I drove my red 90 348 TS yesterday 60 deg and not a cloud in the sky...Wow wow wohoooo!…In love of my 348...The sound and feel is NERVANA... I’ve driven and own numerous old/modern Porsches and Ferraris and God is my witness, the 348 experience is breathtaking.
I am very happy and very proud to own the worst Ferrari ever made. I have no intention to ever sell it, I will add more Ferraris to the collection if I ever want to get a different model, but the worst Ferrari ever made will stay with me forever.
You might mention that future CEO's of Ferrari may discredit cars developed under LdM's watch so it is best not to throw stones, eh? For starters, I think the 456 was a piece of junk as indicated by its resale value. The 550, while I like it, is in the same camp. The 612 will follow suit in that it is a car no one really wants built for Ferraristi that don't really exist. At some point someone is going to be critical of the 360 once the real maintenance issues come to light. Complex mechnical and electronic systems in an exotic can only spell problems later in the ownship cycle. Simple and efficient is better. If he wants to pick on some other Ferrari's in the interest of fair play, I'd be glad to help out: 365 humpback - what were they thinking?! 246 Dino - come on the factory totally lucked out that it became a fan favorite when they wouldn't even acknowledge it was a Ferrari! 308i 2V's - brilliant performance! Not! 308GT4 - I like these, but no one else does. Mondial - the whole line, but really the Valeo OMG who designed that?! And lest we forget the 400 series which is, after all, very forgetable. Eventually no one will remember LdM's comments about the 348. In fact I've forgotten the idiot's rant already so Im going for a drive in my piece of junk exotic.
Luca Di Montezemolo was a Yuppie and in his early life was involved with the Ferrari racing F1 Team. That gave him the knowledge arrogance he thinks he has. I am Italian and I lived 3/4 of my life a few miles away from Maranello. Many of my close friends proudly work in the Ferrari factory, I heard comments about Luca's arrogance many times and the majority were not positive. Trashing the 348 in the way he did and continue doing it, even now, is unexplainable. The car does have short coming but it is absolutely NOT " macchina di merda ". Yes, it could have been engineered better but this was back then. Now, many of the down faults of this car have been improved and overall it's a marvelous piece of engineering . Lovely " noisy engine ", I personally love the car and the feeling of it. I know the rest of the brotherhood feels the same, many of the improvements of our beloved 348 came from all of you and I learned many things about the car from all of you. Thank you all and long life to the 348 brotherhood !!!! Luca is a very smart and nice guy but he should measure his thoughts, specially when there are no needs for it. He is hurting all of us :-(
I think my point might have been poorly explained and was evidently poorly received. What I was trying to get at was that if Ferrari sets the dangerous precedent for trashing it's cars of yesterday to get a laugh and sell its cars of today, then prospective buyers of new Ferraris might worry that this is a strategy the company might return to in the future to sell the cars of tomorrow. If I was buying a new-build dream car to keep long-term and one company was talking about its previous product like LdM did, I might think twice about buying from that company. Even if LdM doesn't particularly feel like retracting his comments, perhaps the Board of Directors should 'advise' him to for business reasons. I think many of the cars developed under LdM's leadership have been very good and wouldn't consider it fair for a future CEO to deplore those either, so it was not my intention for my comments to come across as derogatory towards these models. All the best, Andrew.
In 15 years we will realize that the 348 will be the last ferrari that you will be able to fix with no help from ferrari. The brotherhood has been able to fix every single issue. The 348 today is very different from the 348 from the factory. If I had a choice between a pristine 10k mile 348 with original belts vs a driven 348 with 80k miles all sorted I'd take the latter. When these cars left the factory they were state of the art but poorly executed. Today most are well sorted. Gearbox issues are not an issue. The motor is bulletproof. The chassis has aged well and all electronics can be worked around including the ECU. No other Ferrari can claim that and be of the modern era with 26MPG on the highway, a top speed north of 160mph, a club racing heritage, and an engine that burns so clean you don't smell yourself if the top is off and the wind blows the wrong way.
He also mentioned in the clip, that he was at a stoplight in rome and raced a guy with a VW GTI and was beaten the first 50 meters....... Ouch!!!!!
He's really trying to say look how far our cars have come since i took over. A little more tact and he could have said it without bashing a great car.
So, Luca, was it a VW GTI or Fiat-Abarth that beat you from the stoplight? Checking the figures for 1990 models, the 348 does 0-60 in 5.6 seconds, and the VW GTI does 0-60 in 8.5 seconds. I think you were checking your hair in the mirror when the light turned green.
I am Italian, Montezemolo is also Italian. He said something he should not say. He is a man of s h i t ! In Italy there is controversy about him. Many Italians are hoping that Ferrari dismiss him
Lol! Such a nice way to say it. What controversy surrounds that man?? Surely something A LOT more contoversial than his latest 348 'bashing'? (P.S-I just edited my post for you brancati66. )
Many controversy: 1) This sentence on the 348 who said; 2) The poor results in F1 in 2009 3) Sales of Ferrari cars are declining as standard (before it had never happened). 4) He's always in the middle of everything: Then he is rumored to want to go into politics, but many say that is not capable. I say more?
Oh, you should have just said the "usual controversy" that surrounds this fool! Im sure he can and WILL go into politics one day. He's got a big mouth and I am sure he will fit right in there with those other politicians!
He has been saying this since he took over Ferrari in the early 1990s. What about 1966-1973, 1986-1988 and 1991-1996? Has happened before penty of times, typically when the world economy is in a poor state. I cannot comment on that, you would have a better understanding than me.
