1990 Ferrari 348 tb | Retro Review

Outstanding! I love period videos.

Motorweek tests have always been pretty decent but I always cringe when they show the guy testing out the seating and steering positions. It always looks so rough and ham-fisted.

As for the car I am not an expert on 348's but two things stood out to me on this car:

1. There appears to be a black sealant line on the rear buttress where it meets the quarter. I can't ever remember seeing this on a 348 and on the test car the line even curls around the back to meet the engine lid.

2. The test car has an antenna sticking out of the center of the roof just above the rear glass. Again I can't remember seeing this before.

 

1. interesting!
2. I think Ernie has an antenna. I have the wiring for an antenna in the headliner, but the hole was never punched.

sjd

 

Yes, my car has the antenna on the roof.

 

I’ve seen many that do have that Fuba Betaflex antenna. My car has an old cell phone antenna in this spot....I’ll be installing a Fuba eventually.

 

I think early cars had the antenna, mine does, and it's '91.

 

I have an '89ts, and mine doesn't. (TS vs. TB thing?). It IS, however, wired for it.

 

I noticed the black seam running along the buttress too, may be an attempted to hide the inevitable cracking along that panel join.

I felt sorry for the seat bolster the way he jumped in to it!

 

Oh, mines a ts and does, UK car, strange.

 

Could it be a delivered with radio/radio delete option box? or were all radios installed at the dealer? maybe the dealer had a template to drill.

sjd

 

Great review. The birds chirping loudly during the interior review was funny. And they mentioned "sensual appeal" more than once.

 

The roof antenna is in the parts book.


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On page 85 and 86 of Keith Bluemel's book Original Ferrari V8 it shows photos of a ts Serie Speciale with the roof antenna as well.

 

The black around the buttress is tape and I have seen it on a number of early cars. It is similar to the tape in the mid body seem. I have an early car and it has it.

 

I think they put it there to make the line from the bumpers, to the door grates line "flow" the length of the car. I think its dumb.

 

Ernie's car has a very rare Ferrari option you guys don't have. Ernie's car is worth more than all you guys cars. Sucks to be you.

 

Look at 1:28 in the video. Did you guys notice the black RTV stuff at the butress to fender? That's the area that many painted 348s and 355s later get a crack there. The 1st Ferraris appear to never have been fully welded there and painted. Later years were painted but cracked. What does the braintrust know about that junction?

 

Early cars don't have blacked out scuttle under the front screen too. Windscreen wiper area. Same with under the front trunk carpet. So many little changes over the years. Thanks for the video.

 

Like mentioned above, many small running changes. Another item confirmed in the vid at 2:05 is the lack of a build "sequence" plate on the left rear shock tower area. Not sure when they started adding that but my July '89 build doesn't have it either. It does have a body number stamped into the vertical lip on the rear side of the tower though. I do though have the blackout under the wiper area. Fun to see the running changes. One other thing I picked up on was the statement that Ferrari told them the manual belts were a short term thing and the mouse belts were coming.