348 Wheel direction

Here's the proper wheel direction a Ferrari 348 formerly owned by Bill (BT):

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And again on a Ferrari 348 SS (#79), owned by Mike (AceMaster):

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Tyres may be asymmetrical but they still might have a direction of rotation, so check the sidewall of the tyres first.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

They look right to me.

Great to hear you are enjoying your Ferrari!

 

Looks good from here too

 

The wheels on the Spider in the first picture are mounted on the wrong side of the car, both the front and the rear. The wheels on the cars in the second and third pictures are mounted correctly.

Each wheel on a 348 belongs on its own particular corner. Each has its own part number in the spare parts catalog. The difference is in the orientation of the spokes. Does it really make a difference? No. In one direction, the wheel would be inclined to push air from the brakes to the outside of the car. In the other direction, the wheel would be inclined to pull air from the outside of the car in towards the brakes. The actual effect would be pretty much the same. It's a styling cue.

But for it to be CORRECT, the wheels should be as shown in the second post. That means that if your tires have directional tread, the arrow on the sidewall should be oriented so that the tire rotates in the designated direction when the wheel is on the correct side of the car, and the wheel/tire combination should never be swapped from side to side. When purchasing new tires, the installer must be made aware of which wheel goes onto which side of the car. It's far more important for the tire to rotate in its designed direction than for the wheel to do the same. It's easy to get it right if you're aware of the difference!

 

Nice spot mate, you caught me half asleep. I just finished nightshifts this morning and havent had any sleep yet.

You are correct, wheels need to be swapped.

 

Nice pics, Andrew

 

Yes, The Spider is wrong and the two GTS are correct

 

Hey guys, Thanks for the info because I plan on removing my 360 wheels and putting the original wheels back on my 348 for an upcoming Concours. I would have put them on the wrong way. In fact the model on my desk at work shows them the wrong way. No, I am not selling the 360 wheels, I will put them back right after the Concours is over.
Mike
Reading, PA

 

I thought you might like them, Mike!

Good luck Mike!

Hmmm... more Mikes! I wonder if it's time to revive my old thread?

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Egad, dump those ridiculous things and get some 355 wheels instead!

 

Aw come on they look good to me. Actually I have been thinking about my wheels. When I got the car serviced at Competizone & Sports Cars in MD Richard said that he recommended that I put the stock wheels back on the car because he said it would handle much better. He said that the 360 wheels may look nice but the car would be "squirrely" at higher speeds and cornering. I like the more modern look and will switch for judging concours twice a year. Does anyone else have a comment?
Mike
Reading, PA
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Hi Mike,

I put these aftermarket wheels on mine (19") and notice no ill handling effects.

 

Opps forgot to attached.
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I would say he is mis-informed as I use the 360 wheels on my 348 spider and my car handles far better than it ever did with the stock wheels at speed and cornering.

 

You have got to be kidding?! 18" wheels with appropriate tires and he thinks the car would handle worse than stock?! Find another mechanic. I guess he would think that plugzit's car with 360CS 19' wheels and Corsa tires is inferior to stock as well...

 

Gotta agree with Jeff and Vince (regarding the handling of the car with the bigger wheel)

 

I can see both points on the wheel size.

If the road is very smooth, then a larger wheel will obviously provide more grip as it'll probably be wider and provide more tyre contact with the road.

If the road is quite rough, then a larger wheel reduces your tyre sidewall height and removes some of the flex that was assumed to be present when the car was initially designed. So fitting larger wheels will firm up the suspension to an extent. If you hit a particularly bump, there's more chance the tyre can break contact with the surface of the road, rather than have the tyre flex around the bump.

The other issue is weight. Very large wheels can be very heavy and that's a lot of unsprung weight. That said, if you're switching from something like stock 348 wheels to something like the CS wheels then I'd imagine you'll be getting a weight reduction. Does anybody know the relative weights?

While it would change with road surfaces, it seems to me that there'd be a sweet spot for any car in regards to performance and the ideal wheel size. I'm just have no idea what it is for the 348.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Wheels and tires would not cause any squirrely effects, unless they are damaged. If there are any other drive-ability symptoms, it would be a component of wheel balance, suspension and/or alignment.

The only possible concern would be tire diameter, which could slightly change your speedometer reading and if you went much larger than stock, it 'could' also potentially affect your acceleration. Other than that, the 348 looks waaay better with 360 wheels.

Check out this tire calculator to compare your stock wheels/tires to the 360 wheels/tires.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/tirecalc.php

+1 ..........

 

Can I just say how much I love Fchat?

I wanted to check the direction for my OEM 348 wheels and BAM! it's here in a thread.

David

**granted I did use google to search instead of the forum search but it brought me here

 

That's cheating!


(lol, just kidding David)

 

Agree 100%! The big ding on the 348 when it first came out was that it was unpredictable at the limits. In other words, it had too much torque and HP for the narrow rear track. Putting the 360 wheels and tires on my 348 was an enormous upgrade in handling ability. Driving sideways through corners became far more enjoyable ;-) They are also much lighter, which helps the suspension keep up with uneven pavement - also important in hard cornering.

 

I agree as well. My 348 handles better at speed with the optional modular 360 wheels.
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Those look so awesome. So glad I bought a set! The Hill Engineering wheel bots arrived yesterday ... will post pics soon!