushed power back up to 240 hp. It gained a louvred bonnet panel and rectangular driving lights beside a redesigned grille.
Production figures show the open car's appeal: from 1975 to 1980 Ferrari built more GTS models than GTBs, and the injected targa outsold its coupe sibling more than three to one. The line also seeded something bigger. The 288 GTO of 1984, often called the first Ferrari supercar, borrowed the 308's styling and a twin-turbo version of its V8.
Source: Ferrari 308 GTB/GTS
