beautifully engineered

The Ferrari 348 is Beautifully Engineered

This was the first Ferrari I ever watched go around a race track. Consequently, it’s the only Ferrari I actually want, and for $35k used, they’re a bargain.

After a very successful history of more than fourteen years, the 308/328 series was finally replaced in 1989. And even if on the exterior there weren’t many significant changes the big changes on the new 348 models was made under the hood. The 348 series remained into production between 1989 and ’95, and it was built in berlinetta, targa and spider body styles, with a few special editions being offered: the US-market only Serie Speciale and the GT Competizione.

The 348 series was produced in order to allow Michelotto-prepared cars into the GT3 class of international endurance racing. IN its five years time existence it turned out to be a very successful model: firstly it experienced some notable success against Porsche’s mighty 911 RSR’s, but it also became the most commercially successful models in Ferrari’s history with over 9000 units sold.

Like with most of the Ferrari models, the body was designed by Pininfarina, and bore a strong family resemblance to the Testarossa model, but on a smaller scale. The similarities are particularly noticeable in the horizontally straked air inlets in the door ducts to the side mounted radiators, and the rear light treatment, where the lenses are hidden behind a full width matte black slatted grille. The front “radiator grille” was a dummy inset satin black egg crate pattern unit, to provide the traditional Ferrari face. The alloy wheels maintained the traditional Ferrari five spoke design, with five bolt fixing, but with an aerodynamic spoke profile unique to this series of models.

The 348 was the first series production Ferrari not to have a separate tubular steel chassis frame. Instead it used a pressed steel chassis, with a separate tubular steel engine sub-frame bolted to it, with the body panels robot welded, and bolted, to the main structure.

The car’s heart was a 3.4 liter V8 unit with a bore and stroke of 85mm x 75mm, with spark plugs between the camshafts, fitted with a Bosch Motronic M2.5 combined fuel injection and ignition system, which was upgraded to the M2.7 version during the production run. At the rear of the mid mounted engine was a transverse five speed plus reverse all synchromesh gearbox and transaxle unit.

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Source: topspeed.com