F1 or Gated 360

Gated is the best for street driving IMHO. I had a 360 gated and now have a Gallardo with E-gear. I miss the manual.

 

had F1 on my CS and gated on my 430. Gated all the way!

 

F1 all the way but my co-worker Dusty is 6spd all the way. Try it out yourself and see which you like best.

 

+1

 

I agree that you should buy the one that you like, and forget all of the opinions, but you can't just try a paddle shifter for 10 minutes and then decide. I have a 3 pedal 360 and my business partner has a Qport with paddles (granted the software is less sophisticated than a 360). It took him a month to figure out if he liked it or not. Whenever I drive it, I find it a novelty, but it's not as rewarding to me as matching my own revs perfectly (or not) on a downshift. I will say pedal placement in a 360 is perfect for heel and toeing. Try to get your hands on a paddle shifter for at least a whole day before you form an opinion.

 

Do you use Simpson racing shoes or similar for your heel/toe shifts? Ever since I quit racing and was used to heel/toe shifting my Formula Atlantic with Simpson racing shoes, it is very difficult to duplicate that experience in a street car for me.

 

Oh ****, oh ****, oh ****, oh ****, oh ****....sounds from a driver of a manual 360 that cant keep with the F1 shift 360 as they over take on the twistys

 

That's really funny! LOL

 

Being the owner of a 360 6-speed, I had the opportunity to drive a friends 360 F1 in the twisties. There are many times in the tight turns where you simply cannot be at redline and full throttle when shifting. It was during those times that I would shift, then wait. And wait. And wait. Then the car would shift gears and finally give me back control of the throttle. How frustrating!

 

No. Just thin soled driving shoes (street shoes).

 

I had the same question, but ended up with a F1. For several reasons, one was that my wife could also enjoy the car. That was huge to me, because she bought into the concept of getting a ferrari.

When I decided that I wanted to get a ferrari my wife was very supportive. I had a totally modded out porsche speed yellow cab, (wheels, exhaust, aero kit, blah blah blah, and it wa a 6 speed). I saw how distint she was to the car, and she is a car person. So this time i thought, what the f**K, we can both enjoy it.

I do enjoy the F1 and when porsche gets into the game, I will get another one as wll

 

I just bought my first Ferrari - 360 Coupe 6sp (Thanks Gary!!), and also have an M6 with SMG which is about equivelant to the 430 F1 tranny, probably smoother. I love SMG, and its insanely fast and more accurate, however I LOVE driving the 360 6sp.. the envolvement, the snick-snick of the gate, cant pass it up. With respect to the 360 F1, it leaves a bit to be desired. I would go with 6 sp all the way. Stradale, different story (let alone the lack of a choice). With the 430 it would be a different story, might lean towards F1 tranny.

6SP!!

 

Let's not get into the classic 6sp vs. F1 discussion...been there, read & re-read that.

The 355 F1 was a bit crude
The 360 F1 was a vast improvement over the 355

But the skinny from the mechanics and 430 owners is that the F1 wasn't truly perfected into a state of excellence until the 430. It would seem that if you really want an F1, best to pay the money for a 430. General consensus wisdom dictates: when seeking a 360, stick to the gates. Also seems like a lot of 2nd/3rd/4th-hand buyers are far more inclined towards the gate as well....but don't you dare go buying a car like this with resale-value and the next guy in mind! You get what you want and bang a hot chick. No, wait....that's not right, it's "you get what you want and you don't look back"....nevermind the hot chick part, sorta.

But hey, it's still a Ferrari either way; it's not like you can go wrong and you can always change tranny's with the next model. That's sorta my plan, click the 360, paddle the 430 (eventually). That ought to strike home..

 

When my wife gave me the thumbs up to buy a Ferrari she did asked if I could buy a F1 so that she could drive it too (She doesn't know how to drive a manual), but after I told her the frequency and cost of the F1 clutch change she immediately said to buy a manual.

As she know that I still have the original clutch on my p-car at 90k miles.

 

After a search here on the topic, I wanted to bump this thread to get a fast-forward read on gated vs how reliable the F1 is. Lets take a well sorted '02 360 with say 50% clutch life left. My general driving habits are not all that spirited 95% of the time, just a gentleman driving the speed limit putting 3K - 5K miles a year on the car, probably 50/50 highway - in town. My only fear is presenting the wife with a $10K-$15K repair bill. I could afford it but I'd have a very cranky wife for a spell as she is not a car person and does not have the passion most of us have nor the full understanding of what the marque (I've had two 308's and a 348 since we have been together. First time she saw the 308, she said 'Cool Mustang ).

 

You are probably better off just keeping the expenditure to yourself if you can. My ex-wife wasn't good with the costs so we eventually had to divorce . OK there were other reasons but the car and cost was an issue for her as she did not see or get any pleasure from me owning a Ferrari.

As for reliability, I think it partly depends on how the car has been looked after. I think a manual is likely to give you less transmission problems. However it has potential to empty your wallet in other areas of course. Buy the one you prefer and the best you can afford.

 

Dude you know the costs are also a factor of how "meticulous" people are with the car. If you need it to be "perfect" it's gonna be a ride. If you can tolerate an imperfection in the car, its ALOT cheaper. Also helps if you don't beat on it. I was out in mine this last weekend and she is NOT perfect.. but she doesn't have to be for me to have a de-stress session. With F1 threads.. as these cars get older they don't get more reliable. Though.. I suspect that if you replace a few key parts in advance, the car is much more reliable. Specifically the brake pedal switch, the hatch switch and the F1 relay. I also suspect that keeping the electrical system as stock as possible and charged as best as possible with a tender keeps away warning lights.
I don't redline mine like ever.. I take her up to maybe 5k RPM. Of the Porsches I bought the lesson I learned is drive most of the time at 50% of the redline and the performance car lasts for years.
That.. and buy her expensive shoes if it breaks.

 

Tru dat.

 

Thank you Doctor, appreciate your reply. I'm so well aware its a 'Pay me now or pay me later' thing. That said, I'm not opposed to proper maintenance.

My dream would be to find a local mechanic who I could work on my (next) car in his shop with. I had this when I purchased my first 308. The mechanic / shop owner had me in to do a belt change (and a couple of other minor repair items here and there) under his guidance. It was wonderful learning how to do general maintenance. I took tons of pictures and pages of notes on each job. And yes, I paid him his full shop rate. He was really happy to find somebody with the passion to learn repairs and learning about how the engine worked. Doing that work was probably more personally rewarding than driving the car.

 

With you tube… you can diy at your home shop. Just take your time and stop if you get stumped…. Do more research… get help often and plonk away…….. I’m comfortable with just about anything external to the engine trans.

 

This is very true. I'm not comfortable with much of anything yet.... But I'm still learning...

And honestly, 1/2 the reason I bought the car was to learn to work on it. Its been great fun to work on and drive thus far!!

Kevin

 

Having worked on bmw and gm products I can say the mid engine 360 layout is easy to service…. And fasteners are accessible and made to go off and back on again… not goofy 1 time use plastic fixing points like bimmer.