How to keep control of the 348 in a spin?

One thing that does make a difference is the rear lower inner wishbone mounts.

Have a look under your 348 and I bet lower wish bone mounts are in line with the shackle mounting bolt.

On the last of the 348's and the 355's they shifted the mounting point up about 20mm so raising the roll center and decresing the amount of back off over steer.

see for the 2 types:
http://www.eurospares.co.uk/partTable.asp?M=1&Mo=433&A=1&B=23682&S=

If you can get a set of these from a 355 I know you will feel a difference.

 

Great video and advise. Thanks! I will practise that in my next track event.

 

Get the rear spacers used on the late 348's for a start but my money is there was either ice, oil or water on the road, if not I'm betting your driving lines into corners SUCK !!!!

Watch the video of the 355 on the track, watch how he stays out wide and comes in on the corners and feathers the throttle. Learn from it and you wont spin again.

Watch the bad driver in the 348 spin because he had no idea how to drive. I spoke to him about it years ago and and he blamed cold tires and off camber.. pffft, you cant argue with someone that didnt know how to drive and thought he could.

If you look at the 1 second mark he's already coming in and not staying wide for the corner. At 4 seconds he's already spinning before he even gets to the corner. At 5 seconds he has the slide under control.... Rather than feather the throttle and control the slide and straighten the car, he leaves the steering with too much right hand lock and gives the car full power. (listen to the engine in the video) Learn from his stupidity.

Steer lightly with the slide and back off the power until the car starts to grip then feather the throttle and use light steering to straighten the car back under control.

Spinning isnt necessary, learn to stay wide, come in and feed on the power, not nail it.

 

I would suggest a lack of experience instead.

 

All of these great 'hints' are fabulous, but without instruction and experience none of them will make sense to an inexperienced driver. They are just words.

The 348 is a Ferrari in the classic tradition; they reward skill and smoothness and spit out poseurs.

Taken in that light, the 348 will actually teach you how to be a better driver, as apposed to a car that does everything for you. Taming some of the 348s character entails some very simple mods, but will not cover up the car's inherent characteristics.

My first new car was a Fiat X 1/9. I think that the fact that that car had around 70hp was a good thing. I was able to master the mid engined balance in a car that was not fast enough to be intimidating. That, along with driver's schools made enjoying what I have now, just that much better.

One of the problems we have now, is that anyone with a few bucks can get into a 300, 400, 500+hp car and scare themselves silly, because they don't have the skills or experience to exploit it properly.

 

I would have said that too if I didnt talk to the driver not long after the posting of that video and he told me how experienced he was and what a great driver he was.

 

Ditto.

Clutch in, brakes on,keep hands free of streering wheel so you don't break your fingers, brace yourself and wish yourself luck.

 

Before you spin opposite lock will help keep the tail from going fully around but on the road you should never spin. If you do you're driving too fast. On a track with runoff it's one thing but on the street it can end VERY badly.

Note opposite lock.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Racing in a pack is different to the road or an open race track without competitors all around you. You have to try and save it on the road as you dont have run offs and sand traps but you have trees, poles and houses.

For those people that think driving a 355 will help over driving a 348 heres a video of the same guy from the 348 in a 355 showing that he didnt learn from that spin. Here he is once again sticking to the middle of the track, not going wide and driving through the corner. This time understeering and pushing the front end into an embankment. The car travelled in the exact line you would expect it to for the line he chose and at the speed he was travelling. If he chose an outside line, backed off late and came back across the corner he would have driven on through.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk68H4wBxsQ[/ame]

 

Yep he continued to brake and the front simply went straight ahead, perhaps had he continued to accelerate he may have succeeded in bringing the front round by changing from understeer to oversteer but hindsight is always great

 

As a former instructor for the SCCA, I think everyone has summed it up about the drop throttle oversteer issue. A 348 is most stable when the throttle is applied - take your foot off the gas in the corner and she's gonna come around.

Another option for practice is to try iRacing. The accuracy of the physics model is stunning and if you can learn to drive a Skippy car around Leguna Seca without spinning, you'll have your issue worked out.