First Track Day in the F355: Impressions

I hosted a private track rental on May 31st, a few Fridays ago, at MSR just outside of Houston. I do this once or twice a year and invite family, friends and clients out. It usually ends up being about 8-12 cars and about 20-30 people will cycle in and out throughout the day to go for rides. A private rental is not cheap but is far and away the safest, most fun way to get to know your car intimately at or near it's limits. I have quite a bit of track experience but mostly in Porsches and mostly in more modern cars (2010+). I have driven a few Ferraris on track, a 360 Challenge car, a F430 and a 458 (several track days and dozens of laps).

For context, I have not owned the F355 for long, it got here in late February and has spent 9 of the 14 weeks at a local shop for paint work, PPF, etc. I would say I've put about 700 miles on the car since I've owned it before heading to the track. I drive it almost daily (gym, grocery store, etc), so have gotten to know the car quite well as to how it drives and behaves on normal roads. My conclusions from those miles are that the car is very compliant and quite easy to daily drive (minus the attention). It floats over road imperfections (even more so than my Lincoln Navigator). It feels especially soft in comparison to the modern Porsches in the stable, notably my 992 911 GT3 Touring that I also drive almost daily. So my expectations before heading to the track was that it would be a riot to wind out the gears in the 355 to hear it's glorious soundtrack but that it would likely be mushy in the corners and feel sluggish compared to the other cars out there.

Friday morning rolls around and there's a massive rain cell over almost all over South Eastern Texas. It pours from 4am to 8am, and turns into a light sprinkle to a moderate rain until 10am. We still head out at 9am in the rain with soaked roads toward the track. We make it there and for the 1st hour we're driving cautiously on circuit hoping the rain would let up and that our continued laps would help clear the track of sitting water. No one is trying to set lap records, we're there to have fun. I slowly put the 355 through the paces in the rain and am enjoying swinging the back end out and discovering the car's behaviors near it's limits in the wet. The track continues to dry and the rain leaves around 11am. By noon the track is 75% dry and the racing line is well on it's way to allowing us all to push a bit more. By 1pm the racing line is dry and it's time to see what the car can do. I told myself I wouldn't push it too hard because things will break in a 30 year old car that's more than likely never been pushed like this before. But by the 3rd lap and feeling that the car was quite literally loving the pace, I pushed more. I was blown away by how tight the car was, could not believe the speeds I was seeing in certain sections compared to the other, much quicker cars I was driving in the interim. I wanted to give myself at least a week to come down from the track high so I could gather my thoughts to share with y'all...and I still cannot believe how good the 355 was on circuit.

Humbly, I am a decently quick driver, and like to push cars and find their limits. I put 61 laps on the 355 and about half of those were all-out, as close to the limit as I could take the car, and it literally did not skip a beat. No brake fade, no CEL, no hiccups. I put 145 track miles on the car that day then it drove home like nothing happened. I cannot say enough good things about this car and how good it is on circuit. If you're on the fence as to whether or not these cars can handle a good thrashing, I hope this tips the scales for you. They say don't meet your heroes. I'm glad I met mine. Enjoy the pics

 

Some pictures

 

Bravo, MK!

 

Even in its stock form the F355 can be a very capable track car as is this 1997 car following me up the esses at Watkins Glen...


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The only modification he made was to run on slicks mounted on Challenge wheels.

 

I have 5,000 track miles on my 68,000 miles F355 with no changes other than Ferodo brake pads.

I am surprised they let you on track with the windows up.

 

After re-reading that I realized I didn't dive into the driving dynamics of the car.

Car was on relatively new (1500 miles) Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires. Not a particularly grippy tire for the track but a great all around street tire. Was helpful during the wet sessions in the AM. I was on Goodyear F1 SuperSport R's on my GT3 which made for an eventful wet session.

95%+ of my track time is in Porsches, which tend to have some of the best driving positions of all. The steering, steering wheel (size/feel/location), pedal size/placement, seat position (and the seats themselves), shifter size/position, etc are about as close to perfect as you can get. The 355 is charmingly hilarious with how badly it's setup. Classic older Italian. Pedals are off-centered to the right, steering wheel is incredibly far away and oddly angled. I laughed the first time I sat in it with how odd and unnatural it all felt as a driver. It's part of the charm and I've grown to love it.

That being said, I found the steering to be difficult and a big adjustment. I like the heaviness but the rack is slow and because the wheel is so far forward, It is difficult to sit close enough where my legs are still able to work the pedals well, while my hands are able to rotate completely around the wheel for tight corners. If I had the seat close enough to where my hands were comfortable on the wheel, my knees would be sticking up and out the sides being too close to the pedals. I tried to find a happy medium but was never super comfortable with the distance from the wheel. Because of that awkwardness I also found heel-toe'ing a bit difficult with how the pedals are placed but eventually was getting pretty efficient with it near the end. I'm sure it will get better before the next session.

The car rotated really well throughout. Transitions felt natural and smooth, not much fighting the wheel. I purposefully threw the rear out during the AM sessions before the track dried out and the car holds a line very well through oversteer. The car stays poised and balanced. Understeer was very minimal.

Brakes were surprisingly good and showed almost no fade. Had only two brake zones in 61 laps where the pedal felt soft. I'm planning to bleed the brakes soon.

There is nothing like driving a gated manual on track. Fewer things have felt cooler in my life than clicking gears into an apex. I love this car.

 

Private rental they are a bit more lenient. I've also rented the track quite a few times with them so we have a relationship with the staff. Windows were only up during the rain/wet portion of the day.

 

FHP forks and springs in or not yet?

There are longer steering wheel adapters which might help.

 

Neither are installed yet. Wanted a baseline before modding. Also have some re-trimmed F40 seats on their way from the UK (as you know). Going to install all together!

Definitely going to order a longer wheel adaptor. Need to see what fits my 348 wheel: If anyone has any recs here that would be appreciated

 

What do you have now and how much longer do you need it? If I recall, you most likely have the HE adapter.

 

I believe it’s just the standard adapter to make the 348 wheel fit. I’m thinking 3”- 6” of length would be ideal.

Should I be shopping for a 348 or 355 adapter?

 

A 355 adapter. A 348 steering doesn't fit differently than any other Momo steering wheel.

 

https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n1051820018

 

Ricambi link states 355 wheel. Hill and Superformance options are showing compatibility with 348 but not 355. Any idea which will work?

https://www.hillengineering.co.uk/suspension-steering/steering-wheel-related/sws02b

https://www.superformance.co.uk/348/steering.html

https://www.ricambiamerica.com/sws-355b-f355-steering-wheel-spacer.html

The link you sent for the Japanese auction doesn't provide much detail other than it being a 355 spacer.

 

Can you post pics of the adapter you have now? If you have a HE one, it will work, but it’ll look double-stacked. In short, it’ll look like ass, but ok if you’re just adding the spacer during track events.

 

4 bolt spacer.
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That’s HE. It’ll work.

 

I’m looking for a full-time solution, not something additional to bolt on just for track events. It would be even more enjoyable to drive this car with the wheel in the proper location. Is there a one piece extension out there? Or something I’m going to have to get made?

 

This is what I mean by stacking.

Your HE steering boss is roughly 75mm if I recall correctly. The 50mm “spacer” which goes on top of your HE steering boss/adapter would make the total 125mm which is roughly 5 inches.

I’ll have to look to find something in that range.


The ones I linked from Mtecnologia Japan should be roughly 100mm, but I need to double check. This is 4 inches and fits within the range you want.


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Understood and thanks for the clarification.

Is the HE adapter that I’m using now simply a spacer or is it also acting as an adapter to fit a 348 wheel to the car? Or is no adapter needed for that?

100-125mm total sounds perfect if I can find a single piece

 

The 348 steering wheel is just like any after-market Momo steering wheel. You need to install a Momo pcd steering wheel adapter to fit the 348 steering wheel. The HE steering wheel adapter is acting as both a spacer and adapter.


A majority of 355 owners using a Momo steering wheel are using the HE steering wheel adapter as it is the most well known and easily accessible. I have one as well. However, there are multiple steering wheel adapters on the market and they will all pretty much work with your 348 steering wheel as long as it’s Momo pcd, which 99% of the time, it will be.

 

Awesome that you got the car out on track, it's the only way to fully enjoy it! Agree on the handling, the car is so neutral for me that I can change the handling from over to understeer by changing tire pressures front to rear.

I have the same problem with the steering wheel position on my car. I want to keep the airbag for street driving so will probably have a custom spacer made for the factory wheel. It needs to move 3-4" closer to me. I try to do the whole shoulders against the seat and wrist on top of the wheel and my head is either in the roof (without helmet) or my knees are hitting the stalks. I cannot get comfortable for performance driving, I end up leaning forward and slouching, which is is than ideal and tiring.

What brake pads were you running? I got brake fade after only a few hard laps with stock pads on mine. I've switched to hawk black pads but they're my great on the street due to squeeking and dust, so have some f50/challenge calipers/rotors waiting to go on.

 

I don't know what brake pads are on the car currently as I just picked it up a few months ago. I will find out next month when I take it in for service.

I just ordered this 120mm steering wheel spacer. Hoping this is the fix I need. Keep you posted.

https://www.b-gdirect.com/vehicle-equipment/steering-wheel-spacers/120mm-steering-wheel-spacer

 

It doesn’t say this is for 355. You might end up stacking this over your HE adapter.

 

If needed I will have an adapter fabricated to replace the HE one that will connect to this