Motorweek; 1301

Next on motor week we drive the latest Ferrari 348 visit an American original and a whole lot more to come drive with us next. With. With. TVs automobiles magazine. With your post for Motor Week John Davis. And welcome to motor week America's original automotive magazine for television. We're glad to have you with us. This is a 1989 328. This is a 1958 250 Testarossa. To have a stable of rare exotic models that where the prancing horse pressed Ferrari

since the first Ferrari racing machine over forty six years ago no other name makes an automotive enthusiast heart beat faster. So we have a chance to test a new Ferrari. We never hesitate when it's a pair of new Ferrari. The pleasure is more than double. With. Don't let their colors fool you. These two latest Ferrari's both variations on the three forty eight are as red blooded as any machine that ever came from Marin ELO who plays the limited edition 348 speciality. But the most significant of the two is this one. The three forty eight spider it's Ferrari's first to see convertible since the Daytona spider of 1973. But unlike the Daytona the 348 carries its engine amidships which makes turning it into a convertible a tricky if there are Congratulations then to Ferrari's engineers the manual top that they designed as a fine job of mimicking the standard hard tops lines.

It's also the most efficient convertible top that Ferrari has ever produced. Folding easily and storing neatly beneath a soft tonneau cover but the spider is more than a 348 with the top chopped off cosmetic changes include body colored lower trim panels while mechanical ones are a step in chassis revised suspension settings and a wider rear track like the spider driver. The engine now. It's more thanks to less restrictive intake and exhaust system horsepower stands at 312 and torque is unchanged at two hundred twenty nine pounds better breeding also means a more authentic Ferrari exhaust note than the standard 300 horsepower 348. The spider is also adopted the three forty eight TBS transversed year box but with revised ratios for improved acceleration. The shifter remains gated and Ferrari for my test drivers with strong right arm still hold a 0 to 60 time a five point eight seconds from the spider. The. Quarter mile to fourteen point two seconds and 101 mph.

Thanks to the massive torque and mile wide powerband. 348 spider stops as well as it goes averaging a stable 101 feet. I'm 60 thanks to its board and the lock equipped desk. And as with the ship there are some serious muscle as required primaries are not cars for people with weak legs more weak shoulder drivers needed all of their strength to wrestle the spiders massive cornering abilities through the heavy manual steering and onto the asphalt. There is converter. Body flex but not very much thanks to the three forty eight stout chassis design that's rare and even the most expensive convertible and the 340 spider is certainly one of those with a price tag of one hundred twenty two thousand dollars out on the road the spider's highway ride remains as boring as that of a standard 348. But the new suspension settings and wider rear track mean a more stable feel. And minimal wind intrusion with the top down means a very pleasant driving experience. Interior design doesn't vary from that of the standard 348. It's one of

Ferrari's best efforts ever. We'd add a bit more travel to the tilt wheel and a few more gauges to the main cluster. But they aren't on black analog dials are very easy to read. Oil and fuel gauges live down below in the center dash seating as exotic car firm and the unusual floor mounted motorized seatbelts take a bit of getting used to the driving position ESPERAR is best today. A low center console houses comprehensive climate control while up top there's a hidden compartment for the stereo of your choice. Since the truck is up front in the spare tire is just a can of tire sealer. The convertible top has no effect on luggage space. Even if it did the enjoyment of driving Ferrari superb 348 spider would still be on the menu. The three forty eight is after all a pure driving machine and the addition of the spider's open air cockpit makes it one. The most enjoyable exotics ever. If you simply must have a solid top however men still want something unique by

Ferrari standards that is. There is the very limited edition 348 speciality. Only 100 of these more muscular 348 coops have been built and sold each with a price of one hundred twelve thousand dollars. Like the spider the speciality gets full body color trim but a slightly different tail light treatment and carbon fiber racing seats straight out of the legendary f already. It's a lot of work to get into them but they hold you in place through hell or high water cannibals and both cars are identical from the suspension to the 312 horsepower engine. And both our cars produced a dental performance in a straight line with a coupe stiffer body means less front plow making the car more nimble in corners. Our staff all thought that the speciality was a more handsome car than the standard 348 meant it back to you Bill. You have one of these You're a very lucky person indeed. Taurus the same thing could be said about the 348 spider or any Ferrari for that matter. As

we finished our stance with our magnificent screaming yellow pear we felt rejuvenated. Perhaps more than any other reason because they do wear the prancing horse and whether we drive one Ferrari or. Hurt. Most. Automotive design is an extremely tough field to break into especially for new graduates. But for the dedicated student there is a way to get that critical wedge reporter Lisa Barrow explains how. Ya. Did not know by looking at it that this car was designed and built by students at the University of Maryland as part of a student design competition known as formula as a sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers. This annual event has grown from a little known academic endeavor to a respected competition organized in recent years by Ford GM

and Chrysler. With a on with. These are the students of this event that will make great cars in the future. For a thousand dollars for. A very intense experience for nine months starting with a scratch on it with. Students from the seven colleges and universities participated in this year's Formula competition in most schools participation counts toward an engineering degree and almost

all competitors will tell you it is demanding and often frustrating throw around is tremendously rewarding. Students learn first hand about design fabrication accounting and Timor. This kind of experience pays off to recruiters from the automotive industry keep a close eye on formula competitions. My team won the outstanding team that got me a couple of interviews and for that reason alone. I was I think people should have stayed out of that about nine people working for one person or it's a job orders and the other guy was a boy. Look at the kind of students that are out here. These kids are goldmines for us. When you have to. Sit down and design. Something of this magnitude. Put it all together. Make. Art. Make it all work and then sit in it for a long drive because. It's a.

Great. Education. Next up is our master mechanic Pat Goss. He has more of the helpful car care advice that everybody needs. John there is one thing that annoys me more than fingernails on a blackboard and that is squealing brakes. Oh my how many cars these days seem to have squealing brakes. Lots of times the squealing starts after a brake job. Well there are some things that you can do to help prevent the squeal. First on the backs of the new brake pads there are chemicals that are available there either spray or in some cases they're in kind of a thick almost like a paste it gets applied to the backs of the brake pads. This helps a lot in preventing squealing. Make sure that you follow the directions on the container if you're doing your own brake job. Now in addition to that and sometimes better than the chemicals are shims

they're available custom made for lots of brake pads. But in some cases they will be generic and you have to cut them to fit the backs of the pads. What these do is they keep the brake pad from vibrating and of course again they reduce squealing. Yeah most times we have to machine the brake rotors today and we machine a brake rotor but we establish a new finish on the rotor. But we have to do something that goes a step beyond that and that is we have to establish what is called a non directional finish. Now this is the grinding pad from a brake grinder. What this does is that it is applied to the surface of the rotors and it spins and it gives us a circular pattern on the face of the rotor that is another thing that really helps to prevent brake squeal. But here's something this brand new and this is something that well I think it took a pretty smart individual to figure it out. You have to wash the brake rotors before they go back

on the car now the technician is going to do it like this. Going to use one of these machines that is designed for washing brake parts. The chemical inside is primarily water but it has a detergent with it. They washed the rotor very thoroughly. Then the rotor is dried either using a shop towel and just wipe the thing off or with compressed air. Now if you want to do this yourself a pan of water with some laundry detergent in it and a brush and just clean the rotor. Now what in the world is this good for. Well stop and think about all this machining and grinding it leaves little metal particles on the surface of the brake rotor. The first time the brakes are applied this metal is transferred into the surface of the brake pads. Now we have a situation where we have the same kind of metal in the surface of the pads that we have on the brake rotor. This leads to squealing and grinding so by washing it you can do away with a lot of the noises and if you have a question

about your car write to me. If I use your letter I'll send you a motor week T-shirt. The address is Motor Week always Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. Our car of the week is a rare 960 two door version of the BMW I set a 600 this little jewel belongs to Dave major of Benton Kansas. So in your car of the week photos good color shots please and a return to motorway in Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. One of the best things to happen to American Car fans in the last year has been the arrival of General Motors updated the Chevy Camaro and the Pontiac Firebird. Now fans of American pony cars have even more to celebrate. Or maybe we should say less since in this case less is clearly more. Talking about the arrival of a second 94 F body body style. The Chevrolet

Camaro convertible available now in both regular NZ 28 dress. It will be joined next spring by like Firebird. During our initial outing we gladly put up with this V-6 Camaro prototype. This is perhaps the most striking modern convertible we have ever seen. Sexy details include hood scoops and a rear spoiler with well-concealed stop lamp. The sharp profile is helped by a low top stack that is almost flush with the body the top itself is lined includes a heated back glass and lowers with minimal fuss. Drop the Power Windows release to header latches and activate the power switch. Once down a somewhat bulky three piece hard plastic top provided but it does stories only in the trunk which retains the deep luggage well of the Camaro coupe. But here is the real test of any convertible. When you remove the top structure from a car you are usually rewarded with unwanted body flexing. One of GM structural targets was a highly regarded new

series BMW convertible. Did they succeed. Well from our work out a GM proving grounds would have to say yes. Body shakes and rattles are what slight vibration you do notice comes from the steering wheel. Designing the convertible to be built in the same plant as that. Will help. With only an extra hundred pounds to haul around compared to the coupe. We found the fine handling of the hard top preserve the fourth generation tomorrow's new front suspension tracks with precision and you can still align the rear with the throttle when needed. The marrows anti-lock brakes are standard. Convertible equipped with a standard three point or liter V-6 and an automatic allowed 0 0 to 60 time of nine point seven seconds. That's less than a second slower than the V-6 we tested last spring. Drop in the Corvettes L.T. one V8 and the six speed manual tranny and you'll reduce that by at least three seconds more.

Inside the modern cockpit are comfortable and supportive bucket seats. The duel safety of twin airbags and excellent placement of most controls the gauges have been slightly revised going from yellow markings to white. The back seat is small as you would expect but it does fold down and when the top is up there is a pass through to the trunk. GM engineers certainly did their homework on the new Camaro convertible. Not only did they retain the wind in the hair excitement one expects from a top down pony car. They raise the experience to a new level of breezy satisfaction. Now let's check in again with Lisa Barrow. This time she has all the latest Motor News. This week we have our first driving impressions of the proposed version of the Dodge Viper. Chrysler invited us to its proving grounds to try out the Viper d ts crew. We didn't hesitate after driving maybe 10 roadster extensively. We expected even bigger things from the crew and we weren't disappointed especially with its looks as one of our

staff members commented. There's not a bad line on it. And while the original Shelby Cobra supposedly inspired the Viper the Shelby Daytona coupe comes immediately to mind when viewing the Viper GTX thanks to its blue collar white stripes and teardrop roofline fibers interior is surprisingly user friendly but hardly luxurious. This car is meant for serious driving but the hard top and remote opening hatchback offers foresees in practicality not found in the roadster. No word yet on at the Viper Cooper Ridge production but we'll keep you posted. And that's it for this week's Motor News. Automotive legend Carroll Shelby has met many a challenge from victory of Lamon to building the incredible Cobra. So you'd think that after his 1990 heart transplant the king of the Cobras would take it easy. Not likely. Is Hollywood Reporter Craig Singh hoss recently found out. Carroll Shelby has a new

challenge. It was really very simple I was laying in the hospital a little over three years ago and the people on each side of me at one time or there were a couple of doors down passed away waiting for a heart. And I realized what a great shortage there was of donors but the real big problem is. I mean another one of the real big problem is being able to afford it. And I saw that people that have been fortunate like myself seemed to get the organs and I made my mind up if God ever saw it clearer for me to get a heart. I was going to take care to try to do my best to take care of the people

that could the indigent kids that are just left by the wayside in this thing. It was out of this commitment the Carroll Shelby has come to form the Shelby heart run by a charity dedicated to assisting needy pediatric cardiac patients across the country and the world. After I got my heart I've been thinking for years about restoring some 427 Cobras I had taken the old parts that I had the safe parts and. Finishing the 43 that I started to finish in 1965. It all came together in my mind hey these things are selling for half a million bucks apiece right don't start rebuilding Cobras because I thought this is a real good chance for me to do the thing that I wanted to do and help these kids that can't help themselves you know room and then I got about 200 things waiting for me sign autographs at different functions.

I go around volunteer grand marshal a Concours d'Elegance and race. Fine turn it on every year at. The most fortunate person in the world. I love cars. It's a well-known fact that racing has made great contributions to automotive technology but most people don't know that racing has also made substantial contributions to television technology. Believe it or not this is one of our television cameras. If all this sounds intriguing stick around for more from Lisa Barrow. Lasting around a racetrack at 200 mph few of us will ever

experience watching a race on TV. The company largely responsible for putting you in the driver's seat is broadcast technology and when they're not at the racetrack you can find them specifically with the cop cars. We have two cameras. There's the small little camera like this and then the right wing mounts about the driver's right hand shoulder. Then there's the second on the base of the tile of the car or what we call a face looking up at the driver. There's a microwave transmitter which sits inside the car and then that transmits the video from the right to a helicopter the helicopter orbits above the right structure about to 3000 feet. It acts as a satellite picks up the video and then the transmitter back down to the production. That way you can get live pictures all the time as a

technology. Most of their work is done during the three days prior to race day. Once the cars are on the track the cameras are monitored from inside the production truck. We have been reporting the number of cameras in each of the cars. We control the switching of those cameras plus camera functions. These cameras are exposed to speeds 200 mph that sometimes reaches 170 degrees Fahrenheit and a steady stream of vibration. We have an album here which we were just recently to try and find out what problems are going to occur before you get the debris from other cars on the track is also a problem has developed a system utilizing a clear mylar film which runs across the front of the camera lens wiping it clean as well. Have cameras in the mask. And this is the

camera that fits in the mask. That's because the cars are stuck with the cameras of the car. And because it's larger have a much better Twitter system. Which allows a camera to pan around to follow the action. It can talk down to look at the driver's face come back up again. And zoom in and out. Right now three to four cars with cameras. Weight is a critical factor in the total system for the miniature camera around the camera systems for the NASCAR races way £17. People so what's the cost of the camera or overall system really the equipment you put in a race car is between the $40000 to the actual point where is it in the production truck. With us all this broadcast which technology would eventually like to see their operation equipped six to 10 cars per race right now they'll have to settle for three. They keep your eyes on this outfit. The owners have big plans for the future. Until then. Sit

back and enjoy the ride. Once again author Ken Wells has outdone himself Jaguar victory 90 tells the story of Jaguars 1090 Lamont win and the same concise entertaining manner as last year's Mercedes magic like its predecessor. This new book is full of detail and excellent photography as well as profiles of the winning drivers and the races leading up to this historic confrontation. Congratulations to one of our favorite Racing Writers for another job well done. Well that's all for now but join us for the next motor week as we test the latest Ford Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar Topeka and Nissan. California design

studio get a lesson in leather care from Pat and go to a new truck right thing. I'm John Davis yet. To order a video cassette of this program. Call 1 800 4 2 2 0 0 6 4. Or send twenty nine ninety five plus $4 shipping and handling to this address. An expanded version of motor week's Porsche past present and future is available on video

cassette. It explores the history and future plans of the German automaker and that includes test drives of the Porsche 911 Turbo at 9:59. To use your credit card call 1 800 4 2 2 0 0 6 4 4 cent nine hundred ninety five plus $4 shipping to Motor Week home video. Post Office Box 6 8 6 1 8 Indianapolis Indiana 4 6 2 6 8. How are you gonna stay on the next edition of Motor Week. Well road tested 94

Ford Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar X are seven. But also check the bumps and bruises on our long term test fleet and peek inside Nissan secret California design studio backed off as a lesson for all of us on leather upholstery care while Craig S. Haas takes to the dirt indoors. So don't miss the next motorway.