To me, the biggest disadvantage of modern cars is that they make it too easy to drive. The clutch is light, the shifting is easy, the brakes are extremely powerrful, etc.
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An older Ferrari like an older Porsche is not like that. These require the driver to know what they are doing. I think the best drivers must be those that mastered a wild 930 Porsche.
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Therefore, I recommend you all try older cars - you will quickly forget about stupid meaningless 0-60 data and actually enjoy the lost of art of driving for driving's sake. Old cars have soul!
Nothing to add to this! Old school rulez!
Originally Posted by sameerrao
Conclusion
Buy one!
Thank you Sameer for taking your time and writing this all up for us - horny carnuts drooling all over when see/hear a nice car
I am curious to read the driving impressions you will have in the next few months
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"...free your mind and the body will follow..." - THE MATRIX
7 month update ... I re-posted my thoughts here ... it is more appopriate in the review section than the What you own...
I have now owned Sophia for nearly seven months. We have both covered 4,000 fun filled miles so far. Probably more than most owners put in their cars in a year and half.
I have taken her on long cross-country journeys, a track day event, rain (Yes, Ferraris do not melt in the rain) and more fun stuff. I feel I have gotten a better idea on how to drive the car. Still learning to be smooth and fast though - fun challenge in a true driver's car . The handling is still amazing - in terms of feel if not ultimate grip. The brakes are strong and well capable of arresting speeds. All-round visibility is great. there is nothing I can think as a negative that would prevent me from recommending it to others.
All thru this she has been an absolute trooper - starting on the key and getting on with the program. The music from the rear always sounds good. FYI, I have the Spider exhaust in my car which is lighter than the normal one and is a bit less restrictive. It sounds pretty good IMO - I am not in a terrible hurry to upgrade the cats and exhaust. Need to save the $$$$ now.
So far the upgrade/maintenance/repair expenses have been:
- $2 for some glue to re-stick the interior rear view mirror that loosened up.
- ~$250 for oil change (11 quarts of Redline 5W40 and 5 quarts of Redline 75-90NS gearbox oil)
- New aluminium (note not aluminum as the folks here seem to think ) pedals - cost $free - gift from bro
- lots of 93 octane gas - not tracking fuel mileage - really pointless - this is supposed to be a fun car.
- $20 for a battery tender - well worth its weight in Au
- ~$500 for a set of 4 tires - good to go for another 10K miles I believe
I need to refresh the a/c refrigerant - its needed now.
Some recent pics
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"Tazio Nuvolari - The greatest driver of the past, the present and the future" - Ferdinand Porsche
10 month update (think of it like a belated 9 month update) ...
Miles done on the car since I bought it: ~4950 miles with approximately 1000 miles since the last update. Too much travel in the last three months has reduced my weekly running of the car.
Maintenance expenditure since last update:
1. Replaced engine trunk struts that holds the trunk lid up. It had lost its mojo and as a result the lid refused to stay up. Replacement was a dirt cheap but bloody pain in the butt. Parts cost about $60 but as the strut is located near the center of the car, you need to massively lean over and stretch across to work on it. Kept getting cramps while doing it. Also, some moron before me loctited one of the nuts holding the right strut up - $%$#%$#% - lot of effort to get the damn thing off.
2. Replaced the a/c refrigerant - cost $85. Looks like I have a small leak somewhere which is slowly draining the refrigerant. Its cheaper to replace the refrigerant annually than take the car apart to figure out where the problem lies. I will tackle it during the major service in a few year's time.
Other than that, the car seems to be running fine. No major issues. Wish I could drive it more often.
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"Tazio Nuvolari - The greatest driver of the past, the present and the future" - Ferdinand Porsche
Thanks sameerrao for the cars information since the only thing that I knew already was just the technical characteristics (some basic stuff), and an article that I read in an spanish relevant magazine when it was tested
On the other hand, a 348 is a bargain in europe because, as far as i know, the model is deppreciated compared to its antecessor and it predecessor (the 308, the 328, the 355, and so on) and I guess that everything is because of the shape.
Well ... 12 months are up. No new maintenance expenditures since the 9 month report above. The car has been reliable.
In the last 3 months, I have taken it to the track once for a track day experience. I am now a lot more familiar with the car and was enjoying driving it on the track. I did notice that the Kumho tires gripped decently for about 5 laps and then the performance went away. So I did about 5-6 laps and came into the pits and relaxed for 5 minutes and then repeated the lapping. Also I found that after 12-15 minutes on the track my concentration would go away or I would try to get ambitious and make some mistakes in corner entry So I guess I have to improve on that aspect as well. Its amazing that race car drivers can focus for so long in racing conditions w/o mistakes.
Life has been good to me and the 348
The mileage tally for the full year is 5820 miles. Quite a lot isn't it.
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"Tazio Nuvolari - The greatest driver of the past, the present and the future" - Ferdinand Porsche