Is F1 on 360 that bad?

It's early generation F1. It's fine for what it is. I wouldn't buy 1 due to some insane parts prices...

My rec: 3 pedals or minvan!

 

It's fine as long as you don't drive an F1 F430 for a comparison. After that you won't want the 360 in an F1. I think that a manual suits that car better anyway.

IMO, If it's your first car with an F1 style gearbox it will probably blow your mind. The shifts are still very fast but just not as crisp as the 430. You need to drive it before you make any final decisions. Good luck with the purchase.

 

I had on '02 with the F1 and loved it. The good news is that I had nothing to compare it with.

 

I have a '99 F1 and love it... Didn't compare it to the 430, but I have plenty of three pedal cars to play with as well.

 

Never owned any Ferrari myself but I've driven my fair share.

I drove an '02 360 Spider F1 and didn't really like it. To be fair, I don't know what kind of condition the clutch was currently in. It wasn't horrible but if it were my money I would choose a manual 6 speed.

I drove an '04 CS and I thought it felt just fine. I wouldn't have any problems with owning one of those. I have heard that you can upgrade the 360 software with the CS software but I don't know how true that is.

 

Who is 'everyone' ?


Why not be really radical and drive it and make your own mind up

 

Agreed. Drive it, and hopefully several others, to determine for yourself if it's something you are expecting, and if you can live with it.

I have both a 360CS and 458, and certainly the new car shifts better, but they are of different generations of technology with one having the benefit of an extra ten years' worth of lessons and technological advancement put into it.

When I first drove the 1999 360 in 1999, I didn't think it was bad at all; in fact, I thought it was quite nice. I certainly don't think it's bad today. Sure, technology marches on but it's not like the it is so comparatively bad it's unusable like some would dramatize.

 

Works fine, but not if you listen to the three pedal mafia. Since they tend to be noiser than those that own and love F1 cars, that is what you hear the most. Try one. The later 360s have newer TCU software and the Stradale has even newer software. Swapping TCUs for one of the later versions makes a very noticeable improvement in shifting smoothness, shifting speed, and even clutch longevity and the swap is easy to do if you have access to a facility with an SD2/3.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Then why won't any repair center, including Ferrari North America, tell you how many mile you can get out of a typical F1 360 clutch? They say it depends on the driver and how he drives the car, but they do not say that about the manuals. Manuals last over 20,000 miles but an F1 can go out in just 2000 miles. Sounds like a cop out to me?

 

For the same reason they can't say how long a manual clutch will last. You can burn one out in a weekend if you abuse it.

My experience is that the clutch wear between the F1 and manual isn't really that much different if driven identically in the same conditions. If you drive a lot in the city and slip the clutch a lot in either ciricumstance, you're going to run it out fast.

There is no mystery here. The computer controlled clutch does what the human does -- sometimes better and sometimes worse. In the end, it's pretty much a wash. The biggest difference I see is that people who have F1's tend to shift them more than manuals because it's easy to flip the paddles. And, going up an incline and backing in reverse probably wears the F1 more than a skilled person can do with a manual.

BTW: A lot of people get 20K miles with an F1 clutch.

 

Based on impressions I've read from others, get a gated shifter on anything before the F430. Shift times and smoothness were greatly improved on the F430 transmission.

 

I replaced the clutch in my CS at about 24k miles. It still had life left in it but since service was already being done, I had the clutch done as well.

 

I received a new clutch when I purchased my 360. I put 13,000 miles on the clutch and had 12% wear. I sold my CS with 22k miles and 18% clutch wear. I've never had a problem with excessive clutch wear. I'm currently running similar numbers on my Scud.

 

That's great! Obviously, you don't take it to work everyday down the 405 freeway in rush hour! That's a killer for any clutch.

 

Definitely not a DD. I try to stay out of traffic, I don't back it up hill, I don't do burnouts and other things that can give you excessive clutch wear. I do tend to shift at high rpm's.

 

That's phenomenal. I'm dumping my 360, but if I weren't, I was planning on a CS TCU or the formula dynamics remapping this spring which would likely make some difference. Be interesting if someone here had done both, stock TCU and CS TCU. I would have if I weren't moving to a 430.

 

Ray- Because it depends on the driver, just like it does for a three pedal clutch. No cop out. If you are one of those guys who comes up to a stop sign or light and downshifts all the way to first or lets an F1 transmission downshift itself to first, your clutch is going to wear out faster than someone who puts it into neutral as he comes to a stop.

An unanswerable question, as the pros on this site will tell you.

Taz
Terry phillips

 

Taz, +1. Later ECUs are better. The original ECU can sometimes cook the clutch a little, in some conditions it lets it slip too much and too long. This is especially true in the hands of drivers who do not understand the system very well. You can't drive these cars like automatics.

The car is quite mindblowing indeed. A friend has one and it is absolutely wonderful, even though I am still more a fan of manual cars, the electronics sometimes just don't exactly do as I would want to and even though it's necessary, I always thought it was annoying you have to stand on the brake before engaging 1st. Hillstarts were a problem on this friends' 360, but unsure whether that's exemplary or the rule. It still has the original ECU.
I am sure 430s are better and faster but a 360F1 is still an awesome drive.

 

Absolutely correct and a good point. If you use the car in auto mode, you're going to go throught the clutch in no time. It's the same way when using the paddles.

Modenafan is exactly correct in driving the car hard when shifting and it gets the least amount of wear. Try to drive it like it's a Buick and you'll replace the clutch all the time.

But, that would be the same for a manual too. If you slip the clutch to make it smooth (like an auto), you're using it up before it's time.

I also think that the F1 gets a bad wrap because people who use it downshift more than people who have a manual. It's just so easy to downshift an F1 when driving around town. I think people who have manuals go into nuetral more often when stopping than downshifting at every stop light.

 

There are more mechanisms to break, act up, and basically cost a lot of money in an F1 car that simply aren't there in a manual 360. It's simpler and likely to require less maintenance over the long run, and for many drivers, is more involving.

That said, when I was shopping for my 360, equivalent 6-speed cars were trading at a 14-15k premium over what I paid for my F1 car. I'm a BIG driving enthusiast, and I loved the gated shifter of my old '87 Testarossa. Do I miss the manual shifting sometimes? Absolutely. Was it worth 15k more to me to have the 6-speed? Not at all.

Drive both, shop around, and determine what you like more and what it's worth to you.

 

+1, I didn't particularly care for the F1 in my 360 but on the F430 it is a whole different story. Day and Night.

 

But with that beautiful downship blip and exhaust burst, its probably hard to resist shifting down . Personally, I think that's worth taking a little extra life off the clutch for.

 

24K+ miles before needing to replace the clutch on my 2000 F1 360. I have been a life-time three-pedal guy, but I can't beat the F1 for driving the canyons around my house

BTW, not to be pedantic regarding the last several posts, but it is the TCU, not the ECU that controls the transmission.

Jim

 

Jim- TCU is shorthand for F1 ECU which is also shorthand. Or to quote the parts catalogs: F1 GEAR-BOX ELECTRONIC CONTROL STATION.

Pedanticism misplaced.

Taz
Terry Phillips