1st drive in a 348....wanting more

Just buy a Porsche......

 

In my experience, the harder you drive an F-car the less clunki(er) it becomes. Or maybe the unit you tested was a misrepresentation of what a 348 should be. You have so far only driven one and that IMO is not a fair cop to say the 348 is bad. Test drive other 348s and throw in a couple of 355s as well, then maybe you can decide whether it's gonna be a Ferrari or a Porsche.

 

ive never understood why the 348's are ragged on. ive driven both a 348 and 355, both in top condition. the 355 has a smooth exact gearshift like a toyota, the clutch is as light a buggery, these things plus the power steering means your misses can drive it - and will. the 348 has a notchy gearshift that you need to be tough with, the clutch is fairly heavy and no power steering means you can feel the tyres bitting into the road and gives the car a really positive feel. its a drivers car, which is what enzo always intended. and your misses will hate it so there are considerable positives there as well. the 355 has none of this. its faster, sure, but if speed was the only criteria on which we bought cars then the only cars manufactured by anyone would be formula one cars. ive driven a few different ferraris, and overall i think the 348 is the best when you measure affordability versus performance. end of the day its all down to personal preference. 348 is a mans car. where have all the real men gone?

 

On the one hand I hear you - when I drove a 328 I wasn't blown away either. I ended up getting a 348 because at least to me the initial driving experience was more what I wanted than the 328 - 348 was quicker and I mostly liked the driving position better.

Having had the car now for a while I will tell you they do work better when you're caning them a bit - those short, straight, ram-air F1-inspired intake plenums don't really make for much low end torque but you will get your high-rev horsepower.

If you want grunt, maybe look at the Testarossa instead.

Cheers
Kevin

 

Please drive other 348's and 355's as previously mentioned.

It would not be fair to only drive one and off course the seller is telling you it's "absolutely perfect".

Maybe you can drive one that is NOT for sale and is in great shape to compare.

Yours,

Tom

 

I prefer the mechanical feel of the 348 to the novocaine induced feel of the 355.

 

When I was in the market for a 348 (last summer, before the wife got pregnant), I drove three 348s back to back: a '92, a '93 and a '94.

Each car behaved differently. The '92 was tight as a drum and solis as a rocj at speed, but dog slow getting there. The '93 was quick, but sloppy. The '94 was the best of both, and I was writing the check when the wife popped her head in the room and said "say, what do you think about 'Nathaniel' as a boy's name?"

So close, and now soooo far.

 

yeah I know what you mean in terms of torque off the line the 348 was a disappointment for me as well, coming from a Porsche 928 the car just felt weak and underpowered off the line.

But it does pick up at speed, say 80mph and up, you just gotta keep the engine at 4500 rpm and up, it feels much faster then.

On the other hand, i feel that styling and handling is unbeatable for the money... plus remember the 355 is really the exact same body as the 348 and very similar engine.

 

I owned a 1990 348ts for three years.Didn't find anything "clunky" about the car.Installed Tubi exhaust and K&N air filter.Had good response and power,and decent milage(20-22mpg) also.Now presently own a F355 Spider.More power,better ride,pwr steering,ajustable shocks,etc.

 

Buy neither. Get a TR for about the same price and have a 12 cylinder Ferrari...you can't go wrong with that. While I lover v8 Ferraris, it just doesn't make sense in my opinion to buy a 308, 328, 348 or 355 when you can buy a 12 cylinder model for about the same price. Even if you're looking at a 360, I would buy a 550 or 512M instead, again for about the same money.

 

This is an accurate statement. The 355 is too refined, and boring. The 348 is a go cart and loves to be driven hard. Yes the shifter is crappy, but you get used to it, and it becomes a plus in keeping with the raw feel of the car!

 

ive driven many cars with much more hp than my 348 . ive driven many cars that drive much more comfortably than my 348 . ive seen better interiors in a fiero too. ......

but for the money you spend on the 348 , the styling you get , the looks ,the feel of the road under your butt and through your hands ,plus the rarety, and the respect from other sportcar enthusiasts , you cant beat it !

drive a $90k porsche through downtown, see how much attention you get , then drive a 348 . (to me a $10 k porsche looks the same a s the $90k ones...and a 50k ferrari looks the same as a 200k ferrari ... to the layman at least .)

 

woops! you got your message out before me train...! i wanted to add that my 348 shifts best when you run up the rpm's and it seems to drop right into the gears , like its saying...ahhh thats it , do it to me like that.... let it warm up though ,after a few miles ...

 

I hear what you're saying - but didn't see it too negatively myself.

http://70.85.40.84/~ferrari/forum/showthread.php?t=45871

 

You may indeed have driven a "bad" 348 ts.

However, the Spider is a totally different car than the 348 ts or tb. It is a "better" car.

For the Spider, the 2.7 Motronic Injection System was updated to increase the redline from 7400 to 7700 RPMs, and power thus increased.

When I drove a Spider, I was amazed at the crispness of the engine as compared with mine. The whole power curve seemed to be better. And the sound! Oh my It even sounds a little better. I was also amazed at the smoothness of the shifting.

The Spider is a greatly improved 348. They built the car from the ground up with an emphasis on quality and improvement over the existing 348.

I'm glad to hear that you haven't given up on the 348 A 1994 348 ts or tb will probably be most like the Spider, as it would have the updated engine and all the various production improvements given to the Spider.

 

The 348 (as well as the 308 I used to own) needs a good 10-15 minutes of driving before it doesn't feel "clunky." Ferraris are cold natured beasts. They aren't at their best until everything reaches standard operating temperatures. So...make sure you drive the thing long enough to get an accurate representation.

 

Very true. If the gauges are working you should be able to see the correlation between gearbox "feel" and operating temp. The water temp will rise first long before the oil temp, but as the oil temp starts to creep up to and above the 1/4 gauge increment (about 175 degrees?) you should start to feel a noticeable easing of the gearbox.

 

I've had my 348 for about 10 months, and initially I took it very easy. The car had only 9,000 miles, and with the 'special' respect it got over my everyday car (porker), I tended to go easy on it - big mistake. These cars only come alive when you're hitting the RPM's.

When you drive a 348, you have to work it hard to get the full force of the v8. The notchy gearbox doesn't help, but as others have said, as soon as you get the car at operating temperature and you're hitting the rev band, the car just drops into gear.

I guess you can't thrash a car on a testdrive, but the only way to appreciate the performance of a 348 is to accept that the performance comes later - ie, when you own it and when you learn how to drive it.

One final point, today, a number of FOC members exhibited our cars at a local show (lots of other marques), I was amazed by the number of people young and old who were excited to have their pictures taken with there car and commented that they preferred the looks of the 348 against the 328 or 355. Just goes to show that there are many fans of the 348!

 

I agree with tommo348, and, because I owned a 348 for a few months, I can tell that it's a car that "asks" to be pushed hard. From my brief experience, i realised that the car was not suited for everyday driving. I almost had to snap the gear lever to engage 2nd when the car was cold, for example. once warmed up, and revving it all the way to red-line, the 'box was great to use, smooth and accurate.
My opinion is that you should test-drive other 348, and bear in mind that you have to be well aqcuainted with this car to get all it has to offer. You should also test-drive a 355 to see if it compensates to spend a few more $$$ on the 355 rather than buying the 348. (I can't help you there, I have never driven or even sit in a 355)

 

The cable-operated shift linkage in the 348 needs to be properly lubed and adjusted to be smooth. When set up right, it is as smooth as butter.

Birdman

 

OK, no a 348 thread exactly: my Mondial T Coupe is a very close sister to the 348 and all the comments made above about shifting, lack of low-down torque, cold heart, etc.. apply. My daily driver is a 996 and far superior in EVERY respect, and yet when I hop into the F car, well it's a bit special. Actually, it ALWAYS feels special even after 8 years of ownership. Maybe that's what it's all about > warm-hearted italian passion (warts & all) vs. cold-hearted german precision!

 

I'm going to chime in here, and I hope I don't start a huge bru-ha-ha.

But I recently drove an F355 Berlinetta 6-speed and here's what I can say:

The F355 is FAST--faster than the 348. However, the 348 feels much faster. The 348 has loads of low-end torque as compared with the 355. The 355 engine just didn't feel as peppy as my 348 engine. I really think the 348 has plenty of low-end torque in any gear--the car just goes. It's very fast off the line--faster than the 355.

The 355 felt like it had very little off the line and down low in the power range. But once the RPMs went above 4,000, the car was so fast I was scared to keep going. Thus it seems to me that Ferrari did not properly arrange the gear ratios in the 355 because that engine has plenty of power. I therefore found the overall experience of the 355 to be less exciting because of it's lack of punch.