> I drove a Ferrari once, many years ago. Circa 1975, as I recall... ...Driving
> that car was a religious experience. As far as cars go, that's my one and
> only visit to paradise. Say what you will about cars, but Ferraris and their
> ilk (of the Enzio period) are different. Exponential degrees of better, too.
> You can't describe it. You have to experience it.
I agree. Back in my transitional years (before marriage, multiple
lives), One of my two personalities was in the process of buying a
308GTS. While the car wasn't the quickest thing around, it certainly
was in an experiential league all its own. I'm pretty convinced that
my 1988 RX7 convertible was a better car in every measurable way, and
out cornered the 308GTS, the handling of the 308 had a predictable
characteristic to it where you knew what each tire was doing and just
how much more you could push it. Alas, the 308 was also a maintenance
monster and you couldn't do anything to that car without dropping the
entire motor out of it. I take that back--you could actually change
two spark plugs without pulling the motor, but that would violate the
service contract.
There are only two vehicles I've ever driven that NEEDED an adequate
warm-up time before horsing on it - The RX7 and the 308GTS. You could
just feel the resistance in the fluids and the "no don't wake me up so
fast" screams from the internals. Both cars wanted to be treated very
gently for 20 minutes. Once warmed up and ready to rumble? Let er rip.
It's near impossible to shift gears in a Ferrari before the fluids are
warm. It's a well-known trait of Ferraris that if you let everything
warm up properly and you match revs correctly, they'll last with
minimal pain. But if you don't warm them up and you are a gear-jammer
and hard on the clutch, you'll go 5000 miles between rebuilds and
clutches. If you do things right, the gear shift will slide in like
butter. If you don't it'll kick back like a mule.
The only thing I very much didn't care for with either the RX7 or the
308GTS was the typical behavior of mid-engine car designs (RX7 was a
front-mid, the 308 was a rear-mid) when it came to losing the rear end
on a corner. The way the rear end would kick out would force a
replacement of underwear. I can hang the tail out of most cars (911s
are a bit tripsy, though), but I never could get used to it with my
RX7. When it goes, it goes NOW. And bringing it back in is not an easy
task.
For all its problems and the fact that it was among the worse
Ferraris, the 308 remains my favorite. It's the most instantly
identifiable, emblematic model and it also is just a fun car for
driving at moderately spirited speeds on two-lane roads. When the
corner speed marker says "35 MPH", it's a car you take at 60 and have
fun just tossing it into the corner to get the tires warm for a
second. You don't need to drive 200mph to get a thrill, just take it
down a twisty backroad somewhere in sight of the legal speed limit is
all you need to do. It's about the wind and it's about the sound.
OK, scratch that. It's ALL about the sound.
Every Ferrari owner will roll down the windows going through a tunnel
or under a large overpass and downshift. It's just what you do.
AG
--
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