• Finished in the classic red over tan, this Ferrari 308GTS is an Eighties poster child.
• In the care of the same owner for 37 years, the car has under 12,000 miles.
• This Bring a Trailer auction ends February 9.
The go-go 1980s were a boom time for high-dollar sports cars, and perhaps none was better-known than Ferrari’s mid-engine V-8 two-seater, the 308 (and the later 328). The 308 got a big push from its star turn in the long-running TV series Magnum, P.I., but it also played a supporting role as Christie Brinkley’s ride in National Lampoon’s Vacation.
Whether you’ve always harbored a desire to be Thomas Magnum, zooming around Hawaii sporting a killer mustache, or whether you see yourself as a long-haired supermodel flirting with station-wagon-driving dads, this 1985 Ferrari 308GTS Quattrovalvole for sale on Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos), offers a chance to live that 1980s dream.
As a GTS, this car features the must-have lift-off targa top, and being a Quattrovalvole, its 2.9-liter flat-plane-crank V-8 has the four-valve heads introduced in 1983. Unusually, its tan Connolly leather interior is contrasted with red carpets. The cabin is also home to a tall-boy shift lever that moves through a chromed gate, a platoon of toggle switches, and a period cassette stereo to play your mix tapes.
The car was sold new at Bob Sharp Ferrari in Danbury, Connecticut, and the current owner acquired it as a year-old used car with 5000 miles back in 1986. Exhibiting a monk-like restraint, the longtime owner added fewer than 7000 miles over the succeeding 37 years. As a result, the car is in exceedingly well-preserved condition, judging by the photos.
This example’s current odometer reading of just under 12,000 miles certainly raises its value relative to most 308s out there, which means this Ferrari might be expected to live a life of climate-controlled storage. But we think that the new owner would do well to re-create P.J. O’Rourke’s cross-country road trip undertaken in a 1980 308GTS. Or, alternately, go racing around Oahu.
