Just realized after a decade I own the first U.S-delivered street (non-challenge) Ferrari F355.

Just realized after a decade I own the first U.S-delivered street (non-challenge converted) Ferrari F355. First car is a challenge converted car owned by President and CEO of FNA. Not sure about the second challenge car, but those two were probably brought in very early at the same time.

VIN # 099902

Details unfolded here:

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/f355-market.487947/page-969

I believe I deserve a medal. It's Friday. Beers on me .


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thats cool !

 

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I am shocked that you just figured that out. We all thought you would’ve known that the very first day you bought the car - LOL, kidding, that’s pretty special! Congrats!


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Believe it or not, I never plugged my VIN into the 355 Registry until yesterday. 1. I was too lazy to write down my VIN and type it in. 2. I had no reason to.

About a year ago, I was checking to see how many Nero/Nero 95 Berlinettas were in the Registry. I was also counting to see how many Rosso/Nero 95 Berlinettas were in the Registry in the U.S. specifically. I counted about 25 and reported that to @OCKlasse. I also told him I found only 11 95 Nero/Nero Berlinettas in the world. I knew it was low, but not that low. @chrisj951 has one. The famous one on a known Youtube video with a Capristo is another.

As I was looking at the 95 Nero/Neros in the U.S, none of them seem to match specific descriptions of my car (location, miles, etc), so I figured my car wasn’t in the Registry. I also had no desire to my add my car because I wanted to keep the Nero/Nero numbers artificially low . That’s pretty much where I left it.


I was just thinking last night — isn’t it odd in 27 years, no one has come remotely close to claiming to have the first U.S delivered street F355 (or lowest VIN)? You’d think someone would’ve announced it by now.

Rewinding back, you realize the chances of someone realizing they have said car is slim, unless someone who knew told the first owner.

@285ferrari didn’t launch the 355 Registry until 2006. Database wasn’t there or adequate. The only other way to know is through the Ferrari North America Recall letter (1997) regarding the fuel line issues listing the duel fuel pump cars delivered to the U.S in sequence. If it wasn’t for that recall specific to the earliest 355’s, we might not have had an official listing of U.S delivered 355’s. The 355 Registry is one thing (not complete), an official Ferrari NA list is the icing.


Here’s the thing … there’s no way anyone would’ve known the first two VINs were brought in for challenge competition. @m80hot didn’t post the 355 Challenge VIN list until 2014. I purchased the car in 2013. So unless someone dug deep (like I did), there’s no way they would’ve known the first two cars weren’t street form 355’s, although early 355 challenge cars were possibly street-able as that was the only way to create a challenge car back then.

However, there is some level of suspicion if one studies the 355 Registry carefully. He would notice the first 2 VINs are way earlier than #3 by a wide margin. VINs starting with 098xxx are only reserved for the earliest 1994 cars (which U.S never received). The Registry shows only the first 15 F355’s ever made in 1994 start with “098XXX”. As a matter of fact, 098673 & 098674 show up as the 8th & 9th F355 made, and 5th & 6th GTB made. Only someone in a powerful position could’ve gotten such early 355’s into the U.S, and it starts to make perfect sense when Barry verifies the first car is a challenge car owned by the President and CEO of FNA and second most likely a crony of his. I’d like to find out what these two cars look like today.


Also keep in mind my car shows up incorrectly as Nero / Cream in the Registry, which adds another layer of confusion. At a glance, most would not have pressed further. If it was listed correctly as Nero/Nero maybe and that’s a big maybe, I might have been triggered in some way to see if #3 was my car.

In short, the stars needed to have aligned quite precisely for someone to figure it out, unless told. As the 355 Market Thread shows, it was only because someone else posted what I felt was inaccurate info, was I triggered enough to do some of my own digging. We all know I love accuracy . I get an itch in my bones.

I’ve uncovered countless things regarding the 355, but I must admit this one felt like it came out of left field and looking back I am just as shocked as you are. I was too retarded to pick-up on clues that were right under my nose all along . I knew the production date was early. I knew I was one of the few with super early features (single-piece undertray etc.). I went over both of my early 355’s and knew the Nero 355 had some weird stuff going on by comparison. It just never crossed my mind it was that early. I was simply too occupied and giddy about my newly acquired Redhead… the Redhead I’ve always wanted.

I mentioned in the 355 Market Thread I was feeling a bit guilty giving the new Redhead all the attention and redirecting everything I had planned out a decade for NiteTrain. Yes, I gave my black 355 a name . There’s attachment once you start naming em. My advice … don’t name em if you plan to sell .

Perhaps this is the ol’ lady’s way of telling me she’s still special . These 355’s man. They mess with your head don’t they ?

 

Happy to hear you have the first USA version. I always been curious of the specs of the first units.

Part of the quest with #100298 was to find out if it was the first 355 in Arizona, since it was sold and has spent majority of its life in AZ (being a lower vin/assembly, plus one of the last of the super early 2.7 355).

 

Is the location/spec/condition known of the first production F355?

 

So.....the next time me and my lovely wife travel to SC from the other coast.........beers are on you?? I do drink a lot of beers!!!!! It might be more expensive than an Engine out Service.!!!

 

I'm sorry to hear this. Must be a headache to own such an early production car, before all the bugs and defects were worked out and all the improvements were made. Especially with a low volume car like a 355, the early ones were basically kit cars. They were just learning on the job at the factory trying to get something out the door that would drive 10 miles before the wheels fall off. Fabbing parts with tin snips and sandpaper. I hope having a "rough cut" 355 doesn't detract too much from the ownership experience. I bet most people at Cars and Coffee don't even notice. I must say I am spoiled owning a late '98 GTB. Steel valve guides, better headers, the advanced 5.2 engine management, etc. All the good stuff with none of the downsides. Anyway, cool story, sounds like a unique specimen, hope you can enjoy it.

 

^
Bravo, sir.

 

Not to spark debate, but 2.7 > 5.2

 

That's really cool.

 

Speaking as an owner of an early '95....There's a lot of truth to this .

 

Right, Pete. He didn't mention the 1.5mm thick front shock mounts that are prone to cracking.

 

Maybe this is a good thread to ask Ken how many of the typical 355 problems his 1st in the US car had? We'll go in order of severity.

Valve guides?
Headers?
Cats?
Throwout bearing?
Shock towers?
Cooling fans?
Recirc flap?
Shock motors?
Delaminating windows?
Sticky interior?
Shrinking leather?
Cat ecus?

What am I missing? Mine has had all of those but the headers and cats - but probably only because the cats were replaced with test pipes. Some are extremely minor to where I haven't bothered addressing (delam and shrinking leather), some fixed by me, and some by the prior owners. Feel bad for the guy that had to do the valve guides. Mine has had some other atypical problems and has a list of things I'm working on now (major, steering rack boot, cv boot, cat ecu, big brake upgrade and whatever else I find while I'm in there).

 

Valve guides? - very likely

Headers? - definitely

Cats? -definitely. Car came with punched out cats.

Throwout bearing? - I’ll have to look at old invoices to see if it was changed at some point. My Sept (Rosso) build car had a TO changed to HE.

Shock towers? Only 1 showed leaks. However, my Sept build 95 had 3 shock leaks. Both 30k mi cars.

Cooling fans? - fans still work on both cars, but could possibly be popping fuses. Just basing on old invoices. Hasn’t happened to me yet.

Recirc flap? - fine

Shock motors? - all fine on both cars thankfully.

Delaminating windows? - yes

Sticky interior? - definitely

Shrinking leather? - no on both cars. Both cars have pretty good looking passenger airbags, which I think is less common. I’ve seen highly warped airbags on 99 cars or 5.2 cars in general far more often. Interior condition is still pretty good outside of stickies.


Cat ecus? - car came with punched out cats. Rosso car came with test pipes. If there were CAT ecu issues, I wouldn’t know .



Most of these issues mentioned are prevalent in most 355 MYs. However, I do believe 95’s have weaker valve guides. Only 99’s are said to have the steel guides. My Rosso car was done (by previous owner) with OE steel guides. Come time to do my Nero car I will be using manganese bronze guides.


The biggest issue on 95’s imo are the guides, but if you budget for it during an engine out, I see it as a $6k one time price tag on top of the engine out service. That’s not the end of the world

I don’t have to deal with immobilizer issues, exhaust codes, etc. It’s a better setup for the DIYfer. I also prefer the visual presentation of the 2.7 engine bay.

Yes, it’s generally true the last years of a model are most likely the best iterations. With parts and performance upgrades in the later years, also mostly true for the 355, however, there is one key exception. Due to forced emissions regulations, Ferrari had to quickly change to a 5.2 OBD2 setup (world moved on from OBD1) and I think the result is something less raw or less powerful (or powerband discrepancies) than originally intended.

In all but one of the Best Motoring series from 1995 to 1999, they always chose a 2.7 F355 (various cars) to test and compete and the car does very well against it’s contemporaries. Stock for stock, the F355 beat pretty much every 90’s sports car except the 993 GT2, F40, and F50. Of course, there’s always factors in racing, but it has already proven to me it is one of the more highly capable cars to come out of that period. However, when they tested an F1 355 that car didn’t do too well for whatever reason. I’ve got links to all these vids if anyone if curious to see .

With everything I know about 355’s today, I would still choose the 95 MY 9 out of 10 times. The one time I would choose a 5.2 is for a highly upgraded 99 MY with all the special options in manual.

If I could go back in time to 1999, I would buy a 95 Ferrari F355 and simply order all the 99 OE upgrades/options and have them installed.

 

*Actually, I would buy a pre-airbag 95 F355 from Europe and order all the upgrades/options from 99. That’s the ultimate OE spec 355 imo. The F355 Ferrari wanted to put out, but couldn’t.

 

I largely agree - '95 or '99 are the best of the breed. I don't think there are any 'bad' years, though, I'd be more after the options I wanted (in my case I wanted giallo/black gated gtb), then condition, then price, and if there was a tie breaker it might come down to year. The '95's were the 'worst' from a reliability standpoint, though to a fairly minor degree, but made up for it by being the fastest and able to be tuned. The '99's had all of the fixes, which mainly included reinforced shock towers, steel valve guides and (I believe) metal core catalytic converters vs. the previous ceramic. Most of the cars with any mileage will have the weak areas addressed at this point and in all reality the difference in performance will be down to car to car variation and condition more so than 2.7 vs 5.2 motronic, and not noticeable by most owners anyway.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiorano_Circuit

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They reprofiled the track in '96 which made lap times faster - unfortunately they're not really comparable (but of course they made the f1 look faster even if it was slower)...

"In 1992, a chicane was added making it 3021 metres (1.88 miles) long, then in 1996 a new renovated track was introduced (a fast bend to replace a sharp corner at the end of the pit straight) which shortened the total length by 24 metres (0.02 miles)"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiorano_Circuit

 

Good catch

Ferrari 575M Maranello 1'31.512 2002
Ferrari 550 Maranello 1'32.528 1996
Ferrari 355 F1 1'33.00 1997
Ferrari F355 1'34.00 1994


That list also shows the 550 Maranello is 1.5 secs faster than a 2.7 355. Only with the track modification in 1996.

Here's the real difference between a 2.7 355 and a 550 on the same track same day.

 

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If Ferrari is testing the F1 355 on the exact same Fiorano layout and shows it to be slightly slower than a 550 Maranello, that’s not a good sign. Ferrari could certainly be fudging the numbers at the time to establish a sales pecking order.

 

The 550 did okay in that race. Ken, what did the 550 driver say about the car when interviewed after the race?

 

The 550 beat the R34 GTR people are paying $350k for these days. I'd say it did very well for a GT car! I'd have to shoot a link over to a Japanese buddy for translation. Will get back to you .