Depending on your point of view, a Ferrari with a Honda engine swap is either awesome or sacrilege. It doesn’t matter that the engine is a turbocharged 1,000-horsepower beast, that the build took more than two years, or that the finished product looks amazing. You either love it or you don’t.
If you’re unfamiliar with this car, it was built by Mike from StanceWorks. He took a Ferrari 308 GTBi, which he thinks is “underpowered, overweight, and overpriced,” and set out to make it lighter and faster. Starting with a turbocharged Honda K24, Mike fabricated many of the Ferrari’s parts, including oil lines for the dry sump and cooling systems.
Mike’s goal was to build a Ferrari Time Attack car. Originating in Japan, Time Attack events are similar to autocross but typically consist of five laps on a race course at much faster speeds. Think of it as a track day event where the winner is the one who sets the fastest lap.
The Honda-powered Ferrari 308 GTB has a purposeful look with flared fenders, a deep front air dam, side skirts, and a massive rear wing. Weighing 2,600 pounds, it includes a full race cage and safety equipment. When running on low boost, the engine produces 640 horsepower at the rear wheels. It goes without saying this is an extremely well-fabricated car, one even the most ardent Ferrari enthusiast would grudgingly admit is impressive.
So how does it do on the track? After a few warm-up laps, letting the car get up to operating temperature, and allowing time for Mike to get comfortable, it was time for some fast laps. At full song, the Honda engine sounds just like an angry, unmuffled turbocharged S2000. At Buttonwillow, the car seemed capable of lap times in the 1:58 range before something let go, causing the engine to lose power.
Fortunately, the only thing wrong was an HD clamp that came loose. Capable of sustaining up to 800 psi, the clamp is an inexpensive but critical part necessary to build boost and manifold pressure. Lacking a spare clamp, the StanceWorks crew was done for the day but can’t wait to come back soon.
