Turbo K24-Powered Ferrari 308 Is Complete!
Awesome track build was ready for SEMA in just 700 days.
After two years of hard work, Mike Burroughs at finished tuning his 1981 Ferrari 308 GTBi in time for SEMA. The changes to the vehicle included swapping out the stock Ferrari V8 for a turbocharged Honda K24 unit that puts out 1,000 horses. Power is sent to the rear wheels via a Quaife QKE8J five-speed sequential transmission. The sports car features AP Racing Pro 5000 R brakes and CSF cooling components.
The Ferrari absolutely had to be ready for its unveiling. With just nine days left until the show, Burroughs was faced with a long list of tasks that still needed to be completed. He recruited three friends who worked tirelessly to help get the car ready by the deadline. The Ferrari was finished on time and was named the show’s Best High-Performance Build.
Burroughs documented his build’s progress in a weekly series of YouTube videos over the course of two years. In the first installment, he showed off his 1981 Ferrari 308 GTBi, which was still in its standard yellow paint color. He purchased his dream car for $55,000 with the proceeds from selling a Hummer.
Burroughs explained that he decided to fit the 308 with a turbocharged Honda K24 engine because the Bosch CIS injection of the Ferrari’s 2.9-liter engine made it too slow. The K24 is a four-cylinder, four-stroke powerplant that’s one of the most sought-after by tuners.
“… [It’s] going to hopefully be something no one’s seen before,” said Burroughs. “I not only plan to make it look awesome, I plan to use it, too. I want to make this a competitive time-attack car.”
“It’s a pretty cool car to drive,” Burroughs said. “It’s got manual steering. The seating position is incredibly low. I’m looking at the top of every car out there’s tire. It’s even lower than any slammed vehicle I’ve ever owned, and it’s sky-jacked in terms of wheel gap and ground clearance. It’s fly yellow. It’s one of the most gorgeous cars ever made, if you ask me.”
Burroughs gave the car a white body wrap, a process that took a team of four specialists from All City Wraps of Costa Mesa, California, two days to complete. He decided on the color change to signify the job was finished and because he initially wanted to buy a white 308. He plans to restore the Ferrari’s paint to its factory yellow color.
While the Ferrari is roadworthy, Burroughs still has more work to do. In a recent YouTube video, he stated, “This is the beginning of a new chapter. This is where the fun begins. Because now we got to get this car to the dyno. We got to get this car to the track. We got to shake it down. We got to make revisions, improvements and changes. And we got to fix all the things I don’t even know I messed up yet.”