355 Handles like a modern supercar

There’s only so much ( scus the pun ) re invention of the wheel engineers can do .
Colin Chapman / Gordon Murray s philosophy, weight kills handling is the key .
Your 355 and my 348 are light relative to modern “ super cars “ ok not as many horses for drag racing , but that’s not your Q . You are taking taking corners .
I have just completed a euro hoon around the Swiss passes in my 348 SP with a mate in his 488 …. Yep I went round the hairpin bends quicker it was more agile .
My Michelin PS4 helped over his std Pirelli P zeros . The mich is the current car guys go to tyre at the mo .
You 911 is a marvel that dispute Porsche best engineer s just can’t defy physics. I mean never mind the rear engine over the axial what about the fwd fuel tanks constantly changing the balance as it empties? Huh .
At least your Ferrari s tank is sat in the middle of the chassis.
It’s no surprise really 348 / 355 handle after 30 or what ever yrs .
Physics has constants in equations. They don’t change .

 

I think a bigger factor is an individual is only so comfortable with cornering making similarly designed cars appear to corner about the same. I guarantee you a 488 has more mechanical grip than an f355. An individual just might not be comfortable exploring those higher limits.

A highly skilled driver will corner faster in a newer supercar.

 

Newer isn't necessarily capable of higher lateral g. Put the same tires and good alignment on an F355 or 488 what makes the 488 capable of higher lateral g?

Maybe it's more composed on certain surfaces and overall certainly faster but I don't think a huge delta would be observed unless you're up in speed where downforce is a big factor.

 

I just put Pilot 4S on my 355 but I’ve only had it for 2 weeks so I’ll not be able to compare. I can/do corner quickly now, maybe knowing they are fresh.

I wonder how long you’ve had your 355 and if you are more comfortable cornering in it since you know it well. My previous Porsche was much more familiar to me.

I feel like I am learning the feel of the 355 and hope to join you on an 80 mph turn one day! I am still trying to master the clutch work and reduce my gated shifter lurching after car warms up.

 

No, even with fresh 355 tires, my 458 was taking desert sweepers at speeds 60% higher. Did you replace the steering rack bushings and front shocks?

In fact part of the 'beginning of the end' for my 355 was that I got a Giulia Quadrifoglio for a daily, and within 4 months had added the 458 because the QV annihilated the 355 in every performance measurement.

 

Dissing a 30+ year old design for its dated straight line performance or cornering abilities is missing the point. The F355 is a obviously a classic car, but its qualities lie in its ability to deliver thrills at much lower/safer speeds than any modern, overly-efficient car. It's a car that wants you to have fun with it rather than boast about track times or whatever cold/quantified/meaningless data.

 

I don’t really take that as a realistic statement. But I’ll tell you what my modified 348 was super fun ripping around yesterday. Hard to drive a car that makes me smile as much as this one.
And everybody else that sees it on the road, modern sports cars don’t make people smile that much around here.

 

On the street/freeway yes, the 355 can be much more fun to drive and appear to handle similar or better. Get it on the track compared to the modern cars at high speed and it gets destroyed.

 

So if you were rolling through the valley of fire at 100 with the 355 you could do 160 with the 458? (Maybe you are thinking even more wide open, just trying to grasp it)

 

No but more like a 50mph corner vs 80mph.

 

It has nothing to do with familiarity.
I have a 348, 355, 430, 612 & 458 currently & the 612 would Corner the worst even with its HGTC Package.
The 355 is smaller than the 458 or the 488 & it Corners like a go kart.
I took the 355 last year to Mid America & when we were running the Old Road Courses I was behind a buddies 430 & a F12 another time. They always had me in the straights but any curvy section I was on their rears thinking I could go faster... & I was just on Hankooks that came with the Car when I bought it (Michelins will go on next)
My 430&458 feel quite capable & I am used to them all fairly equally so it's definitely not that. The 355 has a shorter wheelbase vs a 488 or my 458 or 430, so it's explainable.
The 488 is faster on the Track mainly because of advances like Carbon Brakes & Speed you can accelerate to coming out of the Corners
Side note the 348 is new to me & hasn't been driven enough to go in this comparison.

 

Wonder why Gandini designed the Stratos with such a short wheel base …… ?
It killed the rally scene @ the corners

 

I could hit 162 MPH on the (slightly less than) 1/2 mile front straight at TWS before turning into T1;
Given 2 miles, an F355 should be able to get into the mid 170s or low 180s.

 

I tracked my 355 for the hell of it this summer, my buddy was on my ass the entire tire in his Hura

Hard to tell from the video buddy but to me that looks like the 355 driver is just a better driver.

 

Threads about cornering . Any fool with a straight long enough, ( wether 200 yards or 2 miles ) and in something with considerable more Hp + some aero advantage can go faster than a old school 355/348 . That’s a given .

While we ( hopefully refocus ) are on cornering ability - my 208 GT4 @ 1100 kgs on skinny 195 ballon 70 / 14 inch Yokohama’s corners fast too . There becomes a point whereby fatter tyres in tighter turns actually, bcz of the excess scub start to slow down the car .fwd speed is lost by it being transferred into energy lost by the tyre scrub , the tyres heat up . You win the prize of hot rubber for what’s that’s worth at the expense of speed . The 488 tyres will be hotter than the 355 s . You can keep that prize btw .
The slippage angle , friction of the rubber , wider rubber of say a Countach or Managusta Counterintuitively hinder TIGHT cornering ability.
Wider rubber transfers the cornering forces by gripping to lateral aspects to slowing it down . The more weight the more energy is transferred through the fat rubber which slows it down .
It’s better to slip on narrow tyres and release that breaking force , thus allowing or looking another way of the thing to carry speed all be it side ways through the corner or near side ways .
Combine this with a shorter WB and a few ounces of driver skill lower weight and there you have it a faster cornering car .

So turning it all around when cars get lardy / heavy through engine size ( compare a lotus 1988 Elise with the new 2025 Testarossa ) the Ferrari needs fatter tyres just to lay down 1080 Hp and carry all that lard of the fwd battery + electrotwackery motor .
But on Alpine hair pins the €10000 , 30 yr old 1.8 L four banger lotus under 1000 kg on skinny tyres will whip it .

Not quite the difference but a shorter wheel base , lighter , skinner tyres 355 will corner alpine twisty bits better than any 488 / F8 .
The 348 arguably a slightly shorter wheel base and skinner rubber better than the longer 355 but we are splitting hairs here .

As I said earlier it’s weight that kills handing not lack of Hp . Lack of Hp kills top speed and the acceleration to reach said speed .
Reiterating that’s not the thread ….ultimately. The threads cornering ability Image Unavailable, Please Login
Simplifying ….a Zillion Hp means more mass ( engine and drive train - chassis to carry ….think Bentley GT new Ferrari Testarossa et al ) thus wider rubber to cope said Hp , to lay it down mostly in the straight line assuming the nannies arn’t cutting in .
That rubber combined with the mass and longer wheel base slows the thing down in TIGHT hair pins like the pic above .

Of course on a track be it Nurburgring or other the extra Hp on the straights more than makes up the slower TIGHT corners so the fat car of a zillion Hp records a faster time . The fat car on wide rubber also goes faster on sweeping curves ….it’s fat rubber lays down the Hp = speed current Lamborghini s modus operandi . We owners of lightweight, ( Colin Chapman / Gordon Murray school of thought ) acknowledge this .

 

I don't really understand this thread. The F355 is from a different era where springs were softer, tires were narrower, and the max grip tires were equivalent to modern day all-seasons. If you really dial in the alignment and corner balance, it drives and performs fine, but the ultimate grip is low based on tire and brake capability... and the steering rack is slow, you have to work to move the car around... which is good because the wheelbase is short.

Any of the modern cars are longer, more stable, more powerful, tuned for cup 2 R's and have brakes to match. Dampers are tuned stiffer. And steering ratios are fixed. It's just not the same at all street sensation, or track.

For comparison sake - laps at Sonoma because it's a windy track (most similar to canyons that I've done).
F355 - I put down a 1:57 in it, pushing what I could get out of it.
Mclaren 750s - 1:47 on a dirty track (someone pulled rocks across 10). Clean track is at 1:42
Mclaren 570sGT4 - put in 1:38
GT3RS - Friends are doing 1:38's to 1:40's
The difference is that 1:57 was hard to do and really pushing it. The faster times in the modern cars is so much more confident with all the modern systems. It's just not comparable.

 

I thought this thread was going to be about the 355's hidden door handles

 

TWS. I loved that track. I drove my first Ferrari (f355 incidentally) there instructing for a DriverSource customer appreciation track day.

 

What’s interesting to note here is the 355 I posted was also tracked at Sonoma. It is a super early 95 car. July 94 build. Should have all the early engine goodies. The cut off for early engine goodies is some time in Nov 94. I believe your car is after the cutoff, although it is a 95.




He was able to hit 1:55 at Sonoma. This was 11 years ago, so whatever tire tech available back then. Stock brakes as well if I recall correctly.