Ferrari 308 GT4 Dino Bertone

Vehicle Overview

The Ferrari 308 GT4 Dino made Pininfarina upset for the decision to give cross-town rival Bertone the design, considering all they had done for Ferrari. The styling featured angular lines entirely different from its curvaceous 2-seater brother, the Dino 246, and was controversial at the time. Some journalists compared the Ferrari 308 GT4 Dino to the Bertone-designed Lancia Stratos and Lamborghini Urraco, also penned by Marcello Gandini. From the cockpit the driver sees only the road. Enzo Ferrari himself took a major role in its design, even having a mock-up made where he could sit in the car to test different steering, pedals and cockpit seating positioning. The 308 GT / 4 was unveiled in 1973 at the Paris Motor Show as the only series-produced Ferrari that was not designed by Pininfarina. The styling of the Dino 308 GT / 4 is in fact designed by Bertone. The reason is to be found in the arduous task entrusted to the Maranello company to the coachbuilders for the construction of a four-seater mid-engined car. Only Bertone succeeded, and admirably, by creating a bold and beautiful bodywork 4.30 m long and with a wheelbase of 2550 mm within which the transverse V8 engine and four passenger seats were located. The 308 GT / 4 is presented and produced in the range with the Dino brand for a policy that wanted the Ferrari brand only on the most prestigious cars in the range produced by the Modenese company. The engine of the 308 is completely new compared to the previous ones, although it incorporates patterns already known in Ferrari: 8 cylinders in a 90 ° V of three liters powered by 4 double-barreled carburettors with double ignition. The gearbox is 5-speed with self-locking differential. The power is quite high: 250 CV at 7700 rpm for a top speed of 250 km / h. The chassis is tubular and the suspension and brake layout is the same as the previous two-seater Dino GTs. A 308 GT / 4 was also prepared by the USA importer Chinetti in a racing version and took part, with no luck, in the 1974 24 Hours of Le Mans. The list price of the 308 GT / 4 was fixed at the time in L. 11.700 .000. One of the reasons why the 308 GT / 4 did not have the desired success was probably due to the high list price in Italy, caused by the heavy VAT for cars over 2000cc. of displacement. For this reason and exclusively for the domestic market, a version of the car with a displacement reduced to two liters was presented in 1975, precisely 1991 cc. The new version of the Dino took the name of 208 GT / 4. The power of the two-liter V8 reaches 170 hp at 7700 rpm, but the maximum speed that can be reached is however much lower than that of the three-liter: 210 km / h. Perhaps such a “low” performance displeases many of the potential customers, and not even the cheapest version of the GT / 4, despite its real four seats, manages to win over customers. And still today, the 208 GT / 4 is the cheapest Ferrari in the classic car market and represents the most accessible approach to the court of Maranello. Outwardly, the 208 GT / 4 differs from the 308 for the lack of fog lights on the sides of the grille and for the single rear exhaust pipe. Inside, too, there are some differences. The 208 GT / 4 was put on sale in 1975 at Lire 10.450.000. Between 1975 and 1980 840 were produced.