Hey guys, I am toying with the notion of adding a 355 spyder to my stable and I prefer the standard transmission over the F1. I see two nice looking 355's for sale on ebay. What do you guys think of these cars and have any of you seen them in person? One is at Ferrari of San Francisco and the other is at a car broker in Florida. I'd also be curious to hear what you guys think these spyders are actually worth. 1995 Ferrari 355 F355 Spider! Manual! Red/Tan | eBay 1995 Ferrari 355 | eBay The one in Florida had it's major belt service 3.5 years ago but has only been driven 700 miles since. The broker says the valve guides have been replaced though that was not done on the last service since it isn't on the invoice for those repairs and he doesn't have any other service records going back any further...so I would have to trust him on that. It still has the original exhaust manifolds but he says they aren't leaking. The front bumper was removed and repainted to repair some chips but the rest of the paint is original. It's had 4 owners with most of it's life in California though it spent the last three years in Pennsylvania before being traded to this guy in Florida. It's only been driven about 3000 miles in the past 11 years. it does have a clean carfax history. I don't yet know anything about the one at Ferrari of San Francisco. Do you guys think '95s are the best 355's to buy or are they a headache best avoided? I know very little about 355's while I am an expert on 308's. Thanks! Paul
I can attest to your expertise on 308, but it does not transfer to 355. I have two 355, a 95 and a 96. The 96 runs better than the 95 only because the 95 tends to foul plugs very easily if you drive it much. The 96 with its OBD2 functionality does give you more assistance when there is problem with the car, and there will be. My 96 is a spider and has incredible sound when the top is down. The effing thing just threw a 1448 this week and I have to fix it to pass smog next month. At least I have gone through it once already last month. Not every car will need valve guides. My 96 had a 25% leak down on Cyl 1 years ago when I bought it. After driving it aggressively for 5 years, at the second engine out service, leak down was 5% or less across the board. It would have been a waste of money to throw a valve job at it. Headers will leak eventually, but you just don't know when. Pay attention to the sound of the car and do a smoke test when it changes. I think you should buy the one you like and don't let the 95-96 thing bother you. Do a compression test and if there is a low cylinder then do a leak down test to find the cause. If no problem is found, forget the header and valve guide thing and buy it. My personal opinion is a very well sorted car is $75K for a Berlinetta and $65K for a Spider from an owner. Dealers want more. Say, can you do something about the blasted 355 wiring diagram?
interesting after 5 years of solid driving.. that the leak down results improved/corrected..? where 90% of the time.. a full valve guide job would have been recommended/done.. could it be the car wasn't driven much prior to your ownership..?
YES - 100% of the time they would recommend a full valve guide job. Carbon build up on the valve guide seats cause poor leak down and compression results. I just had it with my car in that the compression went down from 195 to 165 in a year and a half. However I only drove the car a few hundred miles in that time period, so I was thinking how could a valve seat start failing in so few heat cycles. I started to really dig into the problem. Some valve cleaning fluid in the gas tank and some proper driving of the car and the results went up 10psi. I look forward to getting my next compression test however the shop is 3hrs away. I have talked to over 10 Ferrari master mechanics about this issue and I always get different stories.
Hey guys, here's one jut a couple hours from my house. It doesn't have the right wheels though...do you guys know which type of Ferrari these wheels are from? The valve covers were repainted too and I wonder if that hurts the value and is undesirable. I'm open to your thoughts on this one. I may just call this guy and go see it today since I have never driven a 355 before. It has a stick and recent service which is a big plus. 1997 Ferrari 355 spider | eBay
The '97 apparently has actual Ferrari Challenge wheels which are more valuable than the stock 355 wheels....but a hassle if I want to put it back to stock since the challenge wheels are 19" versus 18" for the 355 wheels.
You mean this one. Seems fitting, absolutely zero info on the car other than the normal copy and paste info. it's silver sorry that hurts the price just like green does, no info on any service at all. I personally like the latest service info the whole life long service is rediculous just have current service info. It also states only a dealer or someone from out of state can buy it. That alone will drive down the price because it limits the number of potential buyers. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Challenge wheels for the F355 are the same size as the standard OEM wheels so if the tires are in good shape, then it's an easy swap to the OEM. Now if they are 360 challenge wheels that have been modified - those would be larger... I'm not sure that OEM stock wheels are that cheap. I see them for sale at similar prices as the F355 challenge wheels - around 4K. But I'm sure you could swap for a set if that is what you preferred. Robb
