A V12-Swapped Ferrari 308 QV Will Be Auctioned Next Month

If you missed the ‘4.8 12’ badge on the rump of this tidy-looking Ferrari 308 GTS QV, you’d have no idea that it’s hiding a very big secret. A V12-sized secret.

The car was delivered to its first owner in 1985, who is said to have been a tad disappointed by the 237bhp output of the V8-powered supercar. His solution was a drastic one: he took the car to a chap called Nigel Hudson, who shoehorned in the kind of 4.8-litre V12 you’d usually find in a Ferrari 400, giving the 308 a boost of around 100bhp in the process.

Given that this involved transplanting a V12 designed for a front-mounted, longitudinal configuration into the transverse, mid-engined 308, it can’t have been an easy job. The work was completed in the late 1980s, and the finish product - believed to be one of only four V12-engined 308s in existence - was affectionately christened ‘Nigel’s Flyer’.

It spent 10 years in dry storage before being ‘rescued’ by its current owner, who took it back to Hudson for an extensive two year rebuild.

This quirky (and no doubt amazing-sounding) Ferrari will go under the hammer at Silverstone Auction’s event at the Silverstone Wing on 13 May, along with the Porsche 911 Speedster we were looking at recently. The estimate is £50,000 to £60,000.