1974 Ferrari 308 GT4 LM
A one-off competition Ferrari developed and built by the factory for Luigi Chinetti’s history steeped North American Racing Team
Ferrari Classiche certified
A veteran of two editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, both under the N.A.R.T. banner
Tested in period under the veil of secrecy at Ferrari’s hallowed Fiorano test-track
Over 200kg lighter and 50bhp more powerful than the production Ferrari 308 GT4
Just three private owners from new, the second of whom retained the car for almost 25 years
Eligible for the world’s greatest static and dynamic historic motoring events
Luigi Chinetti and the North American Racing Team
Among the greatest privateer racing teams, Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team (N.A.R.T.) was a staple of motorsport – both in American and Europe – for over 30 years.
The equipe was born after a Christmas Eve conversation in 1946 between Chinetti and Ferrari, who’d kindled a friendship during their respective (and very successful) tenures as drivers at Alfa Romeo in the 1930s.
Ferrari spoke of his plans to start building sports cars, which Chinetti thought potentially fruitful given his affluent friends in America, where he’d emigrated before the Second World War. Little did the pair know it, but this was to be the start of Luigi Chinetti Motors Inc. and, ultimately, the North American Racing Team.
As well as becoming Ferrari’s official concessionaire in North America, Chinetti began providing Ferraris to wealthy individuals for racing purposes, along with his mechanical expertise and influence with the American racing authorities. Naturally, he relished the chance to drive the cars he was able to procure and his success was extensive, including wins at the Le Mans and Spa 24-hour races.
“N.A.R.T. was supplied with a steady stream of competitive ex-Works racing cars, while the exposure and success on the track was effective advertising for Ferrari, especially in North America. It was a win-win scenario.”
For over three decades, N.A.R.T. took on the factory might at high-profile races across the world, working with a small group of loyal volunteers and employees. Highlights were plentiful, but undoubtedly the greatest achievement was the brilliant albeit unexpected outright win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1965.
Suffice to say, it was a mutually beneficial relationship between Chinetti and Ferrari – N.A.R.T. was supplied with a steady stream of competitive ex-Works racing cars, which enticed famous drivers and indulgent amateurs alike, while the exposure and success on the track was effective advertising for Ferrari, especially in North America. It was a win-win scenario.
Over the course of its history, N.A.R.T. raced its fair share of left-field cars, not least the Chevrolet Corvette and the Sunbeam Alpine. This car, the unique Ferrari 308 GT4 LM, is another which falls under the same umbrella.
The ‘Dinotto’
The oil crisis of the 1970s was a curious time for Ferrari dealers. And particularly so for those in the United States, a market which had outlawed the then-flagship V12-powered 365 GT4 BB and 365 GT4 on the grounds of emissions. As a result, in 1975, the only new Ferrari Americans could buy was the wedge-shaped 308 GT4 – a car which didn’t actually have the Prancing Horse emblem on its nose, but rather a square badge bearing the name Dino.
Chinetti needed to raise demand for the baby 308 GT4 and fast. The most logical course of action? Take the car racing, of course. An approach was made to Enzo Ferrari in Maranello and once a wealthy backer had been found in the form of the Los Angeles-based collector Bill Schanbacher, factory development work began on the first – and only – 308 GT4 LM.
We spoke with Dick Fritz, who served as N.A.R.T.’s team manager for many years, about the car’s conception. “Chinetti’s belief in the concept and his famous powers of persuasion were why the 308 GT4 LM came to be,” Fritz told us. “I’m not sure it was something the factory itself believed would be a success. But Chinetti always maintained that if sales of a particular new car were low, racing it was a surefire way of boosting its commercial appeal. That the 308 GT4 was the only new Ferrari customers could buy in the United States in 1974 only strengthened Chinetti’s case to the factory.”
First, the ingegneri in Maranello subjected chassis number 08020 (among the earliest GT4s built) to a crash diet. The heavy steel panels, floors and wheel arches were replaced with lightweight aluminium or glass-fibre and the glass windows swapped out with Plexiglass, while the chassis was shaved of weight wherever possible. Competition-specification braking and suspension systems were installed, in addition to a single 180-litre endurance fuel tank.
The characteristic angular Bertone bodywork was given an aerodynamic makeover with the addition of flared wheel arches, dams and intakes feeding various ducts and an enormous ‘whale-tail’ rear spoiler. There were a number of neat competition-oriented mechanical enhancements to the body, too, including gearbox oil and water inlets on each hip and a subtle external pipe reading the current fuel level.
In the end, Ferrari was able to shave an astonishing 200kg from the production 308 GT4. Combined with a transversely mounted V8 upgraded with various 365 GTB/4 ‘Daytona’ Competizione components to produce a healthy 300bhp at 8,200rpm, the 308 GT4 LM was quick. One-hundred and seventy miles-per-hour quick. During the development period, a number of discreet tests were held on the marque’s hallowed Fiorano test-track, much to the intrigue and delight of the Italian press, which fervently christened the mysterious new Ferrari silhouette racer the ‘Dinotto’.
Le Mans, 1974
Finished in its signature N.A.R.T livery, chassis number 08020 was sent from Italy directly to its first race: the 1974 24 Hours of Le Mans. Because of the nuanced homologation rules and requirements for the different categories in which cars could compete at Le Mans, the 308 GT4 LM found itself in somewhat of a grey area.
“Because of the nuanced homologation rules and requirements for the different categories in which cars could compete at Le Mans, the 308 GT4 LM found itself in somewhat of a grey area.”
The only class for which it was technically eligible was Group 5, since the 308 GT4 was too new and not enough of them had yet been built to satisfy the Group 3 and Group 4 requirements. The trouble was that while Group 5 had no minimum production requirement, it was the category specifically for the all-out purpose-built prototypes. Cars capable of winning the race outright.
Nevertheless, N.A.R.T. and the drivers poised to be driving the ‘Dinotto’ at La Sarthe, Giancarlo Gagliardi and Jean-Louis Lafosse, were undeterred. It’s fair to say the 308 GT4 LM was in good company in the N.A.R.T. camp – the team fielded five cars at that year’s 24 Hours: three Ferrari 365 GTB/4 ‘Daytona’ Competiziones and an older Ferrari 312P which had been modified to resemble the angular 312 P/B.
Bizarrely, because of the homologation quandary, chassis 8020 was technically competing against the latter prototype and not the GT ‘Daytonas’ against which it was more equally matched. In fact, Gagliardi and Lafosse’s qualifying spot of 38th would have been good for 16th position in the GT class. Impressive for a brand new racing car with limited testing under its belt. Alas, after four hours and 30 laps of the race, clutch failure forced chassis number 08020 into retirement.
Le Mans, 1975
Clearly encouraged by its performance at Le Mans, Enzo Ferrari blessed Chinetti with permission to enter the ‘Dinotto’ in the following year’s edition of the world’s greatest endurance motor race. The occasion was to present arguably the most controversial moment in the fabled N.A.R.T. story.
Le Mans in 1975 was curious in that it was not included as a round in the World Sportscar Championship. As such, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) had a bone to pick with Mr. Chinetti, whose N.A.R.T. outfit was fielding four cars, including a fascinating Michelotti-bodied 365 GTB/4 ‘Daytona’.
Despite Gagliardi and his new American teammate Harley Cluxton putting on a fine showing in pre-qualifying with the 308 GT4 LM, the ACO unfairly argued that the car was not quick enough compared with the Group 5 prototypes with which it was grouped and disqualified it. Fuming and visibly stressed, Chinetti threatened to withdraw all of N.A.R.T.’s cars should the decision be upheld.
Junior driver Harley Cluxton concludes the story better than we ever could, so we’ll afford him the pleasure. “Oh, [Chinetti] was hot. You know, here he was – a three-time winner and N.A.R.T. had won the race in 1965. They’d even made him an honorary citizen of Le Mans, for God’s sake! None of the drivers had any idea of what was going to happen because Chinetti was in with the ACO and with no factory entries, he was Ferrari at Le Mans.”
“There was no decision until Saturday afternoon, after all the cars, including the all four N.A.R.T. Ferraris, were lined up on the pre-grid. Finally word came down that the ACO would not relent and the 308 GT4 LM was to be excluded. We were all in our cars ready to go and Chinetti came out, walked down the pit lane and just said ‘Out!’ to all of us.” Barely an hour before the start of the race, he was forced to concede defeat. Call it passion or arrogance, the rules were the rules.
The aftermath
Despite the wholly controversial circumstances in which this Ferrari made its final competitive appearance, Chinetti retained chassis number 08020 for almost a decade, before selling to the US-based collector Howard Torman. Torman enjoyed several outings at North American historic racing events including the Monterey Historic Races at Laguna Seca.
“The penultimate owner made the pilgrimage back to Maranello to have the car’s authenticity as a factory-built racing car certified by the Classiche department.”
The next – and penultimate – owner of the 308 GT4 LM, a prominent Ferrari collector based in the UK, acquired the car in 1999. Not only did he commission a thorough recommissioning to return the Ferrari to optimum running conditions, but he also made the pilgrimage back to Maranello to have the car’s authenticity as a factory-built racing car certified by the Classiche department. In a fitting turn of events, chassis 08020 was returned to the history steeped asphalt of the Circuit de la Sarthe for both the 2004 and 2006 editions of the Le Mans Classic.
It was a real treat to play a hand in selling this unique Ferrari thoroughbred and Le Mans veteran to its current owner in the summer of 2022. And it’s an honour to be entrusted with finding the ‘Dinotto’ an equally great new home once again.
An unlikely candidate for a factory competition makeover, the Bertone-styled 308 GT4 is a fascinating chapter of the Ferrari story from an exciting period of aesthetic and commercial change for the Prancing Horse. Thinking about it, the decision to take it racing made perfect sense, even if it didn’t turn out to be the success story Il Commendatore and Chinetti had envisaged.
That also is a testament to Chinetti, a man whose passion for life and motorsport, tenacity and ability to wield influence with the right names – be it marques, customers, racing drivers or authorities – has written him not only into Ferrari folklore, but that of motorsport in general. Conversation-starting collector cars don’t often come as interesting as this. And we’re sure the organisers of static and dynamic historic motoring events the world over would certainly agree.