Let's find a way to replicate the 355-360 cf seats??

Congratulations on the seats Ken.

 

On a side note, I believe 2 tone seats have suede accents, not alcantara. 355's didn't have alcantara, although the F50 (95-97) interior might have had an alcantara dash.

 

Ken,
I’m curious. These hard to find parts. Are you just doing google searches or what ? How are you finding seats,etc.

Thanks,
Skipp

 

Gotta be an internet hustler, and QUICK...Ken is among the best of them

 

wow... i envy you so much.. i wonder if it is worth to mosify spider model to fit them.. yes i think they are worth it.

Ken, now that you have hands on real thing, will you pls make oem like replica?

if yes, pls sign me up.

 

LMAO

 

I’m still in shock I have any of it . It’s all luck, timing, and a ton of persistence. Searching every corner of the globe basically. Having 355 buddies keep an eye out. I’ve been looking for these seats for a few years.

I know what you want. My best advice to you is to buy one of these Euro spec F1 cars from Europe or Japan with these options, sell your car, or swap parts and sell euro car and be done with it. This is by far the easiest way to obtain the best options as ridiculous as it might sound.

It’s usually the F1 models most likely equipped with FHP and sport seats.


I wish I could go back in time and spec a 355 exactly the way I would want, but that’s obviously not possible.

 

Thanks very much for your candor. That is crazy, but likely makes sense. I’ll take your word for. Lol this affliction has no cure.

 

How I got these seats you ask?

Someone in the UK was selling 1999 F1 car. Saw it was the exact seats I wanted and figured I’d try my luck and ask. With quite a bit of convincing and a $18k USD offer, he was willing. But to work I needed to also help him find a pair of black standards seats local enough to him. I looked around and Eurospares had 1 pair available.

I also happen to have a buddy living in London who I trusted enough to send money and handle the transaction in person for me.

If that’s not luck, I don’t know what is.

 

Mine measure much bigger. I didn't check but will measure the inside/insert tomorrow to compare.

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You could probably sell those to someone with a 550 for $30k today. You can always find money. You can’t find rare Ferrari parts .

 

57 cm = 22.45 inches. Safe to say that’s right around what you’re measuring? Could be the same mold/design as 355 seats, but slight change to the belt hoop design, which is simply a hole cut out in the carbon bucket.

 

Haha, are you saying 550 guys are as crazy as us?

I thought you were measuring seam to seam. (That's with the tape hooked into the middle of opposite seam). I can measure insert and overall width tomorrow.

 

Here are few pics my buddy took when he went to remove them from the 99 F1 car. Everything had to be done in a trustworthy manner for both parties for the exchange to be possible. I lost an opportunity to buy seats a few months ago simply because there was no trustworthy way to exchange money for goods since seller was in Italy.

Gave my buddy $500 for his help. $1500 for shipping. I’m in these seats $20k. Never been this happy to spend $20k on parts in my life. Yea, I’m never selling this car .
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I measured beyond the seam. Like… the furthest out the seat extends when looking from the front, which would mean measuring the leather that wraps around to the back of the seat.

 

That's what I call determination.

 

Us 355 lovers are a special breed.

I spent almost 3 years looking for my ideal spec F355...what it came down to was total frustration and fear they would surpass 458 pricing soon, at which point I would be hard pressed to pick the 355 over it for the same money. Then searching the #f355 tag on Instagram one night for a coupe of hours before bed. Just swipe, swipe, swipe...for almost 2 hours. Randomly came across my dream spec...it just happened to be in Japan. I talked to the owner for a few months on Instagram before finally convincing him to sell it to me.

If I didn't have my car now...I would do what Ken suggested. Find an F1 Fiorano pack car out of Europe or something, then swap parts or swap to a manual. There's very very few "cool" spec F355's in North America it seems.

 

Since Skipp is a diehard F1 fan, should be a no brainer. I’d just straight up take a Euro spec 355 as is, sell the U.S spec car and live happily ever after. Should do it before the Europeans realize they’ve been bamboozled out of 355’s. You should give him some guidance .

He wants FHP. FHP was only available in Serie Fioranos in US. You’d need to wait for a crashed Serie Fiorano to scavenge parts. Good luck with that. Still don’t have the carbon sport seats. Europe/UK/Japan is the only sure way to get what he wants in a reasonable time frame.

 

Thanks for the insight guys. Are the Euro and Japan cars different than US cars ? Emissions, etc. what are the differences?

 

I'm not aware of any material differences...there may be the lack of a secondary cat? Don't quote me on that though.

The early cars of course had the pre-airbag models which to me is the unicorn if you find one with carbon seats as well. I have only seen one and it was in Japan...I fought hard for it but lost out to a local buyer. It was at the top-top of the market. I still day dream about that example sometimes....Rosso Maranello too. Was an absolute unicorn haha.

Besides that, rarer combinations for whatever reason. Maybe the NA dealers didn't have access to all the options lists or something? I know back in the 90s, here in Vancouver, to buy a Ferrari you went to one of our local BMW franchises that had the license to order them.

 

He needs F1, carbon seats, and FHP.

 

Hello and congratulations!
Say me, what do you mean by
"
Should do it before the Europeans realize they’ve been bamboozled out of 355’s. You should give him some guidance ."

I don't understand, explain me please
Cédric

 

Uh oh. Europeans are onto us. Act quickly .

 

Don't you think it was very expensive, the price for your seats?
Make sure that you won't have VAT and custom taxes by England.... With brexit all has changed

 

Worth every penny. I would have paid $25k USD for them. No joke. Why? Because it is the narrow version I was after all along with the exact carbon weave I was looking for. Probably only 5% of sport seats were offered this way. And if 5% or less of 355's came with sport seats, do the math. Money was not the issue. The issue was getting a 355 owner on the verge of selling his car (he already posted an ad for the car) to buy into the non-sense I was spewing him .

When you're trying to build a bespoke 355 to your own personal specs and you have a few key pieces missing, you will pay the price to complete it. The alternative is to go to your grave knowing you didn't get it done the way you really wanted.