Finally drove Ferrari's, a 360 and 550 (oh. my. god)

Yesterday I had a chance to drive a 550 Maranello and a 360 Spider (with F1 paddles), this being the first time I got a chance to drive such beauty for a considerable amount of time (the dealer gave me up to an hour in each).

I won't shower you with all the things that come to mind as you all know very well the feeling a Ferrari gives you, but what I CAN tell you is that this was one of the best 2 hours of my life. Ever.

The dealer will try to get hold of a Coupe 360 with a manual H-gate so that I can get a feel for that too, and with a little bit of luck, I should be able to find the car I want for my spec sometime next year (I'm looking to purchase a 360 Modena). However, this leaves me with just one question.

If you had to choose, which model year would it be? I of course understand that the general adage is "newer is better", but in some cases one has to make compromises and a newer 2003-2004 model with less then 10k miles on it is too expensive... So I'm looking for "second best".

Prices in Switzerland seem to hover around the 120,000chf mark for a 1999 model with 20-30k miles, whilst a 2000-2001 would go for a maximum of 150k. I really would like to keep the cost of the 360 down to less then 140k, but I'd love to know if there are any compelling reasons to wait out and get a 2002 MY (or newer) if I can find one for a fair price?

I have yet to decide if it will be F1 or manual (probably F1) and have read about the 'improvements' in later year models for the F1 gearbox and have consecutively taken this into account

Thank you everyone, will really appreciate any comments you have.