Would You Pay $20k For The World’s Rustiest (And Engine-less) Ferrari?

How badly do you want to own a Ferrari? Bad enough to part with $20k for one of the least desirable models ever made that’s currently in a condition so bad you’ll never be able to drive it? Oh yeah, and did we mention it doesn’t have an engine?

The car in question is a Ferrari 308 GT4, the 1970s two-plus-two that’s notable for a couple of reasons. One is that it was the first of Ferrari’s V8 sports cars, a line whose latest descendant is the F8 Tributo. And the other is that it was designed by Bertone and not by Pininfarina. They were initially sold only as Dinos, but by 1976 graduated to genuine Ferrari status.

Though GT4s have enjoyed a bit of a renaissance in recent years, plenty of people still find them hard to really love, which is understandable when you remember Ferrari’s other 1970s sports car were the achingly beautiful 246 Dino and 308 GTB/S.

Someone has really not loved this particular 1978 car, though, or at least not for a long time. We first spotted it a few weeks ago on the Number 27 Youtube channel, where host Jack poked around and through its various holes, pondering whether it might be the world’s rustiest Ferrari. Every single surface from the fenders to the doors to the roof has been decimated by rot and the interior is scruffy and faded.

As the presenter notes, it’s a fascinating find because it’s now so rare to see classic exotics in such bad condition. As values have risen, most have either been restored, or cannibalized to save other, better examples. This car is now being offered on eBay in the UK for £15,000 ($20,000), but it’s hard to imagine anyone buying it to rebuild.

It’s true that any car, no matter how bad, can be rebuilt if you throw enough money at it. But even though prices for 308 GT4s have tripled over the last 15 years, there’s just not enough left of this one to make it economically viable to repair at this point in time.

The body is shot and the engine, which was removed and rebuilt, is available by separate negotiation (and likely to set you back more than the rest of the car). But it does have some cool parts, including the wide five-spoke wheels that could be of use to 308 GTB owners, and by the time you’d sold the glass, instruments and whatever else you could salvage, you’d probably get your money back and still have the registration document proving that you owned a Ferrari – if only on paper.

Or maybe, as the seller suggests, reminding us of the time someone from Turkey paid $250,000 for French artist Bertrand Lavier’s smashed up GT4, you could buy it as some kind of grotesque art installation. It would probably be a bigger talking point than a perfect example.