www.QV500.com - Ferrari 308 Part 8: The Facetti 308's
 

308 GTB 'Facetti Group 4' chassis 20457		 Former Alfa Romeo works driver Carlo Facetti was behind several interesting 308-based competition cars. The first, chassis 20457, was built up on an early glassfibre GTB for Felice Besenzoni and went on to contest a number of high profile endurance events between 1977 and 80. These included the Vallelunga and Mugello 6 Hour race's, the Monza 1000km and 1978's Daytona 24 Hours as one of the Jolly Club entries. It featured lightweight panels, flared Group 4 wheelarches, slick tyres and wide wheels. There was also a straight-through exhaust and comprehensively stripped interior.
   
Facetti always carried out their preparation work to an exceptionally high standard, developing the dry-sump Tipo F106 AB V8 in-house to produce over 300bhp thanks to hot cams and carburettors. A subsequent Facetti 308 was a much more heavily modified machine though, the CARMA FF having been built to Group 5 trim for the 1979 World Manufacturers Championship. Among its most interesting features were new spaceframes front and rear that fixed on to the original 308's tubular steel centre section while the 3-litre V8 engine was fitted with a pair of KKK turbochargers. Weight was down to around 950kg, output rising to 700bhp in race trim and 840bhp for qualifying. The bodywork was almost completely restyled, only the cabin and doors retaining any discernible link to Ferrari's series production 308. Blindingly fast as it was, however, Facetti's machine lacked the reliability to compete over long distances and would have been far better off contesting sprint races. A good case in point was the cars showing at 1981's Daytona 24 Hours where it set the fastest circulation of the entire day-long race on lap two and promptly retired on lap three! Meanwhile, although Facetti's 308's were undeniably privateer efforts, they are well worthy of inclusion because of the highly competitive events they ran in. Facetti were in many ways similar to Michelotto but unfortunately never received much in the way of factory assistance for any of their Ferrari-based projects.
 

308 GTB 'Facetti Group 5' - CARMA FF