My experience so far...

Hi there FerrariChat... bought a gated 360 about two months ago. I finally got to drive it last week due to the weather (I live up north) but had a great time. The time leading up to the drive was a different story, however.

I've written an article about the first-world frustrations, here:

https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/Articles/2017/04/07/ferrari-ownership

Hope y'all enjoy! I look forward to seeing you out on the road and meeting y'all!

 

Nice read Yoav! Welcome to the 360 gated club. I actually started a thread here regarding mistakes that 360 newbies make... many other owners have been down this path.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/360-430-sponsored-yellow-compass-group/527729-dumb%2A%2A%2A-things-360-newbies-have-done-learn-my-mistakes-thread.html

But once you're rolling down the road and hit that shift perfectly at 8500 rpm, it makes it all worth it.

L'Chahim!

 

Fun article. Next up: struggling to figure out how to open the fuel filler flap. Hint: look this up before you get to the station to avoid embarrassment.

Not to be too nerdy but I found an error in the article. The 360 has 5 valves per cylinder - so that was a 40 valve, 8 cylinder orchestra you heard.

 

As a new 360 owner as well I am surprised about shifting at 8500. I've shifting between 4K and 5k. Am I shifting at too low an RPM?

 

It will take some time to get used to shifting at the higher RPM's of your Ferrari's engine.

It took me about two months of driving to get comfortable shifting 500 RPM's below or at redline, then the engine stops sounding scary, like you think it is going to come apart and you can finally appreciate the beautiful music it makes.

You will never use your stereo, trust me.

Nice article, well done and welcome to the brotherhood!
Alden

 

Great read!!

 

Enjoyed your article, Congrats Yoav!

 

Congrats Yoav. I can definitely relate. I just bought my first Ferrari 2 weeks ago (a 2000 yellow 360 Modena F1) and have set off the alarm more than once trying to get it started. I still don't have the alarm system and immobilizer completely figured out. I see that you're in Michigan. PM me if you want to meet up with the Ferraris sometime for coffee and donuts. If the clerk asks why we left our cars running at least we'll have each other for moral support

 

FLY yellow = Ferrari light yellow. Learn something every day.

 

Congrats! Nice article, too! Don't feel bad. I once met a guy who had owned his Challenge Stradale for two years and thought his heater was broken until I suggested he press the "stop" button. Voila. Until the frosty morning we met, he explained he had not needed heat, only driving the car on nice days.

 

Thanks for all the support and warm welcome!

@BladeMD thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

@Douglas360 I thought they dropped the five-valve configuration after the F355, my bad, I'll have to change it when I get to work on Monday... thanks for the correction!

@Upnorthdr most definitely! I'm near Ann Arbor and you?

Thank you all!

 

Cool story. That would suck though to take delivery of a Ferrari and have to wait weeks or months just to first drive it lol. The ferraris I've been looking at are in Oregon or Texas or Arizona and I planned to drive them home day one

On a side note does anyone have experience with this: I looked at a clean looking 2001 360. The dealer said the door was open, so I open her, get in, and 3 minutes after looking around, I open the center consol ash tray. Immediately the hazardous lights go off. I tried pushing the haz button with no luck. No alarm went off, just haz started flashing and didn't go off for like 5 minutes after another guy came out and fiddled with it. Is that something because the battery was possibly low, or I triggered something opening the ash tray, or an electrical grimlin?

 

Seems likely just a bad switch or wire that's making contact when it shouldn't. But if you are thinking about buying the car, best to have dealer check and fix as a condition of purchase.

 

Not too far away. I'm near Auburn Hills.

 

Welcome to the club.

The alarm has three "phases".

One is locked. The other is unlocked. And the mysterious third happens when you leave the car unlocked and walk away. The doors don't lock (allowing access) but the electronics take a snooze. In this mode you may put the key in the ignition, turn it, it says OK but when you attempt to start...nothing will happen.

Hit the fob to lock (one chirp), then again to unlock (two chirps), turn key and wait for OK again.
Then it will start.

Enjoy the car and drive it a lot. The more you use it the better it gets.