I would like to correct myself. I just spoke to my buddy who was involved with all this 348 business back at Ferrari North America. This information comes directly from the man who designed the Speciale logo and who was responsible for converting the cars. The Speciale had a widened rear track because the 348 wheels were upgraded to have a greater offset. So the Speciale and the Spider have the upgraded wheels. The Challenge car came with the old-style 348 wheels (without the widened offset). The idea was that the customer would purchase the 18" speedline wheels, which came in an incentive package. These Challenge wheels had the wider offset. The Speciale gearboxes were all converted at Ferrari North America. So the Speciale has the same gearbox and gearing as the Spider. They shortened the lower gears for quicker acceleration while lengthening fifth gear for higher top speed. The Challenge car has the old style gearbox. The philosophy was not only that Ferrari would save money by not changing these as well but also that race guys were changing their gear ratios anyway. I should note that the gearbox is a pretty simple swap; so whoever wants to spend the money to convert a 348 gearbox up to the new style or back to the old style can do it. By the way: those 348 articles at the cited web site and also at qv500, as with any editorials, should be taken with a grain of salt. That it has been stated, the Challenge car is the "cream of the crop, with the Speciale preferred next" is of course a matter of opinion. It is not gospel and not necessarily a truth.
http://www.sportauto.cc/inventory_ferrari/1994_348_Challenge/index.htm[/QUOTE] Recently saw this car in person - as a 348 Spider owner who spent alot of time looking for a "good " car, I can honestly say this Challenge car is as nice as I have seen in a while. No affiliation but you can do a search on Sportauto here and read others comments. Just a nice car, in my opinion.
Definitely good advice on keeping money in reserve, but at this point I don't think there's much price difference between a 328 and 348. 'Recent', 'best' and 'affordable' are thrown around a lot. As a (biased) 328 owner, I think it has some qualities as the last 'pre robot-assembled' Ferrari and also the benefit of a decade of debugging the 308 design. If I had endless money to spend on Ferraris, I would be looking at cars older than the 308/328, not newer. Unless you're buying a late 360 or F430, you're buying an old car. I'd say figure out which you like the best, and then search for a good example. As long as you like red/tan, nice driver-level 328s come up often at Motorcars Int'l, Sport Auto and other places. If you want a show-level car, or want something other than red, you'll wait longer and pay more, or do what I did and restore it. +1
It isn't hard to obtain a Ferrari. It's maintaining a Ferrari that is the hard part. I don't car what model you get, just understand that it isn't gonna be cheap. The reason is the "Ferrari tax". It's the mark up that gets put on parts going into a Ferrari, and onto the labor rate, ONLY because of the name. However, if you are willing to do you own work, it does get much cheaper. Definitely have a look at www.club348.com. Do your homework, and MAKE SURE you get PROOF of work done in writing. If they cannot provide the proof in writing, then consider it having never been done. As for the 348 going up in value, forget it. It's gonna be a looong time before that happens. Like Plugzit said, get it and drive it. If it breaks, fix it and drive it some more. Are you buying the car for YOU to enjoy, or the next guy? I bought MY 348 for ME to enjoy. So I could give a rats ass what the resale value will be because of the milage I have, and will, put on it. All those miles = lots of enjoyment. What ever car you decide on be sure to have a pre-purchase inspection done on the car before you buy it.
There is a lot of misinformation on the challenge cars, because they were not really disclosed by Ferrari as challenge cars when imported. There are not consistent info on what they acually came from the factory with. The SS does have wider track due to more (or less) offset on the rear wheel. I was not awere this was used on the spider. The reason the SS had wider rear track was to help with the handling. The '94 challenge had solid bushings and stiffer spring, so the wider wheel was not needed to help with handling. The original '94 challenge race cars ran on stock 17 in. aluminum rims. The 18 in speedline were not available until the '95 season and only available for the race series. They were not intended to be used on the street. In fact they have a disclaimer sticker on the inner rim that say "off road use only". As far as the gear box goes, the info i have is the '94 challenge used the same gear ratio as the SS. The challenge series allowed ratio supplied by Ferrrari. So there were few options and not many in the original series for swapping gear ratios. I am not advocating any car is better than the other. They both are great cars. The SS has special seats, and front air dam. The challenge has stiffer suspension and better handling on the track. Same engine and gear box. Same hp rating, same street exhaust, same 0-60 times. Although there have been claims the '94 challenge came with hotter ECU, I have not been able to confirm that on any official publication.
Send me your ECU chip (easy to remove from the box, I have a pictorial online if needed) and I'll tell you on the same day if there was any difference in ECUs. I also have a good reputation for mailing chips immediately (same day) back to their owners (e.g. Plugzit, Spider348, etc.).
Steve, I have a Spider priced for quick sale if interested. Excellent condition. Wide rear track thanks to some lightweight Speedline rims. Rosso Corsa.
Great advice--thank you! Right now there seem to be several decent 348s on the market and very few nice 328s. The few nice 328s I have found have either sold, or the asking price is $50-60K+ which seems like WAY too much money for that car (with possible exception of the 89s).
Vince's priority list of 348 models: 1. GT Competizione - Euro car that out-serie speciale's the US SS model. Get one and Federalize it! 2. Competizione LM - race car and only for the track, not really usable so it's the 2nd choice. 3. Unraced Challenge car, the real one. 4. SS version I 1992 and 1993, 100 cars. 5. SS version II 1994, 15 cars. 6. Raced, but not abused Challenge car, converted for street use. 7. Any good 348 Spider due to numbers made 8a. Any good 348tb due to numbers made and more sporting perception 8b. Any good 348ts last on this list but certainly not to be slighted
1+. I would add: 2.5. an unraced '94 challenge car with the original challenge kit! I think I would want the Comp LM as #1.
