The MYTH of the 348's handling foibles BUSTED

I did not know you were so accomplished. I have only seen your name around CF. I'm committed to racing on the East coast next year but may do TA4. Oli got the head honcho to allow the SpecCorvette in TA4 so we might go there.

 

Cool! Ive always wanted to do the opposite and race on the west coast one year to experience all of the tracks out your way. I'm four miles from Lime Rock, so let me know if youre out this way. Ill send you a note off-line about TA. Oli looks to have done a great job getting the SpecCorvette deal up and running put west. Looks like fun!

 

Good insight from those that know how to take the car to the limit. Thanks for your contributions.

 

Jason,

The grass is always greener... The Runoffs this year are at Sonoma and there is plenty of time to make that happen. The bar to competing is very low. My friend and I thought we would only swing East once. We had so much fun we now do it every other year. He is in it only for the racing as 5 time national champ. I'm in for racing and fishing local waters. Be careful heroin is addictive.

We have some great tracks West and hope you look us up when you come this way. Shipping your racecar is always the best but there are plenty of "arrive and drive" I can help you find. Oli is like a drug dealer. Several SpecCorvettes are being passed around for people to race to hook them on the fun. A couple of new drivers have been reeled in this way. The class is growing nicely in Socal with many others building or interested outside the state. I think the blessing of TransAm is also helpful. We hope to slot SpecCorvette into one of the SCCA national classes T2 or T1 as soon as increasing car counts give SpecCorvette some clout.

 

What track do you visit when you come east?

 

It depends on the SCCA Majors race schedule. We start in January in Florida at Homestead followed by Sebring then probably Road Atlanta then making our way North as they unfreeze. I'd like another crack at WGI and will finish the official season at Runoffs at VIR. We will probably do a regional club race at Barber and maybe CoTA on the way home. Last year I went through 8 sets of tires and could have used more if I wanted to be fast.

I don't know what the 2019 TransAm schedule is but hope to do a couple of pro races there too just to say I've done a pro race. I'm not JasonBerkeley . I don't have the talent to win a TransAm championship. That is a huge accomplishment.

It is nice to have an accomplished racer like Jason echo what I have been saying about 348's for decades. Even today the 90's 348 chassis can be developed into a competitive racecar. I will always have a soft spot for 348's. While not as pretty as a 355, I like the tough looking side strakes and the manliness of its manual steering rack. The 348 is like a guy with a chip in his front tooth...don't mess with him unless you want to be shown how he got that chip.

 

Sure, if I wasn't a Ferrari owner. I was only pointing out why the 348 has gotten the bad rap. Luca did not do anyone any favours with his comments. It's become well known he wasn't a fan. Ferdinand Porsche never did that with any Porsche product that I am aware of. Not even the 914.

 

This is true. Like most incoming presidents, he took the tack that all the problems were due to the last guy, in this case the 348. He went to great lengths to demonstrate the 355’s superiority, and of course it is a “better” car, as any proper evolution should be. Or at least it was at the time - years tend to erase and sometimes sully the goodness of certain advances.

At any rate, he didn’t need to do it the way he did. I think he was trying to make himself look better by agreeing a bit too much with some of the critiques, like “hey guys, it wasn’t me, look what I did after I was beaten by a Vauxhall in my 348 - I made the 355!!” Yeah right, Luca.

It’s all in what experience you desire now. None of that stuff matters anymore. I like 355s, too. Haven’t met a Ferrari I don’t like, really.

 

I've been reading through all the handling threads for the past few weeks, because I am thinking of adding a 348. I have a Testarossa now (in addition to an E30 M3, a 3 rotor Rx7, and a Gran Turismo I plan to swap out so to speak for the 348). I've been considering the 348, 355, and 360, but have focused on the 348 because of the directness of the feel. The all analog thing. I've driven the 360 and find it a bit too isolating. Too modern, maybe? I gather that any real issues with oversteer can be corrected with wider wheels or spacers at the rear, good alignment, and lowering the car a bit. Not quite sure what people mean by "10mm of rake" unless that a fore/aft thing? Never having driven a 348, would you say it is like my old 1994 Porsche 3.6 turbo in terms of oversteer without the changes? If I got into a big sweeper too hot, I would have to add a bit of throttle or at least keep on the throttle. That was occasionally a bit scary.

 

10 mm rake is the change in ride height from front to back as measured at the frame rails to a level flat surface just behind the front tires and just in front of the rear tires.

You should have the rear height set 10mm higher than the front.

 

Just to qualify Jason's statement he is thinking as a racer who needs a quick way to check chassis rake and change chassis rake for specific track set-up when he refers to rideheight measure @ frame rails. If you are really a street driver and this is going to be a street 348 for you set the chassis to the factory positions the "factory way" and the chassis rake will be factory and take care of itself. Then if you want specific handling character you can change rake and any number of settings to achieve your goal. The 348 is highly tunable and responses well to your tuning. That response can be good or bad at the limits so factory is always the safe starting point. Think about the 1989 348 as Ferrari's 1st attempt to make a racecar with a radio for the street. Then look at the 348 cousin, 355 the 1st streetcar with functional aero undertray and 100hp/L motor. You can see the direction of Ferrari and begin to understand the 348 and understand why it is a tunable chassis and why the lay people have so much trouble with the handling. Ferrari made a racecar. Can you imagine in 1989 Ferrari builds a streetcar 348 that I can beat on the racetrack and it not overheat! It is 2018 and Corvette still can't build a vette that won't overheat on the racetrack. People are used to not thinking, not understanding, just give me a car to drive that looks good and looks like a racecar.

 

Hard to describe, but my 1990 348 feels like the front end is going to "lift off" at high speed (+130mph). Anyone else experience this?

 

Nope. What are your alignment and chassis setup specs? Condition of wear items?

 

My first 348 was a handful at high speeds, with the sensation of front-end float as well. Then I took it to the dealer (FoCF) and they aligned it properly. What a difference it made.

My current 348 was awesome when I bought it. Is still awesome, btw.

 

99.99997%* of folks have to base their opinion on any Ferrari car's dynamics on magazine reviews, not personal experience. That's just the truth, we are a lucky bunch here that we can experience these cars first hand. Ferrari will always have a big target on it's back because it has the biggest brand recognition for high-performance cars; Love Ferrari or hate Ferrari, this is just fact.

It's also the fact that the comparison test was not good. I have to believe something was not 'right' with the car they have, how else could they say that the car was the most unstable care they ever tested in the 50 years? Just doesn't pass the basic logic test. You're telling me the 348 was more unstable than a Suzuki Samurai at high speed? (don't ask me how I know)

I don't own a 348 so I'm also one of those guys I mentioned basing my opinion on the handling magazines articles. But as this thread stated, Whether it was a myth or not, it's irrelevant - because later reviews of the revised 348 and this thread shows clearly that any issues with twitching handling are easily rectified with a few small, simple, and cheap updates. So to me, it's a moot point.

Enjoy your 348 my friends, it's a glorious machine.


*my math is based on 7 billion folks on earth, about 200,000K ever Ferrari made.

 

One of the most shameful things for any Ferrari president to do in my opinion. I never understood it either, since he said back in 1991 he drag raced a Golf GTI and lost badly.



Even taking the worst 0-60 & 1/4 I've seen for the 348 (6.0 and 14.4) and the best 0-60 and 1/4 for the Golf GTI (7.6 and 15+) (I am using the 2.8 VR6 edition) - just don't add up.

Now mind you I don't think he's lying that he got beat. I just think the Golf GTI was hot-rodded. Any 'hot-hatch' that is set up properly can 'smoke' many Ferrari even today.

Woe to him to even use 'drag-racing' as a qualifier for what makes a 'good' Ferrari...They have their old cousin (Dodge) if that's your sort of thing.

 

While the whole thing is absolutely ridiculous and would best be completely forgotten, I'll add this - as someone who raced and worked on the F1 team, etc., he's quite lucky to have been able to garner ANY respect after admitting he lost that drag race. I'm going with pilot error for that failure.

 

very true, also the GTI had a passenger too. He could have easily just botched the launch and blamed the car...