A YouTuber from the United States has documented his resurrection of a 1981 Ferrari 308 GTBi, complete with a new turbocharged Honda K24 engine producing a whopping 1000 horsepower (745kW).
The turbocharged 2.4-litre engine has half the cylinders of the 2.9-litre V8 previously fitted to this Ferrari, but considerably more power than the old mill’s 160kW output.
Mike from StanceWorks has created over 128 episodes on YouTube recording the transformation of the 80s classic, which has taken two and a half years and over 5000 hours of labour to create.
Before sending it on the Buttonwillow Raceway Park in California, Mike documents in the video how the vehicle has been stripped bare of its wiring, parts and engine and then rebuilt and dyno-tested prior to hitting the race track.
The vehicle weighs 2600 pounds (1179kg) and has had some cosmetic upgrades including a wider grille, blacked-out air intakes, new white wheels to match what appears to be Honda’s iconic Championship White paint, as well as new headlights, fender flares, side skirts and rear tail wing.
The car has also includes a full race cage and additional safety equipment.
On the track, race winner Will Drees was on hand to assist Mike with advice and mechanical expertise.
Once the car was warmed up after a few laps around the circuit, Mike began to really press down on the accelerator which was “enough to start experiencing some lateral g-forces and to feel what the mechanical grip of the car is actually like.”
Mike managed to get a personal best around the track in a one minute and 58 second lap time before one of the HD clamps “took a hike”.
According to Mike these particular HD clamps have a burst pressure of 800 PSI, which he ensure it didn’t reach suggesting that it was loose.
Unfortunately, the group didn’t have a replacement so that put the 308 GTBi in the pits for the rest of the day.
