Road and Track diligently reviewed every permutation of Ferrari, and there were quite a lot of them in this era. The 330 GTS was essentially a 275 GTS with the larger 4-liter V12, but with slightly different front end. And there was also a GTS/4, which had a higher-output 4-cam version of the 4-liter V12. So the tested 330 GTS wa somewhere in the middle of this family of traditional front-engine Ferraris, both luxurious (available with a/c) as well as capable, if not exactly ready for the Sebring 24 hours.
R&T described the sound of the V12 coming to life as “sounding like some sort of cross between an electric motor, a turbine and a reciprocating engine”. It was a very tractable engine, happily idling at 700 rpm and revving to 7000. There’s plenty of torque for an easy get-away, and its higher (lower numerical) final gearing makes it more relaxed at speed than the 3.3 liter versions.
The 5-spped transmission was easy to shift, precise and “strongly synchronized”. Out on the road, the driver feels “he could do anything with this car”. The steering is light, but power assist was to be available shortly, for those more oriented to the parking lots on Rodeo Drive than Mulholland Canyon. There was plenty of torque to “bring the rear end out at any time”. But the brakes did not earn such a good score.
The body built (and styled) by Pininfaria was “superbly rigid”, a critical feature to allow the suspension to do its work effectively.
The interior was handsome, and the leather seats “very comfortable”, but some details of the instrumentation were subject to criticism, mainly the deep plastic rings around the instruments. As was the single-speed heater/defroster blower, on such an expensive car. The optional air conditioning worked adequately, but of course was not a modern integrated unit.
The tested car was not US-compliant, and there was some question as to whether it would be.
As to justifying its $15,000 price tag, R&T points out “that you can’t get anything like it for anything less”.
An excuse for starting to play the lottery if ever there was one. Some folks a couple of blocks away from my parents new home when they moved from MD to NC in 1969 had one of these in dark charcoal gray. I was 19 then and that car became the focus of my automotive dreams for years thereafter. A masterpiece in looks, performance, and SOUND!
A “single speed, heat/ defroster, fan? Huh? Still, it’s one more speed then a VW. Wondering if the “fan speed” was high (deafening roar), or quiet (the fan is on?)?
I remember this road test as a 13 year old. I fell in love with it’s stunning looks that still hold 54 years later!
It’s a good article and I like this car, but nothing beats the sound of a big block V8 engine along with the right set of giasspack mufflers. The best sounding car that I ever heard was a 1969 Dodge Hemi Coronet with Continental Blue Swinger glasspacks. It was almost as loud as a race car with open headers, but the glasspacks gave it that perfect Harley Davidson rumble kind of sound. It’s a shame that you can’t buy Blue Swingers today. Some of the newer 8 inch or 12 long glasspacks are loud but they don’t sound as good as the old timey ones. I’m really disappointed in Thrush. They used to have those round shaped purple, silver , and white glasspacks and they sounded good also. I don’t understand why they can’t bring those back. Today’s Thrush Magnums are just too quiet sounding for a glasspack.
There’s some guy running around Virginia Beach in what I believe is a 330 GTC. I’ve seen it on the road three times in the past two weeks. Only one of the times was on a weekend. Hopefully I will see him stop somewhere and get a photo or two.
The internet tells me most any recent F-150 can beat its 6.9sec zero-to-sixty, but what a car! (Even if the only place I saw them in 1968 was TV/movies.)
The price tag made me gulp—I was thinking about a teaching career then, and even today realize that was well more than twice a starting teacher’s salary….real money today:
About a decade later (I think mid 80s) the 330 GTS’ humbler relation the 330 GT 2+2 was a Road & Track Used Car Classic feature.
The only ride I have ever had in a Ferrari was in a 2+2 GT 330. It was in the mid 70s. I was a few years out of university and the husband of a woman on my project owned it. She offered me a ride, so the following weekend I went to their house in north Toronto. Her husband took me for a spin on some 2 lane back roads. It was quite an experience and the engine sounded glorious. It was the fastest I have ever gone in a car. I am not sure what our maximum was, but it was well above 100 mph.
It was the first series of the 2+2 and easy to spot because of the quad headlights. The owner said that they were less popular and thus less expensive. I still don’t know how they could afford it. They must have been in their early thirties and they were both computer programmers like me. I think they sold it when they had children.
It was really a memorable experience.
I hate to say it, but it looks like a Fiat to me. (he says with his hand over his face) I mean there’s lots of lust worthy Ferarris, but to my eyes this isn’t one of them. OK, I’m not a softtop fan, but still, the pictures look like a Fiat to me. Perhaps this is a case of it’s different in the flesh, and the big tires and wheels at least by that era suggest something different… I don’t know.
In spite of all that if I happened across one, I wouldn’t kick it out of my garage, so to speak. Top up or down it might kill what’s left of my hearing to drive it at speed, but sometimes sacrifices must be made.
The worst Ferarri is better than the best Chevy? I’ll run with it, with the possible exception of the 63-67 Sting Ray.
In the seventies I lived in an apartment in central Toronto and if I needed to drive north I would cut through Rosedale, which is a very upscale, old money neighborhood. There was one quite modest house (for the area) that often had a red Ferrari convertible sitting in the driveway, always with the top down. That in itself is rather unusual as such cars are rarely left outside. I have since figured out that it was an early 250 GT Cabriolet by Pininfarina, so it was about 10 years earlier than the featured model. Looking at a photo it seems remarkably similar to an MGB, although it predates its introduction by 5 years. However in the flesh it was stunning. Although the later designs are much more obvious, these are just elegant. I think part of the presence is due to the size. They are not small and the big meaty tires on the beautiful wire wheels really do stand out. I did see it once parked on the street downtown, again with the top down and it was magnificent. You did not need to know anything about cars to know it was special. I found a photo on the Ferrari web site, unfortunately not red.
Here is the view from the back. Don’t the taillights look as the came from an MGB?