355 My love for my 355

Good morning fellow F355 lovers. I’m more of a lurker here then a thread starter or poster. I have loved Ferrari’s since childhood. I was blessed enough to buy my beloved 355 in 2009. I bought it through Ferrari as a 1 owner car with 13,000 miles. I have enjoyed every second of ownership. Back in 2017, hurricane harvey came calling. I spent 5 hours lifting my two cars with a scissor jack. The Ferrari got the jack stands and the rx7 got landscaping stones. My neighbor stood in my garage and watched as I raced to stay ahead of the fast rising water. He was a mess mentally as his house was already filled with 5 feet of water. He came over to my house because my house is higher. He told me multiple times to give up and quit lifting the cars. He said sadly tonight is the night you are losing your cars. Well, I never quit until there are no options left, I worked from 3am till 8am lifting. I had the jack stands as high as they would go and it became difficult lifting the rx7 further because the landscaping stones were now below the waterline and I was doing everything by feel. So, I left it in Gods hands. Both cars took on water under the seats etc. I didn’t want either car totaled unless it had to be. The 355 went to Sphere Motorsports where it is always serviced. The fluids were drained and there were no signs of water. Fluids were added and the car started right up. The consensus was the car will be fine once the flooded components were replaced. This included the top ecu, etc. I was fully insured so we pushed forward. Over $40,000 was spent replacing anything that smelled of damage. She has new seats, new leather and so on. A major was performed even though it wasn’t due. 11 months later and after waiting on Ferrari in Italy, she came back home. It has had zero issues since. Except for one event. The event was about 10 months post flood and unrelated. The wife and I headed out on a Saturday for a drive. Within minutes I could hear a very slight ticking sound on the left bank. Oil pressure was fine. Temps were fine, but I put it back in the garage. Off it went to Sphere again. I was thinking maybe a cracked header. Nope. Belt tensioner failed and the left bank jumped one tooth. Sphere said the exhaust valves were kissing carbon on the pistons. They said the valves looked fine though. I told them that I could never rev that motor again without being terrified of dropping a valve. Therefore, we replaced every exhaust valve. We decided to go ahead and replace the guides since they were showing wear too. This resulted in a 40 valve valve job. The pocketbook wasn’t happy, but I try to keep my car perfect and I felt this was the correct thing to do. A major was again performed since the motor was out and it would push back the need for another for 5 more years. I drive the car somewhere almost every weekend and love her as much today as the day I bought her. The same goes for the rx7. It is a rare CYM and is worth almost as much as the 355. The rx7 went to rotary performance and spent 10 months there. Both cars are almost perfect to this date. I just wanted to share my story and passion for my cars. Image Unavailable, Please Login
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my spider is a 1997. i'm lucky that i was well insured. it has never flooded where i'm at before. but it rained 57 inches in 30 hours. everything was going under.

 

Here are some pics from that brutal hurricane. The reason it flooded is the hurricane moved inland. However, north Texas had a high over it. This stalled the storm and made it sit stationary and even eventually going right back out to sea.
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