quite special," and the engine being the formative element in defining the car's character, rising in an, "operatic crescendo," having the, "power to raise goose bumps as Pavarotti climbing to that note in Nessun Dorma." Gavin Green reviewed the 348 against contemporaries in Car Magazine, Oct 1990: “There is nothing like it. It communicates so richly, involves you so completely. And, when you have finished driving it – cocooned in that exquisite cockpit – you can get out and feast your eyes on one of the loveliest cars ever designed.” LA Times staff writer Paul Dean described the car in July 1990: “Ferrari builds motor cars in much the same way Claude Monet painted landscapes—not to please the populace, but more to satisfy self, a technique and a coterie,” with the 348 as a “better looking, stronger, faster” successor to the “enormously successful” 308/328 series, and “thoroughly irresistible.” Revising the longitudinal V8 layout in the way of the 288 GTO and F40, with a dry sump and transversely mounted “new gearbox and transmission (actually a carry-over from a Ferrari Formula 1 racing car),” the center of gravity is lower “by about 2 inches. Ergo flatter handling, and better steering response.” Autocar Magazine featured a comparison of the 348tb, Honda NSX, Porsche 911 Turbo, and Lotus Esprit in the July 1993 article, “Lord of the Fliers,” by Stephen Sutcliffe. Through the road test that extended from Paris to Le Mans, the 348 was lauded for its styling and presence, “Crawling out of Paris in the thick of the densest French traffic jam any of us can ever recall, three things about our convoy were already becoming apparent. The First – how much more attention and affection the French public had in reserve for the Ferrari – was perhaps predictable, especially since the 348 had already blown the others into the water at Dover when it came to impressing the locals. Even so, the crowds that gathered like bees to honey wherever and whenever we parked it, and the comparative lack of enthusiasm for the other three, still came as something of a shock.” On the Le Mans race circuit, the 348s control and steering garnered praise over the NSX, “It's the Honda's body control and its meaty yet beautifully positive steering that allows it to feel so natural through the Esses of Le Mans; both seem peerless. Until you try the