348 project twin turbo or street car?

I wanted to ask the brotherhood for your opinions? I picked up an 89 348tb last week. I asked on here what you guys thought of the car and some say don’t buy it because it had too many issues. I did a carfax and it came back clean. I ended up buying the car. I thought I would turn it into a track car if it was as bad as some had thought. Here is what it needs so far:

1. 30k service
2. new clutch
3. few minor cosmetic fix its in the interior
4. a few touch up on the paint
5. it has 355 wheels that need new tires
6. need right side cats

Here are the unknowns:

1. AC is not blowing cold?
2. Have not done leak down test?

As you can tell this car is nicer than I thought and it won’t take too much to put it back on the road and make a great driver.

My question is should I do all the fixes and put it back on the road or turn this car into a track car? If I go the track route, it will be twin turbos with 500hp to the wheels. Please give me your thoughts.

Here are a few pictures of the car before I start taking it apart.

Thank you for your input,

Ray
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TRACKCAR!!!! Make this the fastest 348 ever, you will get mad props, and have a great time doing it.

 

That seems to be a lot of oil under the transmission.
(you might want to change the dip stick)
Well I would say it depends on many factors:
1) I'm not asking you to tell us, but what did you pay? (what is you budget/investment)
2) Are you going to open the engine either way?
3) What condition is the rest of the car? Has it ever been in an accident?
4) Interior? If its perfect it would be a shame to gut it for some uncomfortable pieces of carbon fiber....
Granted I cant see too much from the pictures, but the paint looks good!
5) If you turn it into a track car what type of events are you looking to drive in? (You should first decide on the exact use before modifying as they will limit your eligibility)
6) Would you have a track car either way? And vice versa if it does become a track car what will you drive? Will you keep it street legal/Are you willing to do ALL of that maintenance you will encounter when asking it to produce 500hp? It certainly wont be as driveable or reliable.

Either way it seems like you have many happy days to come with this beauty.
What more can I say than quote Plugzit's infamous "drive it like you stole it"

 

Huh? no offense, but it looks awful to me... whoever owned that car before you should be ashamed of themself!
And considering the laundry list of very expensive repairs it needs... I hope you stole it!

 

You could make the car a daily driving car the cheapest...Next make it a track car----To make it perfect again will take the most $$$

 

Just realized what car that actually was, and that I have seen many pictures of it.
Well on second thought I'm in Berkeley why don't you drop it off, you can leave the keys in my mailbox....
Yeah well I see you conundrum, because while it is a clean car it certainly is not perfect.
This is your second 348? Do you still have the first one? If so 500hp all the way!
I say this but you MUST be perfectly fine with making this a huge money pit!
The approach I take is any money I put into modifications is money gone! While any money put into restoration is 2/3 gone!
Look you obviously will increase the value of the car, but it certainly will not near your investment.
Anyway 500hp in a 348 sounds incredible and if you have the means and patients go for it!

 

Whats the serial number?

All that oil underneath looks like it is getting on the flywheel and flung around....You probably are going to need to repack the flywheel and replace the triple seals on the input shaft. Not a huge deal. Its a known problem with the 348, but one that looks like it has been neglicted on this car. There are threads on here on how to do both. Getting to the parts is a 2 hour job...no biggie...

As for your question, make it a 500hp street car for sure!!!!!!!!!!!! There are a couple of other twin turbo 348's and I can't think of a more incredible car.... From what I hear, the gearbox can hold that power, however, you will need to install a kevlar clutch, which is no big deal again because you have to pull off that whole flywheel assembly to replace the clutch AND repack the flywheel... Nail a bunch of birds with one stone!!!

Lastly, welcome to the brotherhood and keep us updated!!!!

 

Congrats on the purchase. Welcome back to the Brotherhood.

If you do not have a street 348, then I would get this one back on the road. If you stil have your other 348, then have some fun with this one as a TT track hack.

I am sure you got this car cheap, so if you do major/flywheel/clean up yourself it wont cost you that much.
Hopefully A/C just needs some gas. Will be an expensive fix if the evaporator is leaking gas.
Not hard to diagnose the A/C either way. Also do a leakdown test too see what those cylinders are like.

 

Oh yeah, as for the cats....straight pipes on ebay...$300....car will run cooler and better!

 

welcome! I'd echo the others and say focus on street first, this way you get to drive it more often.

BTW, add it to the registry

http://www.ferrari348registry.com/

 

Wow, have you ever restored a car before? Or turned a wrench? That doesn't look awful at all. Simply a bit of elbow grease an dedication. In the world of restos, that project is nothing, and in fine shape for the purpose. Everything is there and simply needs gone through.




Darrell.

 

Since you now own it, I figure I will ask you the question that was keeping my interest from becoming another car sitting around, not being driven.
While I was looking at this 348, I couldn't ward off the possibility that it was a flood car; or that it had been in extremely humid, damp storage. Were my reservations viable or was I just being paranoid? Is the rust bad? Mildew/mold?

 

Hi Elliott,

This car was from the east coast. So there some of the nuts and bolts are corroded or rusted. So far I don't see anything else that is rusted away? I will post more pics as I get further into the car. So far this car has been better than I thought. That is why I am considering putting it back on the road. We will see? I am up in Sacramento, so if you want to come up and check it out, it is about an hour drive for you.

Ray

 

Hi everyone,

I appreciate all your feedback. It looks like most of you are saying get it back on the road and then do the mods? I will take pictures once I get the sub frame out and keep all of you posted. If it is a simple 30k service and clutch then I may just put it back on the road and maybe sell it? I don’t really need two 348’s. But if it needs more work then, I will go the track route. I don’t want to take a nice car and strip it for the track. The paint and interior is nice for a driver.

I have a 95 348 spider that I drive around so I don’t need this one as a driver. I am running aftermarket exhaust and did a few little changes to the MAF and I am getting 286.5hp at the wheels. The Dyno sheet is not that clear, but you can see the numbers?
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You betcherass pal! ive been turning wrenches for about 26 years... 22 years as a certified master mechanic. I didnt say the car couldnt be restored, I said it looks awful because I cant summize how any Ferrari owner could let thier car get so severely dirty, rusted and corroded.... not to mention ignoring required maintenence and not addressing the repairs it needed. I said the last owner should be ashamed of themself, so what?? Thats my opinion, and I believe i'm entitled to it! My statement was NOTHING personal to Ray, and I appologize if he took it that way... and I STILL hope that he stole it!

 

hey guys I've got the car here at the shop, the rust is located on the battery tray and that's about it. there is surface rust on the rotors and the car seems to have spent time in salt/snow weather. otherwise it's in good shape, repaint on one side but no body damage, could have been from being keyed. the engine has been neglected that is for sure as it ran awful, right bank gutted the cat and timing is off a few degrees. I'll be tearing it down here shortly, nothing serious so far. personally I think it will make a great track car. progress pics will follow, busy with a 500hp 328 at the moment.

 

As you already have a 348 Spider for road use, I think you can turn this car into a track rat.

I am not so sure a TT setup would be great for track use - you would need to address high underbody temps that it entails. Also the NA engine is very tractable - so it is easy to accelerate out of the corner. A TT engine would be less progressive IMO.

A better approach may be to lighten your car drastically:
- Straight pipes
- Challenge exhaust
- Strip interior completely - carpets, leather, sound proofing, etc
- Get rid of stereo/A/c
- Racing seats/belts/roll cage
- Lightweight bumpers
- Remove windows/replace with Lexan
- If you have the money - get CF replacements for the body panels

For more power, there could be 30-40hp through better intake management. Also the chip can be tuned more for racing with minimal compromises for street use.

 

Turning a 348 into a track car is a very expensive proposition. Almost as expensive as building a 355 track car, but at least the 355 has decent availability of core parts.

If you can see it to fix this one up for the street, sell it, then turn that money into a 355 challenge. This way you'll have invested far less than making this 348 a decent track car, and you get one that's faster, lighter, and a purpose built race car with all the nice bits and pieces such as decent, adjustable brakes, cage, race seats, harness mounts. These are the little things that quickly add up to become more than the cost of the car itself.

I dunno - maybe I say this because I'd really like a 355 Challenge

 

..............bloody wise words there David................

 

If you get it cleaned up to "Driver," let me know. I might know Someone interested in doing far more than just lookin' at it

 

Darrell & Steve,

Thank you both for your candid responses. It sounds like the both of you have a tremendous amount of experience with the 348. I really appreciate all of your inputs. I did get a pretty good deal on the car just under 30K.

Steve you are right, the previous owners did keep up with the maintenance and should not own these types of cars. I didn’t take your comments personally. If it was me that let the car go like that, I should be reprimanded for the deferred maintenance.

Darrell you are right as well. There are a lot of things that needs a lot of attention. I bought this car from someone who was going to part it out. He would make more money parting it than selling it as a complete car. We talked at length and we compromised on price and I was able to save this car from being parted.

The car so far is turning out better than I thought and hence the question back to stock or modified twin turbo for street and track? I will know more once the leak down is done and the sub frame comes out. I have a few more pictures of the car.

Thank you everyone for your input. Please keep them coming.

Ray
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Totally disagree because a stripped 348 racecar can be faster than a 355C which still has too much weight like dash etc... Also the 348 can be beaten on all day with no prob from gearbox. I worry about 355 valveguides blah blah blah mostly because I know little about them. I can tell you that on track I have never been beaten by a 355C or 355 in my 348 racecar that was stock except lightened oem clutch and full gutting. Also the 355C cages are crap. I would never trust my life to one.

 

Dr. Burnswell

I have had a few people emailed me with the same request. I will know which way this project goes in the next few weeks. I will of course document everything done to the car. I can tell you the car does not have any service records or the tool kit. I have run a carfax on the car and it is clean with the car originated from NY in 1990 then to NJ in 1998 with 28,870miles. It came to CA in 2006 with 42,934miles sold at auto auction to a dealer and has been a dealer car since. At that time it passed CA emissions and inspection. I did speak one of the dealers that owned the car and it was taken to an independent service shop for a PPI. I have the word document on what that independent shop suggested as needed repair? If I was buying the car and saw what this shop wrote up, I would run too. So far, I have found about 30% of what they said was wrong with the car is true. A few examples of what they recommended needs brake cables replaced? This car does not have brake cables. The also said there was rear frame damage? My shop did not find any signs of frame damage? Maybe, I have the PPI report for a different car? I will keep you post on what we find.

Thank you for your interest,

Ray

 

Thanks, Ray.

 

David and Billybob

I am with the brotherhood all the way. I have heard the horror stories with the 355. I have not owned one so I can't speak from experience. I do own a 348 spider and I have had 5 years of fun driving. I did have the major 30k service done and annual fluide changes. i have put over 10k miles on it.

Billybob, I heard you are the master of the track with the 348. If I go the twin turbo street/track car, I will have to drive down and take a few lessons from you. Do you think a twin turbos set up would be fun for the track?

Thank you for your input guys.