It is nice the 430 is the sweet spot, but it also isn't a classic Ferrari. Anything from the 80s or earlier looks like it is just a big PITA. Cost is one thing, but having to wrench on it that much isn't fun to me, even though I like to do projects.

I always liked the Testarossa. Until I watched Doug Demuro's video on it. A few too many "quirks and features" for a 70k car ... :eek:

Another down side is that the performance is pretty lame on these old cars. If I drop 100k for a car, it really should go around the track at the same speed as my 993 ...

G

The biggest quirk in a Doug De Muro video is Doug De Muro. Living with a TR is no big deal, certainly nothing like as confusing as he suggests. You'd have to be a literal idiot to be confused by some of the crap he brings up.

A TR is every bit as fast as a 993, in some cases faster.

DeMuro is a clown, but there is a LOT wrong in that interior. Point taken on performance. Maybe I'll revisit. :)

G

I’ve had a 308QV and a Mondial 3.2.
I did all the work on both of them, myself. Including cam belt changes, which is very, very easy on those particular models.
Mechanically they are very similar to a 911SC. Exact same Bosch CIS injection, basic brakes, suspension, non power steering, etc. If you can work on one you can work on the other.
There are certain parts that can be very expensive, and you wouldn’t want the engine or trans to blow up, but basic maintenance and replacement parts are generally not too expensive.
A lot of the parts are “off the shelf” stuff used on other cars like Volvos etc. Exact same part, without the Ferrari box, and 1/2 price or less. There’s parts interchange lists on the Internet.
Prices for 308 and Mondial are pretty low right now. I wouldn’t want another Mondial at any cost, and probably not a 308 either. Although on a day of weakness I could possibly see buying a 308 again, if the right deal came around.
They are attainable and maintainable by any reasonably experienced DIYer. The question is do you really *want* one of those models? They are nothing like a 360 or later Ferrari. They are covered wagons in comparison.

OK, I’ll bite. What can’t you stand about the interior?

Great post! So is the 328 a sweet spot?

If this isn't it, then we should have an "everything ferrari" thread by you guys that have been owners and DIYers. I'd be hugely interested in pics and anecdotes. (but not interested enough to go hang out on the ferrari board.

No. You would be disappointed by the driving experience, compared to the modern cars. And spare parts availability isn’t that great. Ferrari isn’t interested in keeping parts available for cars that old.

I think it can be. I’ve never had a 328, but it has the same engine as the 3.2 Mondial, which I found cheap and easy to maintain.

You need a little luck. Really all general maintenance parts, like spark plugs, cam belts, filters, brake pads, cap and rotor, plug wires, shocks, gaskets, etc. are all available and pretty much as low cost as an air cooled 911 or most modern cars.

But some things can be very expensive. For example from what I recall the fog lights are something like $1500 each. Because of that, even used will be expensive (if you could find a used one). I’d guess a lot of trim pieces, interior pieces and things like that are NLA or very expensive.

Relatively speaking, these were high production Ferrari’s, so you can find pretty much whatever you need, might need to be used and it might cost a bit.

So in sum, IMO if you buy a solid one and have a bit of luck, and you are a reasonably competent DIYer and are interested in working on the car, a 328 has a good chance of being reasonably inexpensive to operate, esp. as a limited use car like most people do these days.

The worst part of any Ferrari, esp. 80s V8s, is when you go to sell it.
They tend to be first time buyers, and they tend to be overly Internet-influenced and unreasonable and unrealistic.
So things like if they find out that you haven’t been filling the tires with genuine imported Italian air installed by a factory trained technician named Luigi, they aren’t interested. Because they read on the internet that it will cause the transmission to blow up.
Demand is, and for the most part always has been, soft for 308/328/Mondial, so it’s a lot easier being a buyer than a seller.

But is it "disappointing" in the same way that, say, a 911SC is different from a 991?

Well, one of the cars I owned for a long time was a 1986 328GTB. It was a very nice example, some very rare options, low miles and platinum level condition. Last major service I did, I also replaced all the suspension bushings, shocks, rotors and pads, hoses, etc. The thinking was, that supplies of spare parts were drying up and I wanted to freshen it up for the long haul, as I didn't think at the time that I'd ever sell it. I only used genuine spare parts and I had to scour the globe to find four original shocks, four original brake rotors, etc. Some came through the US dealer network, some came from the UK, etc. You couldn't just order everything from a dealer in the US, Ferrari didn't have all of the pieces needed. Around that time, Ferrari essentially offloaded all of the remaining spares for the older models to an outfit in the UK.
'
What you can get now, I have no idea. I'm not a fan of many aftermarket parts, as the quality can be hit or miss.

Your level of pain acceptance may be higher than mine.

A 308 or 328 drives worse than a 911SC or Carrera 3.2.

Most of the 308/328 cars are the targa-topped abominations. I wouldn't drive one if you gave it to me. Brand new, they flexed. Drive one over a set of railroad tracks and you'd think you were in a massage chair.

The seats suck. No support, will kill your back on long drives.

The driving position sucks. You adjust to fit the car, not to suit you.

They have insufficient ground clearance, so you bottom over dips in the road when traveling at highway speeds.

They are noisy in a bad way and woefully short geared. You'll be doing 4,000 rpm down the highway at the normal speeds you can get away with.

The steering sucks. There are two universal joints in the column and they are set at different angles. This means that the force required to turn the wheel varies as you turn it, which does nothing for the feel. It's hard to explain the engineering reasons behind it in just a few sentences, just take my word for it. Get a little too excited with a steering input and you can break the front tire adhesion completely. You want to load the front tires progressively. There's a lot of mass in the engine, so you want to be careful going through fast chicanes on a track (although, that's not really an issue on the road, unless you're an idiot.)

They didn't put any filters in the cockpit air intakes so you get to do that for them, unless you want all of the crap on the road sent into the cockpit. Ventilation isn't great, so hope the A/C works well. There's enough airflow to keep cool until the temps get into the 80's, then you start to sweat. Cloudy days in winter are much better.

You can't see much from the gauges, unless you wear a black shirt. Anything else, you'll see reflections of whatever you're wearing. Gauges are small and blocked by the ridiculously small Momo wheel, worse than a 911.

If you like the solid feel of an 80's 911, a 308/328 will feet somewhat like a kit car.

etc.

FWIW, the testarossa was the first Ferrari that felt somewhat "modern." A 355 feels light years better than the 308/328.

The 360 ushered in the era of Ferrari that was sized for the rich sports stars that tended to buy them. Totally different feel from the small two-seaters of my era. Much like the latest 911 dwarfs an air-cooled car. Yeah, a 991 can blast down the road in relative comfort at insane speeds but it's not much of a sports car anymore. It just beats the road into submission.

Buy a modern Ferrari and you get to look like the other jackasses that buy them. One or two of them are good guys, the rest are rich douchebags. Same with the Corvettes. Don't know if I could ever own another one, as I don't want to be a "Corvette owner."

I don't especially want a trophy wife, either.

I have always wanted an older Ferrari as well, as I grew up admiring them as a kid as many of us did...but every time I read a thread like this, I immediately lose any interest. Java, good insight...I have heard from many that the 328 era cars are very disappointing to drive versus similar era 911's.

Did you watch the video? It is a random selection from the spare parts bin. Specifically switches and their locations. Hand brake? And do the windows really wind that slow?

G

Or better? 350 GTR...

I didn't need to watch the video, I owned a testarossa for a long time. I'm quite familiar with it...

Here's the thing... the various buttons are all within easy reach. You never use half of them. You use the ventilation controls and the window switches. That's about it. I bet I didn't even spend an average of three seconds per drive pushing buttons. Fog lights? Used them once, figured out they were as worthless as every other factory fog lights, never pushed that button again. Parking lights? That's for leaving your parking lights on if you park by the side of the road. Never needed that, either. Never needed to open the glovebox. Nothing in it I wanted. If the wife wanted in there, she got to push the button. See where I'm going with this? It's just Doug De Muro being an idiot. A TR is an ergonomic work of art, compared to, say, an '80's 911.

How about those lid release levers. You think you could remember that the front lever released the front lid and the rear lever released the rear lid? Need a diagram for that? Jeesus....

The handbrake lever was of a fly-off design on Ferraris of that era, so it wouldn't snag your pants leg when you got out. It had nothing to do with how high the lever was in relation to the seat when you pulled it, as that was a function of how tight the cable was adjusted, like every other mechanical cable-operated handbrake lever out there. Doug, being not so mechanically inclined, probably doesn't get that. Another non-issue.

The windows do operate somewhat slowly, just like a comparable 911. They shouldn't be that slow, so someone has neglected the lubrication needs of the window regulators in the 30+ YEARS SINCE THE CAR WAS BUILT. Seems that there was a succession of cheapskates in that car's owner history. The regulators are a concoction of wires and pulleys and were replaceable, if need be. If Ferrari (or someone else) still has the parts.

It's really not as bad as De Muro makes it out to be. He's a nerd. He could talk for half an hour about the real things a prospective owner might want to know, but instead he wastes time with useless bull****, because he's a bit of an idiot. I could give you a much more useful look at a TR.

None of the cars I like will ever be attainable by mere plebes. F40, 288, 365GTS, 1958 250 Testarossa.

Honestly I would rather have a Dino powered Stratos over all but the 288. Probably.

If you are buying a car based on what you may or may not look like driving it, or what other people will think of you (good or bad) then you are doing life wrong!