• Finished in the classic red over brown, this Ferrari 308GTS is an Eighties poster child.
• In the care of the same owner for 37 years, the car has less than 12,000 miles.
• This Bring a Trailer auction ends February 9th.
The go-go 1980s were a heyday for high-dollar sports cars, and perhaps none were 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, PI, but it also played a supporting role as Christie Brinkley’s drive-in National Lampoon’s Holiday.
Whether you’ve always harbored a desire to be Thomas Magnum, zooming around Hawaii with a killer mustache, or if 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 Driveris part of Hearst Autos), offers a chance to live that 1980s dream.
As a GTS, this car features the must-have pickup targa top, and being a Quattrovalvole, its 2.9-liter flat-slung 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 long boy shift lever that travels through a chrome gate, a bevy of shifters 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 5,000 miles back in 1986. With monk-like restraint, the longtime owner added less than 7,000 more miles over the ensuing 37 years. As a result, the car is in extremely well-preserved condition, judging by the photos.
This example’s current odometer reading of just under 12,000 miles certainly increases its value relative to most 308s out there, meaning this Ferrari can be expected to live a life of climate-controlled storage. But we think the new owner would do well to recreate PJ O’Rourke’s cross-country journey undertaken in a 1980 308GTS. Or, alternately, go racing around Oahu.
