What Design Element Would You Change On The 355

Seats and the steering whee.

 

Lots of holsters work well in a car seat. I carry a 1911 and very few car seats interfere.

 

Hide away head lights are the work of lazy no talent designers. I understood to some extent when the FMVSS required mundane, dim, conventional sealed beam headlights but those requirements went away before the 355 came out.

The best looking cars in history have head lights beautifully integrated into the design by artists that not only acknowledged their existence but celebrated their presence in much the same way as wheels. Hiding them away as though they don't exist is admitting to a bankruptcy of talent much like fender skirts on a Hudson.

 

It was a fashion, in period, design. The car is a time stamp from an age gone by...But I do agree.

However, whoever designed the 360 headlights needs serious design help.

Given the choice between the 355 headlights and the 360...I'll take the 355.

They do get progressively better from the 430 to the 458 and the current 488.

 

It was a fashion statement on the Cord 810/812 and the Stingray. On the 355 it was lazy. Hideaway headlights were a stopgap measure to try and clean up cars aerodynamically in a period of the government still requiring Victorian era lighting. Think 328/TR. Lazy, no talent designers continued the trend.


I prefer the 360 lights to the 430/458 anyday. The 458 lights look like something from a bad Japanese sci fi movie creature.

 

I’ll admit that I think the 355 would have looked amazing with 512M style headlights, but that isn’t to say I don’t like pop-ups. They are a signature of the time. I still love the cars overall flow.

 

We have a 328 and a TR and I hate driving either at night for that reason. Many otherwise wonderful designs had them. Has all of the elegance of a Concorde in landing configuration.

 

Agree on steering wheel. I just made this change and it feels just right. I didn’t realize how much the stock steering wheel impeded ingress and egress until I made the change.

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Almost. More LM style instead.

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Is that a 348 steering wheel?


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All very interesting. Still, I’m a purist. With all my cars, I take the bad with the good, even if there are better solutions. I like my cars as they left at the factory.

 

I was going to ask the same thing. It seems like it.

 

By the way - can someone clear this up? Regarding the three spoke steering wheel we see on some F355’s, what cars had this wheel? When was the change made? It’s my understanding it was made because of air bag requirements.

 

US cars never had it. Only Europe and Australia I believe.

 

Thanks. When did they? Just 95?

 

Yes, but 94 actually. I'm No expert on this detail so others will likely provide more facts. Jim and Elliott have the hard details I believe.

 

What wheel is that? ..and where can I get one tomorrow?

 

Randy, as other said, I believe its a 348.

Here is a 355 non airbag wheel I sold a few months back. They are hard to come by.

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/sold-ferrari-f355-non-airbag-steering-wheel-used.587318/

 

I think it’s a 348 wheel but I’m not sure. Here’s a pic of the stamping on the back of the wheel.

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It would seem so

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My car has the non airbag wheel so from my point of view this is how Ferrari intended it to be. In Australia the cars were delivered like this until mid 1995. Mine was built in June 1995. Australian delivered cars built in late 95 had the airbag due to regulation changes for crash safety standards.

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It's a MOMO wheel.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ferrari-momo-genuine-348-steering-wheel-EMS-SHIIPING/264114360572

The 348 wheel doesn't have these thickened areas, nor is it embossed with MOMO.


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Great wheel.

 

I had some collision safety concerns with removing the airbag but figured that relying on a 23 year old air bag to work properly was iffy at best and I could be enhancing my safety by taking it out.


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