Page 119 - Wayne Carini's Guide to Affordable Classics

THE BACKSTORY
If you’re in search of an affordable mid-engine Ferrari, there are very few options to choose from, and even then, the affordable supercar may be more of a mirage, forever receding into the distance, than an attainable goal. If we define Ferrari affordability as “available for less than $50,000” then conventional wisdom holds that the list of affordable Ferraris includes the 348 and maybe the F355, among others. The F355 has risen a bit lately, and you probably won’t find one under that arbitrary $50K price point. At least, not one that even a fool would buy. Ferrari wisdom says that to pay less, sometimes you have to pay more. It sounds better in Italian: Pagare di più per pagare di meno.
The all-new Ferrari 348
The Ferrari 348 was produced from 1989 to 1995, both in terms of calendar build dates and model years. It was introduced in the fall of 1989 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, and predictably, the automotive press thought it was the best thing they’d ever seen. But bear in mind, the automotive press looks only at brand new cars, with an army of handlers there to drop a fresh set of keys into their hands the moment something goes wrong.
When the 348 came out, it was among the last cars designed under the leadership of Enzo Ferrari, who passed away in 1988 before the model entered production. By 1991 Luca de Montezemolo came over from Fiat to take the reins at Ferrari. Montezemolo later proclaimed the 348 “the worst car that ever left Maranello.”
Ferrari 348/F355
Strictly speaking, that may not have been a fair assessment, but the 348 has lived under the cloud of low expectations ever since.
When Ferrari went to mid-mounted V8 engines with the 308 GT4 in 1973, they put the engine in the car sideways, which makes sense to maximize space and to allow a rear-wheel-drive transaxle. That basic layout was carried forward into the 308GTB/GTS, Mondial, and the 328. But when the 348 was designed, Ferrari left all that behind.
The 348 was all-new from the ground up, literally. Ferrari rotated the engine 90 degrees in the chassis but left it behind the driver, in what the Italians call longitudinale posteriore orientation. Among other things, that meant the whole chassis had to be redesigned. The new 348 had a wheelbase four inches longer than the 328, pushing the rear wheels to the back of the car and sliding the cabin forward to accommodate the engine. The new chassis platform was a steel monocoque with a removable subframe cradling the engine and driveline. The new design enabled Ferrari to move the transmission rearward and drop the engine height by five inches, dramatically lowering the car’s center of gravity.
To go with that new chassis design, Ferrari updated their V8 engine to 3.4 liters displacement (3404.7 cc). The F119D, as it
TOP: At a glance, the Ferrari 348 could be mistaken for the much more expensive Testarossa. That wasn’t an accident.
ABOVE: The most important change for the 348 was the longitudinal orientation of the V8 engine, which lowered the center of gravity.
TOP: The new design extended the 348’s wheelbase and pushed the cabin forward compared to prior models.
ABOVE: The 348 received a clean interior treatment, sporty bolstered seats, and not much else. It’s a simple cabin designed for performance.
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