A couple of weeks ago we featured a FIAT Dino Coupé as our Prime Find, a lovely Bertone design and the second car – after the Dino Spider – to bear the name of Enzo Ferrari’s son, on sale through Silverstone Auctions at their Classic sale at the end of this month. The name next appeared on what many would say is one of the most beautiful cars ever made, the 206 and 246GT, from the pen of Pininfarina, who also designed the Spider. There was a third model that carried the Dino badge, and until not so long ago was probably one of the least regarded models to come out of Maranello, the Dino 308GT4, and it’s in that direction we’ve looked for our Prime Find this week, and yes, ignoring our usual budget limit.
The other Dino’s
Actually, strictly speaking, it’s a variant of that third – and final – Dino that we’re looking at, one that was never officially on sale outside Italy, being designed specifically for the Italian market to avoid the punitive amount of VAT applicable on cars above two litres at that time.
After two decades of working exclusively with Pininfarina, the Dino 308GT4 came out of the Bertone design house, like the FIAT Dino Coupé, and this time was the work of Marcello Gandini (his only design for Ferrari). It looked very different to the FIAT, and indeed any previous Ferrari. Where the FIAT was curvy and elegant, the Ferrari was an angular wedge, in common with many early to mid-1970’s designs eg the Lamborghini Uracco, the FIAT X19, or the Lancia Stratos, to name but three other Gandini designs.
A trio of Gandini wedges
As such, it looked quite unlike other Ferrari’s and received a lot of critical comment for its styling, although I think it’s fair to say that opinions have become more favourable in recent years.
The Dino 308GT4 was new for the company in another major way besides its controversial appearance – it was the first Ferrari to have a mid-engined V8 layout, and indeed set a trend for many future Ferrari’s to follow, such as the 308GTB and 328GTB and the 308GT4’s immediate successor, the Mondial 8.
In May 1976 it was decided to drop the Dino brand and replace it with the Ferrari name and prancing horse badging, apparently in an effort to improve flagging sales. Overall, however, the 308GT4 was a sales success by Ferrari standards, with 2,826 examples built in its seven-year production run.
A year earlier, Ferrari made a further attempt to broaden its home market reach with the creation of the 208GT4, which as a sub-2-litre car had only 19% VAT instead of 38% added to its price, and in so doing, added another first to their achievements by creating the smallest V8 engine ever to feature in a production car.
To bring the V8 from the 308GT4 down below 2000cc, the engine was de-bored from 2,926cc resulting in a 1990cc V8 with four twin-choke Webers that pushed out 170bhp (compared to 255bhp for the 3-litre), still enough for the 208GT4 to reach a top speed of 137mph/220kph, compared to its big brother’s 155mph/250kph.
Other than the engine capacity, other differences between the 208GT4 and its bigger-engined sibling are mostly visual, such as the badges on the back of the car, the single exhaust pipe as opposed to the quadruple exhausts, skinnier tyres, and the plain aluminium finish to the louvres on the front lid and engine cover for the 208 GT4, instead of satin black as on the 308 GT4. Other than these minor differences, the two are pretty much identical to look at.
308……………………………………………………………….208
Ferrari made the 208GT4 for five years and built 840 examples in that time, but I doubt there are many outside Italy; certainly I’ve never seen one, which is pretty conclusive, I’m sure you’ll agree.
So it’s quite a rare thing to see one come up for sale in this country, and our Prime Find is indeed a 208GT4 from 1976 on offer at the same Silverstone Auctions sale as the FIAT Dino we featured, going under the hammer on August 27th. In fact, the two make quite an interesting comparison – both Italian 2+2’s with Ferrari engines (albeit very different ones), Dino badging, and not all that far apart in price (this 208GT4 carries an estimate range of £40,000 to £50,000), but very different stylistically.
This example – which carries Ferrari rather than just Dino branding – is finished in my favourite colour for any Ferrari (and indeed most cars), yellow – or Giallo Fly to give it its proper name – with black leather upholstery. I think it looks great – I’ve come to like these “wedgies” more and more over the years, though I have to admit, given the choice of only one, I’d take the FIAT. Nevertheless, if I had room and budget, I’d happily take a GT4, the only question being would I be OK with this less powerful version.
I feel that the 208GT4 is to the 308GT4 as the Porsche 912 is to the 911, since both serve as entry-level models to their more powerful siblings. I have to admit though that Porsche fan as I am, the 912 is a little too underpowered for my preference, whereas the 208GT4 has more or less as much poke as a regular 911 of the early 1970’s.
Interestingly, Silverstone Auctions sold this same car almost exactly 5 years ago – the chassis number of 11820 is the same. I’m a little surprised therefore that they don’t (this time) mention the £25k spent on it by the then vendor at Roda Classics in Portugal in 2015, which included a full respray as well as other significant restoration work. They refer to an “older restoration”, which I usually take to mean a couple of decades old, but 2015 is comparatively recent, at least in my book.
Based on the photographs we have borrowed from the auctioneer’s website, the car looks to still be in fine overall condition, with the close-up photos not showing any cracking in the paint or rust showing through. After importing the car into the UK in 2017, it was given a full service, and since then has had another £5,000 spent on it in 2021, so I think it’s reasonable to assume this Dino should be in fine fettle, especially when one considers the 2015 restoration.
The odometer shows an indicated – but not warranted – 67,305km (41,821 miles), which is not much for a 46-year-old car if it has been maintained properly; it’s not stated whether there is a service history with this one, but the £5k service carried out last year should at least have made the car roadworthy for a while.
As a 2+2 – although the +2 would only apply to young children or very small adults– the GT4 is moderately practical, certainly as sports cars go, with the rear luggage compartment big enough for a couple of decent-sized soft bags, though the front storage area is filled by a radiator and especially the spare wheel.
The auctioneers describe this 208GT4 as being “a very useable entry-level Ferrari”, and it’s hard to disagree with that. I can’t find another on sale at the moment to compare it with, so it’s hard to know whether it is good value or not.
Sold in 2017 for £42,750, including commissions, the estimate range of £40,000 to £50,000 would indicate that values for the 208GT4 have barely risen – unless of course the car sells for above top estimate – it will be interesting to see how it does. You can see the full lot entry here (and for comparison, the 2017 lot entry here) and as usual, if you like the idea of owning this piece of 1970’s wedge Ferrari, we recommend arranging prior inspection if possible.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us be inspired by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk