348 Ultimate Suspension Set Up

I would get a set of 348/355 Challenge wheels and go with wider rubber. As far as pressures go...I use 32F/34R on the street and lower them 4-6 psi at the track.

Ciao.....Dino

 

pm this guy "fatbillybob".

he races a 348 ( ..... seriously , no joke ).

 

Lower the car 25mm, Spacers alround, challenge wheels,Front camber 1.5degrees,front toe in 4mm, rear camber 2.5 degrees, rear toe in 4mm,This works really well, get the geometry set up by a specialist though cos it very difficault to do yourself.

Andy.

 

FBB Here. So based on what you posted I would do nothing to your car except when you did the occasional track day. For those days I would take your totally OEM Ferrari stock settings and leave them except I would lower the BACK end of the car about 1/2" which is about 12 turns of the rear spring collars. You need a jack, two spring compressors, two lock ring spanners, screw driver and a white magic marker. It take about 30mins a side then you get like me and it take 10 minutes a side. First time will take you an hour a side. When you do this you will get the advantage of natural increased negative camber, altered chassis rake which will add grip to the rear and resist the snap oversteer. Your threshold (ABS full on pulsing at the pedal) braking will be more straight line stable due to weight transfer issues. At first you will feel nothing except all those things I mentioned closer to the limit. Braking will not improve until you are on your ABS going in very hot before your "turn-in" points. The problem is that with minimal tracktime it is not that at this level you will drive around at the limit of the car but you may drive around at your personal limit which may make for improper inputs which may exceed limits and you spin. Dropping the rear tunes these out which will increase your confidence and make you faster. Then when you get faster you can raise lower to tune from the back as you see fit. For a street car you don't want to lower the car all the way around because your nose scraps on everything even at stock ride heights.

 

increasing neg camber is one of the easiest ways to gain cornering grip
and turn in. But be careful with too much. At high speeds , the front
will 'hunt' and tramlining will be your friend.

 

My car has had the front end lowered by 1" by, I assume, a previous owner.

The car now has a front heavy look.

What would the effect be on the handling and why would anybody do it?

All I ever do is end up scraping the spoiler everywhere!!!
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Your car is kinda messed up with the 355 wheels and suspension all off. Here is what you do. 1) go back to the book and reset all the ride heights to stock. This will start to give you what Ferrari intended. Only after the ride height and thus chassis rake have been readjusted do 2) reset all alignment soecs to stock. Now your car will drive as intended plus have the benefit of the positives the 355 wheel/tire/offset has to offer.

Your nose scrape will be reduced. At this time your high speed braking will be all over the place. With this nose dive rake you have increased your danger of snap oversteer. 348 stock springs are very soft with lots of nosedive on braking only made worse by your extreme chassis rake. You can NEVER lower a car just by eye until it looks good. You must lower and keep the chassis rake per the factory unless you are trying to adjust handling for a specific problem. That being in most rear heavy cars snap oversteer. I adjust car on the end that gives me trouble. So if I am oversteering I play with the rear. If I understeer I play with the front. This can also be effected by roll bars shocks spring rates as well as chassis rake. However, it is easiest and cheapest to adjust what you currently have. When you have exceeded the optimium of that setting it is time for spring changes etc... As to the comment of too much negative and handling problems you can run lots of negative with these cars ar high speeds with stability. In theory all true. However, I run -2.5 front and -3.5 rear and it works just fine (I'm race only).

 

BillyBob what are you running for springs in your car now? Winter project is rework the shocks and while I am in there change out the springs cause I am starting to learn a lot more this year that they are just to soft and I am bottoming now that the car is lowered and rake adjusted for the track.

H&R's are available from Tirerack but just wanted to check with the master before I commit the cash this winter. By the way any carbon fiber adventures with your car? Last time we talked you were talking crazy about making a carbon body.

 

Now this is the sort of real experience info I need BillyBob. My car sits low like Angelis posted above - I have never been too happy with it's stability when braking from high speed. Have to crawl out of my driveway or the spoiler touches too.

Time to start from scratch methinks..

 

Thanks for the info BillyBob.

I had it checked by a specialist this morning. Everything is fine with the setup. The set up gives a sharper turn in, but other than that it all ok.

 

jj,

CF adventures are on the back burner, This summer is my on going welded rollcage project and front end stiffening project so that I can run a rock solid suspension. I am going to be a go kart! Maybe I should have just bought one. Srings themselves are not the answer. The answer is to start with stock and really understand where the pluses and minuses of your handling are for your driving style. On the street the speeds are 95% under 80mph. A three wheeled VW can do that so really you have to ask yourself if you are willing to alter spring shock combos for an uncertain change in ride comfort which is usually decreased since 95% of people go stiffer. My car is so solid its like riding in a cloths dryer. By the time I finish the cage and stiffening I hope to feel like I am riding in a washing machine. So somewhere between being able to spread on the grey poupon and the washing machine is the ideal compromise. I am not the expert in this area. I would talk to rexrcr aka Rob Shermehorn on this board. Not only can he get you in the direction of an appropriote compromise for your tastes but his DeltaVee motorsports can set you up with what you need. He has raced 348-360 and got paid so that puts him in a league way beyond what I could offer. Honestly, just about anyother supplier you use is just a guess and crapshoot. I have not met many people who really know what they are doing. Rob's a good guy.

 

Great to hear. 355 wheels look great by the way. I think it takes years off the age of our cars.

 

Chris

I agree. Some of our cars are 15 years old. Even if the rakes are factory some settling has occured as gravity has taken its toll. I think suspension setting checks, bushing checks, ride height checks should be on the top of everyone's list just like appropriote changing of timing belts. Finally, while we ar on the subject of suspension improvement, I would be great of all of us to do some driver improvement. In the states we have things called driver education or DE's. These are non-competition driving events under the guise of driving instruction on race tracks around the country. Cars do not get harmed but the driver learns to be faster. One may be surprised with a little instruction how good his suspension really is. The track is the most fun you can have with your cloths on. Besides I need more track buddies.

 

FBB glad to hear you have had the car out and been dusting the track with it. I have only gotten to six DE's this summer with the Porsche club because no one up here in Minnesota wants to drive their Ferrari for anything more challenging than the local TGIF's parking lot.

Driver improvement you are right has been the best money I have spent on my car. It gets you on the track and helps hone the skills. I am only at now the pace (about 1.5 seconds off some of the best drivers the P-club has to offer in my car) that I feel that I can really work on improving the car....thus the questions. Thing that sucks about Minnesota is the damn winters throw a glitch into your driving days and when you start over in the spring its killer. This winter i think I am going to do SpingValley's Vette school and maybe Skip but that'll get pricey.

Anyway I think I will ping Rob to see what he is up to and thinking about for 348 setup. He's a good guy that I havent talked to in a while so it will be good to get back in touch now that I finally need to start taking the next step.

So what are you doing to strengthen the chassis? You welding in more than just the roll cage?