Improvements on late 348:s ???

Your English is a hell of a lot better than my Swedish! You might find the silver less "agressive" a color. I have a red one and find I wish I could be less visually stimulating to the testosteron overloaded. Have you driven both cars? I found them quite different. Spider I drove had a magnificent gearbox, slick as could be, light clutch and low effort steering[37500 miles]. My 91 348 has a "manly" clutch, heavy steering at parking lot speeds, and I'm hoping with some more miles [currently just turned 14000 miles] that the gearbox improves, seems to be, but slowly. I'm sure you will enjoy either one.

 

Here are the improvements that were made during the 348 production:

1. 05/30/91 differential side seal—production improvement
2. 05/30/91 Bosch starter motor changed to Nippon—production improvement
3. 10/10/91 cam seal housing modification—reduced oil leakage
4. 10/10/91 double plate-clutch changed in favor of single-plate clutch—production improvement
5. 10/10/91 new alignment specs—improved handling
6. 10/10/91 improved mounting of front bonnet grill to address warpage
7. 10/10/91 front suspension shocks and springs—production improvement
8. 06/01/92 rear A-arm fix point height reduction—production improvement
9. 06/01/92 Delco Alternator changed to Nippon—production improvement
10. 08/18/92 door grills—improved strength
11. 08/24/92 oil sump tank ground strap—improved gauge operation
12. 11/03/92 front timing bearing—reduced noise
13. 08/18/93 harmonic balancer replacement—reduced weight
14. 08/20/93 clutch thrust bearing/slave—production improvement

Obviously, the Spiders will have all these improvements

Earlier cars may have had any or some (but unlikely all) of these improvements installed via service bulletins/campaigns. It all depends on whether the previous owner(s) took care of the car and whether he/they wanted to spend money to bring the car up to date.

 

...also consider whether you'll ever be taking the car for Track Days. A spider is rarely allowed beyond the "junior" run groups because of the lack of roll bar. A TB will be very stiff, and plenty safe (from the perspective of a roll) on the track.

Me? I like the TB/TS looks better, but it's a personal preference to be sure.

 

Why don't you just get a '94 tb if you're concerned about these little issues?

I must tell you, my friend -- the year of the car really doesn't matter at all.

There are people with '89 and '90 348s that have no problems whatsoever. It all depends on whether the car was driven and whether the previous owner(s) spent money to maintain the car.

Don't worry about the year; just find a good 348.

A good 348 is as good as gold... oh, but a bad 348 -- a bad 348 is a nightmare.

And yes, even a 1994 348 can be a total nightmare.

It all depends on the history. The manufacture date of a 348 is no indicator whatsoever of whether the car will be "good" or not.

 

Kimmo, I was the same as you a few months back. Was only interested in a red Ferrari, especially as it was my first.

However, I got a black one which to me looks much better and more discreet than red.

It's like women......you spend your life chasing redheads....but end up marrying a brunnette.

 

Yo Dave...
That's some nice info you got listed here...
You don't happen to have the serialnumbers as per change ?
That would be even better info for me.
I have a '93 GTB. But... it might be an improved TB.

 

Kimmo,

Silver looks great, but if you have your heart set on red then you shouldn't settle for anything different IMO. You're about to buy your first Ferrari - get the EXACT car you want.

It might take time to find, but I assure you it'll be worth it.

Angelis is right though that a red one attracts too much attention. That is the only downside of red.

And IMHO, red 348 spiders look amazing....but I am a little biased

Jas

 

Having one red sports car is flashy enough.....but two red ones....now that's a right flashy git!

 

WHAT!!! Both my cars are red???? Damn, that salesman really got one over on me! I really must get my colour blindness sorted out


Still, could be worse, I might have been sold one in that special shade of Chaa-Pink

 

That's a great list, but off the top of my head it's missing the change in final drive ratio, the stainless steel fuel line change, the major change to the Spider one-can exhaust from the old 2-can muffler, the change from the Motronic 2.5 to Motronic 2.7 ECUs, the increase in redline to 7700 RPMs, the battery location switch from the rear bonnet to beneath the front bonnet, larger intake plenums, wider wheel offsets, exhaust cam pulley setting re-indexed, and the front bonnet A/C fuse switch from blade to inline bullet.

 

The 348 Spider got a better exhaust, a raised redline to 7700 RPM, and a higher final drive ratio. It weighs in at a mere 3252 pounds, too.

For the U.S., that means 310hp (312hp for those made after 8/18/93 due to the lighter harmonic balancer). For Europe, the 348 Spider also got the GTS intake plenums (which are slightly larger than U.S. versions) and the exhaust cam pulley is indexed slightly more aggressively. That's good for 320hp.

U.S. 348's can change our timing belt to the Euro version and re-index to the Euro exhaust cam pulley setting (same pulley for all 348's so it's made for this already), bumping us up close to 320hp even without the larger GTS intake plenums.

 

Thanks.

Nope, don't have the serial #s.

 

You are correct on all those things... I actually just copied and pasted that list from a Word Document that I had composed many moons ago...

I didn't even think about those other things. Nice work

 

Thanks. You too.

And after giving it some thought, the mad mouse seatbelt motors got an upgrade for the 94-95 Spiders, also (or at least, they got a post-production upgrade circa 1999 as a factory recall enhancement).