ACCIDENTAL HERO
Ferrari’s new V8 wasn’t meant to go racing, but necessity and chance made it a winner on both track and rally stage
Engineer Franco Rocchi’s Ferrari 308 engine may have been intended to power a road car to rival the Porsche 911, but its unexpected motor sport debut came within a year of production starting. Struggling to sell the controversial-looking, thirsty Dino 308GT4 in the wake of the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, US Ferrari concessionaire Luigi Chinetti requested a Le Mans racing version of the GT4 to raise the model’s profile. The bewinged, fixed-headlight 308GT4/LM, created to compete in Group 4 against the Porsche 911 RSRS, was Maranello’s response. But there was a problem. Emerging so soon into the 308GT4’S production run, not enough cars had been built to homologate the car for Group 4, so it ended up having to run as a Group 5 prototype against Matra’s mighty V12 MS670CS in the 1974 Le Mans 24 Hours. Chinetti’s lone North American Racing Team (NART) 308 GT4/ LM lasted just four painful hours before its gearbox exploded.
With sufficient road cars built for the 1975 24 Hours, Chinetti attempted to enter the car again. However, the Automobile Club de l’ouest refused to reclassify the car in the GTX class for Grand Touring cars, forcing it to qualify once again in Group 5. Even further off the pace, Chinetti withdrew his entire NART squad – including his V12 Ferraris – in protest.
The plan to sell 308GT4S off the back of racing success had failed. Chinetti even found himself upstaged in the US by Ferrari of Los Gatos, California, which turned to the previouslyunthinkable – hire-purchase finance packages – to shift increasingly stockpiled Dino production. But over at Maranello, a racing version of the beautiful new two-seater 308GTB was spied testing at Ferrari’s Fiorano track.
‘Despite the failure of the 308GT4/LM, its noble intentions inspired Florini’
The ensuing Group 4 Versione Sport prototype, chassis 22711, codenamed 308 GTB/4, was the brainchild of Gaetano Florini. Despite the failure of the 308GT4/LM, its noble intentions inspired Florini, who headed up Ferrari’s Assistenza Clienti division, supporting privateer racers. However, acutely aware of the influence of Fiat, which had taken control of Ferrari’s roadcar division in 1969 and threatened the survival of the most recent Ferrari-powered Group 4 homologation project – the Lancia Stratos – Florini took the decision to quietly outsource further development of the Group 4 308GTB to Giuliano Michelotto in Padova. It was the second time this trick had been pulled – Michelotto was given works rally team support by Lancia in 1973 to rescue the Stratos from Fiat interference too.
In 1976, in preparation for a high-downforce, wide-track racing 308GTB, Leonardo Fioravanti created an evolved version of the shape in Pininfarina’s wind tunnel. But it would be nearly a decade before the ensuing Millechiodi (‘1000 rivets’) prototype’s shape was seen again – as the 288GTO.
Because what finally emerged from Michelotto’s workshops in 1978 was not a racing 308, but a rally car that built on the firm’s experience with the Stratos. The first year of Group 4 rally 308GTB competition saw a lot of mechanical failures, but Lele Pinto won the Rallye del Monza, and before Group B regulations rendered it obsolete, Jeanclaude Andruet drove one to victory on the 1981 Targa Florio.
But the dream of a racing 308 had not been abandoned, although it was barely recognisable by the time it finally hit the track. In 1980, engineer-drivers Martino Finotto and Carlo Facetti founded Carma FF with the intention of developing racing engines. Rather than going down the Group 4 route, they embraced the wild Group 5 prototype formula, creating a low
THE EXPERT – TERRY KEYS ON THE 308 V8
Terry Keys, founder of Keys Motorsport, is a Ferrari-trained technician with more than 30 years’ experience. He worked on these engines when they were new and they still regularly arrive at his Silverstone-based workshop for rebuild and restoration.
‘The 308 engine in all configurations – two-valve carburettor, injection, Quattrovalvole – are all fundamentally strong and well-designed,’ he says. ‘Early 308s used sodium-filled valves, and there have been numerous cases where the heads of the exhaust valves have broken off into the combustion chamber causing massive damage. These days this is almost unheard of because most will have had their valves replaced during a top-end rebuild.
‘The bottom end of the engine is also strong and very rarely gives issues on well-looked-after cars, but as with all exotic engines maintenance is key. The lower timing gears that drive the cambelts can wear their bearings particularly if the belts are fitted too tight, though this is rare as long as it’s serviced by someone experienced every 6000 miles or three years.
‘Many 308s/gt4s were used as race cars and again the engine proves itself to be a robust unit. Parts supply is great for these engines and they are very well catered for. It is rare to have to rebuild one because of component failure, instead most are rebuilt to freshen up because of age.
‘My pick? The early carburetted version, for sheer character.’
drag 950kg GTB reminiscent of Porsche’s flatnose 935, with the Rocchi V8 boosted to 1000bhp by two KKK turbochargers. It struggled with reliability woes, but left America agog when it set the fastest lap at the 1981 Daytona 24 Hours – at 214.5mph – before retiring with electrical problems two laps later. The following year, 1982, saw a step-change in world motor sport organisation. FISA had replaced the labyrinthine old numbered Group system with simplified A, B and C. The latter effectively amalgamated several sports-prototype categories into a single formula of mighty closed-cockpit low-drag machines. Lancia’s old Montecarlo Turbo-based LC1 would be hopelessly outgunned in an era that would favour twin-turbocharged multi-cylinder engines of up to three litres. The Scuderia was struggling too. Although Ferrari’s F1 team was still under Enzo’s control, F1’s turbocharged era had not been kind. Rival teams that had countered Ferrari’s flat-12 312s with ground-effect undertrays neatly profiled around V8s had the aerodynamic advantage. And just as it seemed as if Ferrari’s radical new turbocharged V6 126C had overcome its problems, lead driver Gilles Villeneuve was killed and teammate Didier Pironi suffered career-ending injuries in tragic accidents that ultimately saw ground-effect outlawed. With the Scuderia at its lowest ebb, Enzo saw a potential route out of the rut in the new Group B and C formulas, and other single-seater series. He called upon Nicola Materazzi, the Lancia engineer who had created the Group 5 turbo Stratos, to design a new twin turbocharged version of the Rocchi engine. Materazzi’s brief was dizzying: the engine would power Lancia’s new LC2 Group C car, a road version would go in an as-yet unannounced Ferrari sports car for future development in the Group B category; and curiously, rather than going close to the 3.0-litre limit most turbocharged Group C rivals used, Enzo wanted the displacement capped at 2855cc, so it could also be homologated for use in Indycar racing. The Lancia versions of the engine stuck with pairs of Carma Ff-style KKK turbochargers from Germany, whilst the Ferrari version would use new freerspinning roller-bearing-spindle Japanese IHI units. The twin-turbo engine made its racing debut in the Lancia LC2 at the 1983 Monza 1000km, taking pole position with Piercarlo Ghinzani in front of an adoring Italian home crowd. The car struggled to maintain pace on its Pirelli radial tyres, a puncture dropping it out of contention. But a switch to Dunlop crossplies brought a change of fortune. At Imola, the LC2 scored its first victory, but after this it struggled against the mighty Porsche 956. Its only other wins came when Porsche withdrew its works cars at Kyalami in 1984 amid anti-apartheid protests, and at Spa-francorchamps in 1985 after the death of Porsche driver Stefan Belloff, when the organisers shortened the race. On the rally front, developments were taking place on the Group B cars under Ferrari’s flag, admittedly outsourced to Michelotto to escape Fiat interference. The new four-valvesper-cylinder 308GTB Quattrovalvole had been homologated as a Group B rally car, but something altogether more radical was being built in Padova – Michelotto’s 308GT/M. With Francesco Boniolo-styled aerodynamic glassfibre-carbonfibre composite bodywork inspired by the 512BBLM racers and the QV V8 turned longitudinally with a rear-mounted Hewland gearbox, it made its low-key debut once again with Lele Pinto at the Rallye del Monza, in 1984. Pinto was furiously fast, surging into the lead, but the skittish rear-drive car struggled in the frozen midwinter
‘With the Scuderia at its lowest ebb, Enzo saw a route out of the rut in the new Group B and C formulas’
conditions and crashed. Both Enzo Ferrari and Giuliano Michelotto conceded that its lack of four-wheel drive would hold it back, and the 308GT/M project was promptly cancelled. However, the thinking that went into it would send Rocchi’s V8 into a new chapter of GT racing, albeit via a long route. The elements of Ferrari’s Group B road car – the 288GTO – came together remarkably quickly for 1984. Fioravanti’s Millechiodi shape had been created back in 1978, Materazzi’s twin-turbocharged engine was well-established in the Lancia LC2, and Michelotto’s structural engineering of the 308GT/M provided inspiration for the construction and layout. Enzo never intended to send the GTO racing as-was, but its name was deliberately chosen. Contrary to popular beliefs, Group B racing did briefly exist, running as a class at Le Mans and other endurance events from 1983-86. The main challengers were the Porsche 911 Turbo and the BMW M1. However, by the time enough GTOS had been built to homologate Ferrari’s six Evoluziones for racing, the FIA cancelled Group B in the wake of the tragic 1986 World Rally Championship. The category disappeared from Le Mans in 1987 because of a lack of entries. The twin-turbo V8 project seemed dead in the water in 1986. Lancia scaled back the LC2 programme to a single car to concentrate funds on its Delta Integrale, and Ferrari sold its unused Indycar project to Alfa Romeo sans engine. But for Materazzi, it was a passion project. He was given special permission by Enzo to develop the 288GTO Evoluzione yet further, as a dual-purpose road-racer. In just 13 months, Materazzi created the F40. Announced by Enzo Ferrari as his ultimate road car, it was also homologated for use in IMSA’S GTO class. Enzo wouldn’t live to see Jean Alesi give the Michelotto-prepared F40LM its track debut at Laguna Seca in 1989, but by the time Fiasanctioned GT racing restarted in 1993, the F40 created in his name was a formidable racing force. Bo Strandell’s works-supported privateer F40 team won the 4 Hours of Vallelunga in 1994 and the 1995 Anderstorp 4 Hours, before the Mclaren F1 would leave both GT racing and road car worlds stunned and struggling to respond. But the F40 had made its mark, and inspired a new species of Gt-racing Ferrari. In its place on the F40 production lines at Maranello, the 348GT Competizione took shape. Not to be confused with its one-make racer sibling, this part-carbon-fibre 348 was a 50-example homologation special that shared its brakes with the racing F40. Achievements were modest, with a best finish of fourth in class and 11th overall at Le Mans in 1994. It had no F355-based successor. However, it laid the groundwork for the most successful flourish of the Rocchi V8 on track. All the established ingredients combined for the 2001 Ferrari 360N-GT. The V8 was now at its largest displacement – 3.6 litres – and Michelotto returned to the fold to build and develop the car. In the 2001 FIA GT Championship, the 360N-GT of JMB Competition, driven by Christian Pescatori and David Terrien, notched up no fewer than five victories – at Magny-cours, Silverstone, the Hungaroring, the A1-ring and Jarama – en route to drivers’ championship victory and joint teams’ honours with the Porsche 911GT3RS of RWS Motorsport. Rocchi’s V8 was superseded in 2006 by the new, jointlydeveloped 4.3-litre Ferrari-maserati V8 in the new F430. But after 27 years of struggle and constant development, battling across sports-prototype, rallying and Gt-racing fronts, it could finally retire as a world championship winner.