Wanted: 1995 F355

Bloody hell....good luck!! I haven't seen ANY advertised for months, never mind a good one!

 

Any reason why he wants a 95? I haven't seen a 95 355 for sale for a very long time here in Aus.

 

He's probably made the mistake of venturing into the 348/355 section and has been sucked in by the utter BS that goes on in there regarding 95s.

Really, finding a manual berlinetta is going to be hard enough, so he should just buy the best one he can find regardless of year.

 

what do they say about the 95s?

 

Maybe the prettier 3 spoke, non airbag steering wheel?

 

+1

 

That they produce significantly more power.
Despite several experts who run dynos saying that they have never seen any significant difference between the results of the 95 cars and the later ones. They have observed significant differences between individual cars, but not anything that can be put down to the 2.7 vs the 5.2
In fact one well known mechanic has stated that the 355 which produced the best result on his dyno was a '99.

The 95s are supposedly much easier to work on (that may be, but so what).
They can allegedly be modified easier (bollocks. Every aftermarket part available for a 95 is also available for the later cars)

And that they don't have the alleged enormous dramas associated with the alarm system on the later cars. This claim has repeatedly been shown to be absolute rubbish by the people who actually own the 5.2 cars.

Basically there are a bunch of very loud owners of the '95 cars who are determined to push the barrow that they are the best of the bunch and anyone looking for a 355 MUST look for a '95 first. When asked to produce any actual evidence for any of their claims (particularly the power one) they suddenly go very quiet.

Like almost any car, just buy the best one you can find.

 

Didn't know about the divide, thanks for the info!

 

You have to consider the source. Ask him what year his is.

 

STFU.

Mines a '98, for the record.

I don't give a **** if all the mythical claims about 95s are actually true.
All I've ever asked for is evidence to back up the claims. There isn't any.

 

lol

 

Just in case anyone is interested, the official time of a '97 F1 around Fiorano is a full second faster than a '95 manual car.
And Ferrari make exactly the same claims in regard to power and performance for all 355s, except the Spider which is fractionally slower presumably because of the extra weight.
There is no difference noted regardless of year.

 

That's about it too.

 

The 97 355 is probably a second quicker because of the F1 and the FHP.

I think they came out with the FHP option in 97 from memory and it came with the late 98 and 99 cars.

Something like that anyway. Might have to look it up to refresh my memory.

 

It's because of the F1 box. They all produce the same power.

The FHP was only an option on the last of the '99 cars, but effectively meant that some of the Challenge parts could be put on any car. You can still buy and retrofit the FHP to any 355 now.

I always thought it was odd that the Fiorano edition was a Spider.
It would have made much more sense on the other versions, IMO.

To me the fastest and best 355 would be a berlinetta or GTS with all the Challenge parts and the F1 box.

 

You'll find out just how slow your car is at the next Sadelaide FNR if you're game to turn up

(and I have a license )

 

My car is only slow because of the incompetent fool behind the wheel.

But yes, I'll be there.

 

Fixed it for you, as for the rest it hasn't been conclusively proven one way or the other that I've seen.

Fwiw, the fiorano track changed between when they ran the 355 non f1 and the '97 f1 (they re-profiled one of the turns) that accounts for most of the 1.5 second difference between the cars, if not all of it.

 

Someone should hurry up and buy the GTS at Dutton's...it's appreciating $10k a day according to their ads, so it will likely be unaffordable in a weeks time! What idiot marketing.

 

there is no way in hell that that's the reason. That might be the case with the 430....MAYBE a 360 and definitely a 458....but that 355 F1 is easily matched in change speed with a manual gearbox and semi competent driver.

 

So not you?

(The gate was wiiiiiide open )

 

Rubbish.

In sport mode and at high rpm the change is brutal, and fast.

There is no way even a good driver could match it shift after shift after shift.

 

You're wrong. Sorry to burst your bubble.