What’s your favorite SEMA build from the last few years? The competition is so intense that it’s hard to call it, but the turbocharged Honda K24-powered Ferrari 308 from StanceWorks would have to be right up there.
The build has been bubbling away for a couple of years, and SW’s Mike Burroughs revealed the mostly finished car at SEMA 2022. But he still has more plans for the project. Crazy plans. U.S.-based Burroughs is shipping the car to Sydney, Australia, where it’s going to compete in September’s Yokohama World Time Attack Challenge.
In case you’re not familiar with the build, it started life as a 1981 Ferrari 308 GTBi dressed in banana-colored Giallo Fly. The original U.S.-spec carb-fed 308’s 2.9-liter V8 made 237 hp (240 PS), but when Ferrari replaced the Webers for fuel injection, power dropped to just 202 hp (205 PS). On the face of it, swapping the V8 for a 2.4-liter K24 Honda motor that only makes 3 hp (3 PS) more would seem to deliver little advantage. But the K24 is far lighter and Burroughs had some big tuning plans that made the Honda mill the better choice.
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Those plans included adding a Garrett turbo and sending the resulting horses through a Quaife five-speed sequential transmission. What’s been named the Ferrari 244 GTK has already recorded over 800 hp (811 PS) at the wheels on a dyno, but SW is aiming for more than 1,000 hp (1,014 PS).
Obviously, the car has received a ton of other mods, including a set of gorgeous five-spoke Rotiform wheels, H&R suspension, AP brakes, and that huge aero package including a splitter, wing, and diffuser that helped it draw a crowd at SEMA. But the recent work has focused on making sure the car does more than look cool. It needs to abide by the World Time Attack GCG Open Class regulations, and it needs to drive like a proper race car.
This latest video in the build series on StanceWorks’ popular YouTube channel shows the modded 308 driving on public roads for the first time since its transformation as Burroughs takes the wheel for a couple of laps around the block near the company’s California HQ. As he freely admits, it’s not the most exciting drive to watch, though it was obviously exciting for him getting to pilot his own creation for the first time. But it’ll be worth looping back to the channel for the next episode when the crew gets to carry out a full at-speed shakedown test at the Buttonwillow circuit.
