Exact same key for 2 separate F355 cars???

This is sort of funny, and definitely not surprising.

No tip for the valet that day.....

 

That's crazy.

 

This is not as surprising as it may seem at first thought. There is a finite number of key combinations so the question then becomes how many combinations did Ferrari use for the 355. Many years ago I read that GM was only using 30 combinations and this type of issue became a problem so they increased the number to 150 (I'm sure the number of combinations have increased through the years). Think about the number of vehicles they produce and then you get an idea how many are driving around with the same key combo. Way back in the '70s I had an old '62 Chevy that my wife drove to work and was parked in a lot with about 150 other cars. I had a need for a minor repair (low hanging exhaust system common to the year) and the garage was close by so they said they would drop over, pick up the car, repair, and bring it back before end of business day. They picked up the car, did the repair, and when I inspected it I found nothing was done. Called and they said they had completed it on the red '62. Problem was my car was blue. Somebody got a free repair and never really knew it. True story.

 

My first car was a 97 camaro SS, my fob would unlock my neighbors truck, set of random alarms in parking garages, and the key would start my K5 blazer, my boss's truck, the golf cart, and every cessna and piper aircraft at our flight school.

 

You would be surprised how many keys work in same brand cars


When you have 500+ cars in stock you try all keys before going to get the correct one

 

Does not suprise me either

 

McGard wheel lock is up the street from my shop. They have a very finite set of patterns and let me tell you, it's not many.

 

Similar thing happened to me in 1989 with a Thunderbird. I was walking to my car at night in a large parking lot, unlocked a car with the key, stepped inside, started the car, then realized I was in the wrong car. May have been some alcohol involved as well.

 

Well you could have driven away haha, more alcohol and you may have driven it home so not to bad.

 

Would be even funnier if it was the right key but the wrong car and you didn't notice until the next day! ;-)

 

We had a ton of misc keys at my parent's house in the early 1990's that built up from various cars & eventually 6 drivers over the years. One day I finally decided to go through them and discard the old ones- I was trying keys in the cars and had an old GM key (square head) that I was just going to throw out since I knew it was from a 1976 Buick LeSabre we no longer had, but without looking picked it up from the pile and it went smoothly into the keyhole of a 1988 Chevy Caviler and worked perfectly! Up to that point it never crossed my mind that there were a limited number of key combos.

As an aside, my grandfather and father worked a deal to buy 2 buicks at once from the Buick dealer- both with the fist year the lesabre could come with a V6 (1976). 2 barrel carb, 105 net HP- probably the worst power to weight ratio out there, even in in the dark years for cars of the 1970's. I think my need for spirited driving to this day comes from my formative years being driven around slowly in that thing and pent up frustration going down the highway at 56 mph with SLOWWW acceleration...but I digress

 

A thousand years ago I had a Ford Maverick. I lived in an apartment in Santa Clara at the time so I kept my tools and my extra oil in the trunk. I discovered that someone was opening my trunk and stealing them every couple of weeks. No scratches or damages so they had a key. Yes, there are limited number of combos when you only have 4 or 5 tumblers.

 

A few years ago, I hired a purple VW Polo. I parked at the supermarket, did some shopping, then returned to the car, unlocked it, opened the door and started the engine.

I turned my head to reverse out of the space to find... a baby seat! Definitely wasn't mine!

The car I'd rented was one row away.

 

When I bought my SeaRay boat in 2006, the dealer said, "We just have to find a set of keys here...shouldn't be a problem, SeaRay only makes about 15 different keys for all their boats."

 

Many years ago I was with a friend who was looking to buy a Lear Jet, the aircraft broker couldn't locate the key for the clam shell door so he just used a chevy key.
He said that almost any chevy key would unlock the Lear 23/24 series aircraft !
I never tried it but it did open the door for the demo flight.

 

Maybe there IS a use for the collection of old keys building in my "key drawer" after all.

The dude on the left kinda looks like a bigger Richard Rawlings.

 

And the Dude on the right look's like Chris Hayes on MSNBC.

 

For automotive keys like this there are very few combinations. Generally less than 10,000. This key seems to be even less but I am no locksmith so I don't know but it's probably a couple thousand or so. The real rareness is that two Ferrari's were at the same event and since maybe only 2-10 355s share the same key, that is rare indeed.

This has happened quite a few times with american cars where someone goes to the mall and comes back out and drives home in a different car. A couple news stories as I recall over the last 10 or so years.

Nice of you to return. That fob was critical.