348 (TB/TS, GTB/GTS, Spider)

After Enzo

The 348 was shown at the Frankfurt Salon in September 1989 as the successor to the 328 GTB and GTS, the first completely new model announced by the company after Enzo Ferrari's death in August 1988. Ferrari describes it as the last mid-engined V8 developed under his direction, and the name follows the convention of the period: 3.4 litres, eight cylinders. The body was styled at Pininfarina under Leonardo Fioravanti and combined the horizontal side strakes of the Testarossa with a shorter, wedgier profile than the 328. The tb berlinetta and ts targa were offered from the start.

A New Architecture

Every mid-engined V8 Ferrari from the 1973 Dino 308 GT4 to the 328 had carried its engine transversely. The 348 turned the enlarged 3,405 cc Tipo F119 V8 to sit longitudinally, with a five-speed transverse gearbox in unit with the differential behind it, for a lower engine position and centre of gravity. The structure changed too: a pressed steel semi-monocoque with robot-welded panels and a separate tubular sub-frame for the engine and transaxle, which Ferrari records as its first departure from the tubular chassis on a production model. The wheelbase grew by 110 mm to 2,450 mm. The engine was quoted at 300 bhp at 7,200 rpm on Bosch Motronic M2.5, with the M2.7 system arriving from chassis 84606 in late 1990.

An Uncomfortable Reception

The press was not kind. Motor Trend found that its roughly six-second 0-60 time could be bettered by cheaper cars, and Car and Driver ran a 348 tb against a GMC Syclone pick-up and reported that the truck won. British testers, Andrew Frankel among them, described a chassis that would recover a small slide but not a larger one, and a gearchange as poor as any road Ferrari's. Owners met cam-drive tensioner wear, failing Delco alternators, Motronic M2.5 faults and climate-control electronics that the factory addressed through a stream of running updates. Luca di Montezemolo is widely quoted dismissing the car in blunt terms after it was out-accelerated by a Golf GTI, and the Honda NSX had by then shown what a mid-engined car could be. Ferrari reworked the suspension hardware and settings for 1992 and moved the battery to the front late that year.

Serie Speciale, GTB, GTS and Spider

The reply to the criticism came in stages. For the United States, 100 Serie Speciale cars were built across late 1992 and early 1993 with a free-flow exhaust quoted at 312 bhp, a 50 mm wider rear track, a shorter final drive and Kevlar-shelled seats taken from the US-specification F40. In February 1993 the 348 Spider appeared, Ferrari's first full convertible mid-engined V8 and, by Forza's reckoning, the first true convertible in the range for more than twenty years, with strengthened door gussets and hinges to make up for the missing roof. In October 1993 the tb and ts became the GTB and GTS: the Tipo F119 H engine with compression raised to 10.8:1 and 320 bhp, a wider rear track, revised geometry and a body-colour engine cover. They lasted barely into 1994 before the F355 replaced them, which is why their runs are so small and so variously counted; the Spider continued into early 1995.

The Challenge and the Competizione

The Ferrari Challenge began in 1993 as an Italian and European championship using 348s fitted with a factory kit: a 320 bhp engine, different exhaust, slick tyres, modified brakes, dynamic air intakes, a roll cage, six-point harness, fire extinguisher and circuit breaker. The 348 Challenge ran until 1995, when the F355 Challenge took over. Alongside it Ferrari built the 348 GT Competizione on the GTB platform for GT racing homologation: 50 cars, eight right-hand drive, stripped of air conditioning and carpets to 1,180 kg, with F40 Evoluzione-derived brakes without ABS, rose-jointed suspension, 18-inch wheels and a racing clutch. It was the most focused 348 and remains the most valuable. The 348 then spent two decades as the cheap way into a mid-engined Ferrari, priced below both the 328 and the F355; that position was earned by its early reputation rather than by the later cars, which were better built, better sorted and, in the Spider's case, the best of the series.

Early Tipo F119 engines could suffer extensive wear of the cam-drive chain tensioner in the lower drive system and failure of the inner support bearing for the jackshaft; this was addressed by factory updates, and later engines are described as very strong with little likelihood of a rebuild under 50,000 miles. The belt service is engine-out and forms the major service Forza puts at three-year intervals. Oil leaks from cam covers and engine seals are routine. The Bosch Motronic M2.5 fitted to cars before chassis 84606 gave trouble and was superseded by M2.7. Early Delco alternators failed regularly and were replaced with Nippondenso units. The gearbox is the 348's weakest mechanical area: second gear is hard to select cold, the second-gear synchromesh wears, transfer gears become noisy, and a rebuild is quoted at around 4,000 pounds. Clutches are short-lived, sometimes 10,000 to 15,000 miles, and the later multi-plate unit costs roughly twice the early single-plate to replace. The spring platforms that locate the coil springs can crack and let the springs drop. The electronic climate-control ECU fails and is no longer available; the switchgear's rubberised coating degrades into a sticky finish. Wiring and connector faults affect the air conditioning. The body is all steel and generally corrosion-resistant, but wheel arches, sills, door bottoms and door cavities rust on cars stored outside. Missing or damaged undertrays are a sign of careless ownership.

The single most useful thing a 348 can have is a service file from a marque specialist showing that the factory's running updates were applied, because Ferrari issued a great many of them and the cars that received them are different cars from those that did not. The cam-drive chain tensioner and its inner support bearing on early engines are the first thing to look for in that file; a later engine, or an early one with documented tensioner work, is the difference between a strong unit and one facing an engine-out rebuild. Confirm the belt service is current: two years on early cars, extended to three years or 24,000 miles on later ones, and always an engine-out job on this model because the sub-frame comes away with the powertrain. Establish which Motronic system the car has; M2.7 arrived from chassis 84606 in late 1990 and the earlier M2.5 is the one with the reputation. Check the year against the specification claimed: 1992-on suspension revisions, GTB/GTS engine cover and 320 bhp engine, Serie Speciale seats and exhaust, Spider door reinforcements. Drive it from cold and try second gear, which baulks until the transaxle oil warms; a noisy gearbox points to worn transfer gears. Check the clutch for slip, and ask how many it has had, since 10,000 to 15,000 miles is a common life and a car with several changes has been driven hard. Look at the spring platforms for cracking, the cam covers for oil leaks, the undertrays for presence and damage, and the wheel arches and door bottoms for corrosion on an otherwise rust-resistant shell. Test the electronic climate control, since replacement ECUs are unavailable and repair means soldering. The sticky rubberised switchgear is universal rather than a fault of one car. Low mileage is not the virtue it is on an F40: several guides note that regularly used 348s are the more reliable ones.

As of September 2026, classic.com's Ferrari 348 market benchmark stands at approximately $86,734 across the series, with sub-model benchmarks of $85,726 for the tb (average sale $73,315, trending up), $85,235 for the ts (average $79,535, trending up), $82,329 for the Spider, $93,917 for the GTB and $95,157 for the GTS. The special cars sit well apart: $195,013 for the Serie Speciale, $203,660 for the Zagato Elaborazione and $261,626 for the 348 Challenge, each resting on a small number of sales. The recorded floor is $36,500 for a 1990 ts in January 2024 and $37,777 for a 1991 tb in June 2023. Recent results show mileage doing most of the work: a 522-mile 1993 tb made $145,000 in November 2025, a 7,000-mile 1990 ts $259,950 in June 2026, a 17,000-mile 1992 ts $225,000 in March 2026, while ordinary 27,000 to 38,000-mile cars sold between $75,000 and $96,000 through 2025-26 and a 34,000-mile 1995 Spider made $90,000 in August 2026. RM Sotheby's sold a 19,855-mile 1993 Serie Speciale tb, the only one in Blu Sera, for $335,000 at Miami in 2026, and a 1994 Challenge with 22,000 miles made $445,000 in August 2026. In the UK, RM Sotheby's sold a right-hand-drive 1994 GTB showing 181 km from new for 48,300 pounds at London in November 2023; PistonHeads' guide puts standard tb and GTB cars at 45,000 to 80,000 pounds and the GT Competizione around 175,000 pounds. Auction figures are the houses' stated 'sold for' amounts; classic.com figures are as recorded on that site.