355 spider vs 360 spider vs Gallardo Spider

I've driven all 3. I prefer the Gallardo of this group.

 

Stick with the 355

 

i've never driven the g, but i have owned a 360, 355, and murci, of the three my favorite by far is the 355. by the way the only one of the group i've kept is the 355, that ought to tell you something.

 

+1

 

what made you stay with the 355...Murci is a heavy hitter so is the 360

 

Possibly the BEAUTIFUL lines of a 355 and then theres that glorious 355 engine sound........

 

i failed to mention that i do have a cs, so i suppose thats a 360, although i did have a 360 spider. but yeah the lines, the noise, the size of it, it all just seems to work perfectly. that is till i have issues with it, but when its on, well, its on! stirs my soul, got to get a 6 speed though.

 

the 360 doesnt do anything at all for me...at one point I liked it, but then when the introduction for the 430, iv never been able to look at the 360 the same way again....

+3 for 355. aside from an f40, it is my favorite ferrari ever produced.

 

The 360 is far from a heavy hitter. It is only slightly faster any any situation than a 355. Murci on the other hand.....



Darrell.

 

I'll agree with that. I drive my 355 spider often with friends who have 360s and when we do pulls on the highway, they don't gain even a couple feet on me from low speeds on up to the limit. I've done this many times with many different 360s (CSes don't pull by much either) and the 355 is not a slower car. The 360 chassis is tighter though, but on the road, it doesn't seem to handle much better, if at all - tires and suspension seem to make the difference here. And the 355 sounds and looks better

Back to the topic of the thread, I'd discount the 360 entirely, also because the prices are going to plummet very soon. The Gallardo, on the other hand, is a great car, and it is appreciable faster than the 355 (especially above 40mph), and it is AWD so you can use it year round in any road conditions. Is it worth 60-80k for a Gallardo over a 355? That's your call, but it definitely is worth it if you're trying to keep up with the Joneses. If you don't care about the Joneses, that 60-80k could be used for another toy instead

 

I just went though a similar decision process, except I was considering a CS (the holy grail). When you look at the numbers, it would be some 90k+ more than my GTS. The CS is absolutely badass, but is it worth 90k more? Plus increased taxes, insurance, worry, not to mention feeling like it was just too expensive for me to take on track (where it belongs).

I am actually loving the 355 more now. All of a sudden, I feel like I can justify spending some money on the 355 to do some tweaks that I would like. I don't care if I don't get the money back out of it, it is no longer a stepping stone to a better car, no longer any sort of an investment. It is just a car to own and drive and I intend to squeeze all the joy out of it I can!

There are some inexpensive 360 spiders out there, so the price difference would not be so great (fabulous and cheap high miles car at Sport Auto). The G-spider is a whole different financial strata. Great car, but I thought they were even more than CSs?

It really does depend what you get out of the car. For me, the 355 is a perfect balance.

 

The G-Spyder has no functional top?! It's a sunny day weekend toy at most. Useless for driving to a client's location or for any distance away from its enclosed garage space.

The Gallardo coup is quite tempting, though. Sharp wedge looks and good performance/reliability. Most G owners are afraid to put miles on their cars, so it's easy to find a low mileage, pristine example at used car prices.

They basicly take the price hit for you; paying to maintain and store rather than drive/enjoy the car. G threads are filled with boasts of who has the lowest miles on their cars!

Pretty ridiculous, but you can benefit from such nonsense on their part.



The 360 Spider is **sharp** looking. One of my neighbors has a red one and a TDF blue one. Sweet.

 

I buy my cars to enjoy them not drive clients or wine and dine people. I think there are just as many fcar owners that buy an fcar and spend more money on garaging them than driving them. as far as finding gcars for very few miles, most of the g cars you find are newer cars. Look at 348s/355s, many of them are over 10 years old and have less than 15k miles.

 

There's no crime in owning a toy to have to play around on sunny weekend days, but comparing a toy such as a G-Spyder to functional sports cars like the 360 Spyder is silly.

It's like the mid-life crisis divorced man buying a '68 Cobra that doesn't even have a top or windows and comparing it to a Ferrari GTO that can be raced on weekends and driven daily during the week. Just enormous differences in the scale and scope of the cars...too large of a gap to bridge with any reasonable comparison ("Oooohhhhh 0-60 times!").

 

I have never driven a 360 or a G car before giving they both are exotics/sports cars, how is one anymore practical than the other?

Both 2 seaters, small trunks, low...

 

You can drive the 360 Spyder in the rain without getting wet inside.

In contrast, Lamborghini did the Gallardo right, but botched the G-Spyder. The G-Spyder can't stray far enough from its enclosed garage to risk any rain.

 

From my understanding the G Sypders top works just fine. Its the Murci roadster with the rediculous 15 minute to set up, dont drive above 87mph top that is a piece of crap.

 

yesss, I completely over looked and forgot about that. Yes the gspyder and the merci roadster have the worst engineering when it comes to the tops, they might as well not have waisted their time or your money on it...

 

If you're happy with the reliability of your 355, you have best looking car of the lot, and in terms of engine sound I don't think any of the 360s (Modena/Spider/CS) can touch it.

I like the Gallardo, but the Audi DNA has gotten pretty comingled with Lamborghini at this point. The 355 is a more visceral, exotic car.

The 360 cockpit has always felt too big to me -- not very sports car-like, despite the car's capabilities. Go drive one and see what you think. I love the 328 cockpit, which feels old school racer-ish, and the 355 is also properly snug. When you're driving, that's a big part of it.

 

I saw the guys from Top Gear trying to install the top of their merci roadster in Africa (I believe), after so long they just gave up.

 

I saw it too, but IIRC the Gallardo top is completely different.

 

The Murcie essentially has no top...the Gallardo top is there, if somewhat problematic: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=137108068&postcount=1

 

+1 .......... though I have a hard time believeing a lot of the low odo claims. Many 355s are in very poor condition to corroborate the supposed miles.........

......yet another wisdom laden post from our friend Bullfighter ...........

 

I've had a 355 Spider and presently have a Gallardo hardtop. I had problems with the 355 that really stemmed from the fact that the previous owner hadn't driven it enough. I was constantly fixing little things like, power brakes not working, top not working, and when it did would often malfunction. With all these problems I still liked the car, but it is no Gallardo. I could easily run circles around it and it should considering the specs. I sold the 355 and bought a Testarossa and happy for it.

John