You do realize that the F1 transmission concept came from Formula 1 cars of the era and as I recall the they didn't have closed cockpits. But not to worry, my car is a 95 spider; pre F1 trans, so it fits your criteria. Actually, all F355 were pre F1 and born for be manuals.
Interesting never really tried that. Its sometimes hard to think of something different when your smile is so big in the first 3 gears you look like the joker
VJ20 011 Pump and relay replacement for insurance. Price range $16k-$3k. https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/16-000-part.85500/page-4 I guess that is reason for F1 pricing point. However if your tech savvy..FYI https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/355-f1-gearbox-problem.141089/
Most of my days are spent driving a F250.I spent many years learning how to drive a clutch properly. To me it is an art form. Just check out some old videos of race car drivers feet while driving. Incredible. When I do get in one of my sports cars, I want to shift gears. Having a computer blip the throttle is just weird. I have driven several paddle shift cars, and I am certain they are better for racing b/c everyone is using them, but for me its all about the experience. The pedals in the 355 are perfect for heel to toe. I cant imagine only having two pedals. I have a bad habit of holding on to old technology a little too long.....
If anyone pays more than 1000 bucks now they would be wise to,ask a few questions. Replaced my original last year for 600 and the only tech you need is a allen wrench. I would surmise most owners could handle it
What I would loose on deprciation of a new covette I will coninue to put in to engine outs and a hydraulic pump.
Well I am sure our 99s shift way slower than an F1 car from 99. Likely even from the F1 car they were copied from I have no basis for this comment just my common sense guess.
In the end net, net, the cost of ownership of a Corvette and a 355 is about the same. But you can drive a Corvette for a 100k miles with nothing but oil changes. Pretty much the same with a Porsche which is which I bought my Cayman; I've put 5k miles on it since January. And while neither car is a 355, and I do love my 355, face it, we would not buy the car if it were not a Ferrari, and both the Corvette and the Cayman S will eat a 355 for breakfast. The Corvette will have it for brunch, lunch, and dinner and a few light snacks in between as well. Seriously, who would buy an F355 Chevy, Ford, Honda or Toyota? The only reason we put up with $10+, engine out majors and all the little bugs that pop up from time to time is because of this: Image Unavailable, Please Login So, as Jeff said, Just relax. [Edit] Actually, if the 355 was made buy Chevy, Ford, Honda, or Toyota I would have still bought it.
That's an extremely old thread. GTE Engineering apparently will rebuild/reseal your whole system for like $3500 according to their eBay ads. Their facebook page recently showed a 360 CS system rebuilt to better than factory performance specs too. The F1 system failing isn't a $20,000+ bill anymore. It's closer to 10-15% of that...and I'm sure once competitors to GTE's service start popping up it will drive the prices down further.
F1 system failures can be very expensive. TCU's are NLA and hard to come by used and when you find one, be prepared to break out the piggy bank Other parts are NLA too. But I still love mine
Everything on the F1 system can be rebuilt but I do have a complete spare system in stock just in case.
Dave...if you could figure out how to make an aftermarket TCU...you would single handedly raise the value of all F1's.
since when was the TCU a weak point..? I thought it was mainly the pump, motor or actuator that were prone to fail.. to settle the dust once and for all.. someone should make one thread dedicated to all components of the 355 F1 system. with pictures, diagrams showing the parts that may need addressing and prices/source of replacement parts/rebuilds/upgrades etc. all the above may be scattered in a dozen different threads.. making it difficult for someone not as knowledgeable on the system to research/learn etc.. I would see this to only help clarify the mystical nature of the 355 F1 system.. if someone looking to purchase an f1 car.. can see one place, whats needed to fully sort the system, may improve the demand.. and not as worried to make the purchase. I have no doubt a properly running f1 system is a blast to drive, but in my almost 5 years of ownership and dozens of drives/meets ive only seen 2 F1 cars.. in the back of everyone's head, what am I going to be facing if it breaks, a dedicated thread will solve that uncertainty..
It is. Marc (Xenu) had one replaced in his car. Matt replaced one in a customers car this year. I pulled one from a car that I could not communicate to with my SD (car was having shifting problems). I sent it to Rod Drew to see if he can repair it, he installed in a test car and the shifting problems moved to the test car so the TCU has issues.
And what, there are about 2500 F1 cars total? Not a lot of spares floating around, TCUs or other F1 parts.
That's correct and the biggest issue an F1 owner faces. Good thing guys are working to reproduce these parts.
I wonder how many guys actually drive their cars the way they talk about driving them. When I take my 355 (manual) or Cayman (PDK) out for a drive I'm usually out for 4 hours or so, include a stop for lunch (about an hour). So figure 1 1/2 hours out and 1 1/2 back. Lots of twisty roads here in New England to have fun on. But if I dove either car hard for 1 1/2 hours I'm pretty sure I'd have a caravan of police behind me. And frankly, even to go 5 minutes hard without hitting a stop sign or traffic, even on these back roads, is next to impossible. I see lots of You Tube videos of guys spanking their cars. Few last much longer than a minute, if that, and most a just a collection of drive byes. This one by Bobzdar is about the longest one I recall on an open road, before he hit traffic. (By the way, nice video, Pete. Would have been more fun in a spider. )
I don’t know why you Virginia folks don’t rebel against those absolutely stupid inspection stickers that go in the MIDDLE of the damn windshield. haha.
When I began searching for an exceptional car I had a number of items on my wish list. I was able to check every box on my list except for the manual transmission. Now that I have the car I really love it and I don’t consider the F1 to be a negative at all. For its time, it was a game changer. It’s actually a rather important thing to keep in mind that the F1 transmission on the 355 represented a tremendous leap forward for Ferrari and was the the foundation to what we see on all Ferrari’s today. Also, F1 cars were produced in far fewer numbers. Do I love a gated shifter? Absolutely. But, I also love that my car is not only a great performer with real F1 technology and influence but it also represents an automotive benchmark with historical technology.
