Definitely too wide in the tail with those tires, but it looks like you got a great car. Be sure to post pics of your belt change as well... What, you don't like our Jeep Cherokee wheels??? LOL
Look's like a little ride height adjustment and you'll be fine Dave. I have the same size tires as you do, we'll see what they look like in a few weeks when I put them on. Looks like I will be adjusting my height as well. Dave did they bolt right on or did you need different size bolts? Roberto (Night Life) what size are your tires? Cheers!
The tires are 275-40-18 on the rear and 215-45-18 on the front. I think a 265-35-18 on the rear would be best. The fronts are good as is. The wheels did just bolt right on, however, the bolts do extend a little more (about 1/8") into the hub. If you machine the wheels off a little - which I may do in the future - you will have to either cut the threads a little farther back on the existing bolts and cut them off a little or get new bolts. I probably won't change the tires for now as they have a lot of tread on them - maybe in a few months after my wife has got over all the cash I dropped on this thing so far. I am afraid to lower it just yet because of potential tire to fender action - it looks like the 275s might hit the top edge of the fender if you fully articulated the suspension. As for the service question, the last service was ~15,000 miles ago - but ~7 years ago too. I really don't know much about the timing belt life on these things, so I'm not going to chance it much longer and go ahead and change the thing - and the tensioners too if they appear to be rough at all. Ferrari of Greensboro NC stated they rarely have to change the tensioners, that they check them and if they are OK they just change the belt. My car is right at the 30,000 mile mark, and from the records doesn't look to have had the valves adjusted. Do any of you know whether that should be done now?
Ping darkangel on fchat. he has the 360 wheels on his spyder and it looks hot. Your tires just don't work. He may have the right combo of tires and lowering and can give you tips. Also, big tires and you may have dinged the ride height and chassis rake and now your handling will be wonky. I know 360 wheels can look good on the 348/55
Just my opinion ... about your major, please do it immediately, 7 years is an awful long time, way too long and when you change the belt, also change the tensioners as well as the water pump, no matter what your adviser says, if something happens after wards, I am sure the bill would be yours and yours only, nobody else. I have heard horror stories over and over. Remember that belt slipping is often due to bad tensioners.
The rear tires are NOT the problem. I've said it before and I'll say it again. To properly fit 360 REAR wheels you MUST machine the REAR wheel backside hub face to correct the offset. Then buy shorter bolts. Bolting rears on without correcting the offest; Looks horrible Handles terrible will hit the quarter panel lip if your breathe wrong putting smaller tires on will NOT fix the problem, keep the 275/40's. Machine the wheel backspace, I did mine, I'll do yours... Then setup a 25mm lower ride height, corner balanced with scales ofcourse, correct the excessive rear camber and enjoy the ride, even tire wear and compliments. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Love your car. A blue GTB....I want. Paint looks awesome. Everyone: go check out the pics at that link You've got a lot of camber going on in the rear. Alignment specs?
Question for group77, how much did you machine off the backspace on your rear wheels? Did you set them up and mill them off or use a lathe? What reference points (contact points to the mill table) did you use if you milled them off? I have both in our machine shop but we don't have a lathe with a bed big enough to mount the wheel on. I will probably mill them down next week, but I am looking for a good dimension to mill off. Also, where did you get the 355 front bumper? Dave
It appears guys cut wheels to narrow and widen and those wheels are safe. But milling the inside hub area? What does that do to structural integrity? I have no idea. I suspect that this could be an issue. Some smart guy would have to calculate the forces and their directions on a wheel hub. OR group77 is this a known type of milling routinely done say in the hotrod world? In racing we are so careful about hubs. In fact wheels for us are disposable because after too many cycles we see hub cracks and eventual failures in not only hubs but inner and outer barrels.
Milling is pretty common with aftermarket wheels, such as HREs. The 360 rims have a lot of meat (over an inch) between the bolt heat chamfer area and the actual hub area where the wheel contacts the brake rotor. The wheel hub area for the 360 is greater because of the brake rotor and caliper offset. The 360 wheels are a mile from the calipers on the 348, so no issues there, as far as strength the distance from the hub to the connection pont (bolt contact) is better the closer you get until you get the bolt camp area too thin, which would be about 1/5 to 5/8" for aluminum on a 18" wheel with ~26" overall wheel diameter. If you think about what the force on the 5 spokes would be if you extended the hub inward (away from the bolt heads), say 2 feet for this example, the hub would put a huge bending force on the spokes of the wheel, so moving it closer to the contact point reduces that force. Yes, I happen to be a mechanical engineer (GO HOKIES) that's Virgina Tech for those who don't know what a Hokie is! The inner lip of the fender actually touched the outer edge of one of the rear tires this morning when I hit a bump, so I am definately going to do something about these wheels next week. No damage, but it would probably cut a tire down over time. Dave
Dave and group77, remember to post up what you ultimately milled off for other Fchater's doing the 360 wheel mod in the future to 348/355.
Group77 has already posted his data here: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=139189146&postcount=74
