Ferrari Mondial: the last mid-engined V8 2+2

The Ferrari Mondial is a mid-engined V8 grand tourer manufactured between 1980 and 1993, with styling by Pininfarina and bodywork by Carrozzeria Scaglietti. It remains the last V8, rear mid-engined 2+2 Ferrari.

Ferrari Mondial at a glance

based on one source (English Wikipedia).

History of the Ferrari Mondial

The Mondial was offered as a coupé or a cabriolet and was intended to be a more luxurious offering than the 308 GTSi and GTBi. As a result it had 2+2 seating, a higher roofline, a longer wheelbase and an electronic warning-light system. It replaced the Ferrari 308/208 GT4 coupé and remains the last V8, rear mid-engined 2+2 Ferrari. The name Mondial, Italian for global, had been used in the 1950s to celebrate Formula 1 World Championships and again in the 1970s to mark the team’s Formula 1 constructors’ championships; it also reflected the car’s worldwide conformity with 1980s safety and emission standards.

Design and body

Unlike its 308 GT4 predecessor, styled by Bertone, the original Mondial 8 was designed by Pierangelo Andreani, who had just joined Pininfarina, with later versions redesigned by Leonardo Fioravanti. Pininfarina’s bodywork was built by Scaglietti on a separate space frame of tubular box or oval steel sections. Most panels are steel, but the front lid and engine cover of the Mondial 8 and QV are aluminium, with full-width louvre panels providing airflow through the front-mounted radiators and the engine bay. Side louvres ahead of the rear wheels feed the engine on the right and an external oil cooler on the left. The Mondial 8 and QV have black plastic bumpers, while the 3.2 and t models use integrated wrap-around glass-fibre panels finished in body colour. Pop-up headlights with twin round lamps were fitted to the 8, QV and 3.2, while the Mondial t used a single homofocal rectangular unit per side.

Engines

The family used a lightweight alloy V8 with a 90° bank angle, shrink-fit liners, a five-bearing flat-plane crankshaft, belt-driven quad overhead camshafts, alloy crossflow heads and wet-sump lubrication, except the Mondial t which used a dry sump. Displacement started at 2.9 litres for the Mondial 8 and QV, rose to 3.2 litres for the Mondial 3.2 and reached 3.4 litres in the Mondial t. The Mondial 8 had two valves per cylinder; the Quattrovalvole and all later models had four. In the 8, QV and 3.2 the engine sits transversely, while the 3.4-litre unit of the Mondial t is rotated ninety degrees to a longitudinal layout, as in the 348 GTB.

Place in the range

The Mondial was marketed alongside Ferrari’s two-seater 308 GTB/GTS, 328 and 348 sports cars, sharing its major mechanical systems with the two-seater model sold at the same time. It stayed in production for thirteen years, longer than any of those, and was never directly replaced: no later Ferrari combined a V8, a mid-mounted engine and 2+2 seating.

Design and features

• 2+2 mid-engined V8: the only layout of its kind in Ferrari’s range, and the last of its line.
• More luxurious than a 308: higher roofline, longer wheelbase and an electronic warning system.
• Three engine sizes: 2.9 litres in the 8 and QV, 3.2 in the 3.2 and 3.4 in the t.
• Transverse to longitudinal: the Mondial t moved to a longitudinal engine and dry sump.
• Scaglietti bodywork: steel panels with aluminium lids on the early cars.

Ferrari Mondial versions

• Mondial 8 (1980–1982): 2.9-litre V8, two valves per cylinder.
• Mondial QV (1982–1985): four-valve Quattrovalvole engine.
• Mondial 3.2 (1985–1989): 3.2-litre engine and body-colour bumpers.
• Mondial t (1989–1993): 3.4-litre longitudinal engine with dry sump.

The Mondial replaced the Ferrari 308 GT4 and was sold alongside the Ferrari 328 and Ferrari 348.

Video: Forza Friday: The 1989 Ferrari Mondial t Coupe Revealed

Video by The Fast Lane Car on YouTube.

Sources

• Ferrari Mondial, English Wikipedia: design, body, engines, versions