Welcome to my crazy Ferrari 308 GTS to 288 GTO conversion with Supercharger!

How to destroy a genuine Ferrari? How to reduce it´s value to almost zero? How to turn one of Maranello´s finest into a kit car? How to build a buggy not based on an old VW but on an old 308? Who thinks he can build something that looks and goes like the 1984 Ferrari GTO supercar in a shed with basic tools? All your answers can be found here.

SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION some parts like the first conversion pics don´t work properly until I free up some webspace by hosting pics elsewhere

Hello I'm Bert Kanters from Roermond, Netherlands and have owned a 1980 Ferrari 308GTSi since 1998. It was basically a standard US version car when I bought it, though it had 16 inch 3 piece Momo wheels. In 2002 I decided to restore the car a bit and ordered 17 inch Compomotive wheels. These wheels had the wrong offset and one thing led to another and finally I converted the car to a 288 GTO look with the wider fenders and the spoilers. I did all this at home at low cost with basic tools and made every part for the conversion myself out of sheet metal. Of course the original 308 badge stayed on the car because that is what it is. At this point some people said I turned my 308 into something it is not, those people are stupid because something is always what it is! In this case a modified 308. Pics of car as bought and after modification.

click here to see the pictures from the first conversion that took from june 2002 to august 2005

Then in 2007 I hit a fox and the front spoiler was damaged. Again, one thing led to another. I decided to rebuild the car to full 288 GTO width, then I decided to do an EFI (electronic fuel injection) conversion with a Megasquirt injection and ignition controller and Ford EDIS 8 distributerless ignition. Then I bought a Mercedes SL55 AMG IHI build supercharger! Also I bought Porsche 911 Turbo (996) Brembo monobloc brake calipers, Audi S4 upgrade intercoolers, kevlar lined uprated clutch, JE forged pistons with Total Seal rings and did a complete engine rebuild. I started the work in june 2007 and originally hoped to finish by august 2009, hahaha! I spent a lot of hours on the bodywork and got an acceptable looking rough car that needed to be smoothed further and prepared for paint. The wheelbase was 55 mm longer than the original 308 which gave it nice proportions. But I got bored after 3 years and put the car away for over a year to do another project in between. When I restarted spring 2011 I did some more work and applied some paint to see where I was with the shape of the car.

click here to see the start of the second conversion beginning 2007

But some things were not right in my opnion. I discovered the front fenders were not exact parallel to the car allthough close. For some reason I thought the GTO front was 1820 mm wide but it is in fact 1860. Also there was too much filler on the car allthough there was a lot in the first build and that didn´t give any problems. Then I received the original blueprints for the GTO converted to a 2D CAD file and after thinking about it, I decided to start all over again with the body and do it right this time! The plan is now to build the car as close as possible to a GTO with as only deviations the removeable roof top, 17 inch wheels and, off course, the original 308 badge as it will still be a 308! I plan to make all the body panels bolt on and in glassfiber. I will build all the panels in steel but not welded all the way, only to use them as plugs to make molds. My thought is, if I have molds I can make more panels, maybe to sell or maybe to use them for rebuilding a crashed 308 and make a profit. I will see how that goes but I´m not in it for the money just for the fun of building something. The plan is to use the black divider line that runs along the car as a support for the panels by making this of 20x20 mm steel tube. This way the panels will be split in more pieces but each piece will be easier to make and especially smoothing is much easier with a small panel on a work table instead of doing a large piece that is attached to the car.

click here to go to the latest developments from januari 2012 until present

The reports about the latest developments are just a continuation of the earlier reports beginning 2007, but I thought I´d put the news about the restart on the frontpage of this site. From now on I will put a link to the newest update on top of this page.

The goal is to build the ultimate modified 400 HP Ferrari 308 with supercharger, intercoolers, EFI, JE forged pistons, kevlar clutch, Brembo monobloc brakes, exhaust system with Magnaflow mufflers and Supertrapp endpipes and a body that looks like the 288 GTO including the 110 mm stretched wheelbase. The plan is to make all the bodypanels in glassfiber. I posted about this project at Ferrarichat, http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=208114 but decided not to update that thread, just read it here. There are very knowledgeable guys on ferrarichat that have done similar projects and give me advice and prevent me from making stupid mistakes. If you have any questions about my project, you can post them in the thread at ferrarichat, if you have any questions about Ferrari 308 in general, all your answers can be found on www.ferrarichat.com through the search function or you can post your question in a new thread. I´m lazy at answering emails so try other sources first if you have questions but most of the time I will answer eventually!

View the guestbook! bert308@hotmail.com

Kanters Ferrari 308 GTS to 288 GTO look conversion project. With Mercedes SL55 AMG supercharger kompressor IHI screw type intercoolers megasquirt 288GTO replica, Ferrari 288 GTO lookalike, 308 GTO conversion, wide body 308 GTO look, how to build a GTO, Bert Kanters, Roermond, Netherlands, Nederland This is my Ferrari 308 GTS conversion to 288 GTO lookalike project, not a replica. A step by step picture guide of trial and error, converting a 308 to GTO look in sheet metal. Don't try this at home, wait till I'm ready, then I'll write a how to/making of story and you can decide if it is worth it. Only pictures now, some more info can be found at www.ferrarichat.com, do a search for "building a GTO" or "Ferrari 308 GTO look"