An Italian Company Is Building the Ultimate Ferrari 308 Tribute

• Michelotto is an Italian motorsports manufacturer that fettled the F40 and 308 for factory competition.
  
• This tribute to the 308 has an old-school powertrain, with a small-displacement V-8 and a dogleg five-speed manual.
  
• Thanks to composite bodywork, it’s claimed to tip the scales at just over 2000 pounds.

Ferrari’s new 12Cilindri Manuale offers buyers a slightly ersatz version of the six-speed-manual Maranello V-12 grand tourers of the past, complete with a metallic gated gearshift. There’s a bit of electronic trickery going on behind the scenes, but we were pretty convinced by our test drive of the tech. However, a suggestion: What if the manual gearbox was real, and the Ferrari part was the tribute?

Ferrari

Say hello to the familiar shape of the iconic Ferrari 308 GTB, albeit one without a single Ferrari badge on it. Rather than being a restomodded version of the car that Magnum P.I. waggled his caterpillar-sized eyebrows in, it’s a ground-up build by longtime Ferrari motorsports specialist Michelotto working in partnership with a newer firm, AC Motorsport, itself founded by a former Michelotto employee. It’s called the Michelotto Gruppo Four Tributo, and it’s a featherweight wonder.

Michelotto has more than half a century of experience taking already well-bred cavallino rampantes and getting them ready for the track. The company’s past hits include belters like the F40 LM, the competition version of Ferrari’s ultimate 1980s supercar. Michelotto also prepared the 308 for rally racing in Group 4 competition, eventually leading to Ferrari’s sole WRC podium victory.

Michelotto

This road car pays homage to that rally car, but it is set up purely for tarmac work. The foundation starts with a tubeframe chassis with a built-in roll cage, upon which is layered that immediately recognizable wedge-shaped body, formed of carbon composite panels. There’s a bit of a parallel here with the original Ferrari F40, which was designed for the stillborn Group B racing series, then metamorphosed into a 200-mph supercar.

Rather than turbocharged power, the Gruppo Four Tributo is motivated by a naturally aspirated, all-aluminum 3.4-liter V-8. Peak power is 380 horsepower at 8250 rpm, fed through a five-speed dogleg manual gearbox. This is old-school Italian exotic; no six-speed manual, no hybrids, no turbochargers, just a sky-high redline and yes, pop-up headlights.

Ferrari

However, there’s nothing old-school about the carbon-fiber bodywork. Thanks to its composite construction and simple powertrain recipe, the Gruppo Four Tributo is claimed to tip the scales at just 2094 pounds. Time to slip on your favorite Nomex Hawaiian shirt.

As with most reinventions of heroic classics, prices are expected to be high and production levels low. However, given the $200,000 premium Ferrari is charging for the simulated-manual version of the 12Cilindri over the standard model, and taking into account Michelotto’s 55 years of motorsports heritage, the Gruppo Four Tributo might be the way to go for stick-shift Italian bliss.

Related Stories

➡️ Skip the lot. Let Car and Driver help you find your next car.

Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels.

Source: www.caranddriver.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.