ive days later, I had dinnerwith Gary in hisremote Connecticuthome. I confessed to him thatIU never even sat in a <strong>Ferrari</strong>andthe next thing I knew, Iwas nearly wefting my pants asthe'Weber carburetors gaspedbehind my head, a head beingounched back into the seat withixhilarating <strong>for</strong>ce. For the firsttime in my life, I was actuallyscared to be riding in a car.Could this be why so manyowners are obsessed with their<strong>Ferrari</strong>s? If so, I wanted a piece.I waited until an appropriatemoment, then popped thequestion: "So how much doyou want <strong>for</strong> the <strong>Ferrari</strong>?"Garyt nine-year-old sonimmediately stormed fromthe table, wailing, "You promised!The <strong>Ferrari</strong> was 'posedto be mine when I grow uplBwahhhl""Uh, I can recommend adealer I know who might havea nice 308 <strong>for</strong> you," said thered-faced father.Unless I wanted to start avendetta with Garyt son, itlooked like the '78 wasnt tobe mine. It was time to srarrmy search.7f few days later, The NewAV**Timeslisredalg824 1308 GTS "priced tosell at $28,000." My wife, Tica,and I drove out to see it. Ticawas an essential element in the<strong>Ferrari</strong> purchasing process: Shecheerfully helped me alongwith clever observation suchas, "Dear, did you notice thatwhile we were out driving hiscar, the owner put a carpet overthe oil puddle in the garage?"Our appointment waswith a big Italian guy namedGiuseppe who lived in ruralNew Jersey. Giuseppe quicklypulled the red GTSi out of thedriveway, and within minuteshe and I were tooling downthe back roads. But unlir
at the local dealer. The soonesrthe dealer could get me in wasthree weeks off so I decided touse that time ro see if I couldfind a bener <strong>Ferrari</strong>.I spent a lot of that timeexploring websites that offered<strong>Ferrari</strong>s <strong>for</strong> sale, includingfenariads. com, exoti cars. co m,fe nar i b uy. c o m, ca rfo li o. c o m,dup ontregis ny. com, ebay. com,fenaricars<strong>for</strong>sale. com and uelocitfirnl.com.Ialso frequented the<strong>Ferrari</strong> Club of America website(www.fenariclubofamerica.com)and the Clubt regional websites,as well as the <strong>for</strong>um-basedwebsite fenaric hat. corn.Gary had recommendedI talk with Bill Pollard ofSportAuto in Connecticut. Icalled Pollard one day duringIunch, and he generously gaveme an hour of his time to assessm1' finance5-I was hoping tospend around $32,000-andmake some suggestions. Healso pointed me to a neighbor-ing deder who had two 308sthat might meet my needs.he next Saturday, Ticaand I drove up roConnecticut ro see thepair of 308s. The 1985 QVhad already been sold, but avery nice 1984 model stoodfreshly polished in the doorway.Un<strong>for</strong>tunately, it hadbegun to rain just be<strong>for</strong>e ourarrival, so a test drive was ourof the question; we were limitedto staring ar the car andpoking around.During our examination,Pollard dropped by and joinedus in Iooking over the car.He pointed out a number ofthings that made it a goodprospect, including:1. Many of the metal surfacesin the engine comparrmentwere coared with a delicate,yellow metal plating.Excessive steam cleaning or rheuse of abrasives will quicklywear this surface away, a deadgiveaway rhat a car has beendressed up <strong>for</strong> sale.2. All the side windows hadthe St. Gobain logo engravedin their corners. If they hadnt,the car might have been in anaccident and received genericreplacements.3. There were no rust bubbles,which are common onolder <strong>Ferrari</strong>s. One can livewith them if they are presenr,indicate a tricked odometer.Also, check ro see rhar rhegrime around the odometernut marches the rest of the dirtaround the gauges.6. The car came with anup-to-date repair history. Thisbegan with the original ownertmanual, in which the dealertstickers were properly stampedand signed.7. Both tool kits wereneatly stored in the luggagecompartmenr. (KeithBluemelt excellent Original<strong>Ferrari</strong> 78 lists the tools thatshould be in the kits, as wellas a wealth of other details.)8. The red crackle paint onthe cam covers had a smallchip. If the paint on a2}-yearold engine is immaculate, ittlikely not original.Exterior paint is also anissue. Many older <strong>Ferrari</strong>s arerepainted by body shops thattry to avoid the enormousamount of work required todo the job right. For example,each 308 door takes 50 hoursto paint properly. The giveawaysofa cheap repaint can befound at the red/black borders(the black should overlap thered), around the inside doorpost and, the most difficultplace to do a good job, thetight edge berween the doorside and the window molding."Nobody can ger the paintto go completely up under thatreal good repainr, but the car'snot a virgin. Don'r get mewrong, though, itt a pretrygood car <strong>for</strong> the money."I thought ir was srunning.The only thing rhat kept mefrom buying it outright was,at $36,500, it was a bit overmy budget.he next car we looked atwas a 1979308 that waslisted <strong>for</strong> only $26,000.Pulling into the ownert driveway,Tica and I found a contemporarymansion with two<strong>Ferrari</strong>s and a new Mercedesout front. The owner handedme the keys to his grey GTSand said, "Take it out <strong>for</strong> aspin and dont hurry back."This <strong>Ferrari</strong> had somereally thrilling snap. It leaptfrom a standing start like aleopard and gave both ofus the thrills we knew we'dfind in <strong>Enzo</strong>t house.rVith theengine purring behind ourheads, the crisp fall nightmarbled with stars and myfavorite woman beside me,I was in Iove again."You know, we could iustkeep taking test drives andnever actually buy a <strong>Ferrari</strong>,"Tica suggested with a smile.Back in the owner's garage,I gave the 308 a Pollard-styleonce-over. Yellow metal. check.All gauges and lights, check.Interior wear, check.It turns out there's c big difference between the ecrlycqrs clnd the 1980-ecrrly'82 models. Thcrt's when <strong>Ferrari</strong> wcrs<strong>for</strong>ced to convert to a hcstily engineered fuel-injectionsystem, crnd power dropped precipitously.but they are often the sign ofdeeper corrosion problems.4. The grille didnt have anymissing crosses and the fins onthe air-conditioning radiatorbehind it were in good shape.These fins are easily damagedin a minor front-end impact,and nearly impossible to repair.5. Interior wear was consistentthroughout. Excessivethrottle pedal wear on a lowmileagecar, <strong>for</strong> example, couldmolding," Pollard said. "Youhave to remove the molding.It takes ten hours."I looked wherever Pollardshowed me and swore rhat rhe308 had never been painted,yet it looked brand-new. Hesmiled, then opened the doorand pointed to a corner of thelatch area. "Down here, theretan edge," he said. "They couldhave compounded it out and Iwouldnt have caught it. It's aPaint...paint? The surface wassmooth but underneath theclearcoat was a fine network ofcracks, as if the car had grownslighdy but the paint couldnrstretch to match.I turned to the owner andsaw him shrink in proporrion.Now I knew why the car cost$26,000; it needed a totalrepaint.'$7hat does it cosr topaint a 308? Back on the inrernet,I found our $10,000-FORZA FEBRUARY 2OO575
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