355 Jeff's '97 355 GTS Journey

Hi All,

My new to me '97 355 GTS 6MT made it to Denver today!

Since this is my first personal Ferrari, I wanted to create a thread to introduce myself more officially, ask questions, and document my Ferrari journey.

I grew up around pretty much every car imaginable, XKEs, MGs, Alfas, BMW, and a few Ferraris. My dad owned a 250GTE and later a 365 California Spyder - 1 of 14 built and 13 in existence. He bought the car at a time when these were all just old cars. 9801 for only 10k! The car was sold during my parent's divorce and was always the car my dad talked about.

I've always tried to chase the cars of my youth but definitely know the 365 California Spyder is out of reach. I've bought many Alfas and recently sold my '74 Spider as I just wasn't getting a chance to drive it and it was deteriorating.

I currently have an '03 Porsche Turbo X50 6MT and daily drive a '19 Jaguar IPace First Edition.

I've been researching Ferraris for quite some time. Originally, I was convinced I wanted a 550 but after driving it decided it just wasn't exciting enough. I drove a 348 and felt it was fun and almost similar to my Alfa in that nice analog way. Then I drove a couple 360s and was pretty much convinced that was the way I was going to go. I really wanted to drive a 355 but never found one locally. It's always been one of my favorite Ferraris for balancing analog feel and modern drivability (at least compared to the 348 and my Alfa ha). Then I randomly came across an add for, now, my 355 GTS in the perfect spec and with a few miles on it so I wouldn't feel guilty about driving it.

All of this means that when the car arrived today, it was the first 355 I've ever driven! So far I'm in love! It's a bit slower than the 360s I've driven, and the car needs some of the cosmetics looked at, but it feels and sounds fantastic. It's just a completely different driving experience. My Porsche Turbo is quite a bit faster, but the Ferrari really does have that soul that I always felt was missing in the Porsche - but I am going to keep both for the moment!

Enough talk. Here are some photos of my first day as a proud 355 GTS owner.

I will continue to stay up on this thread and will post questions and observations.

Thank you to everyone for all your help so far!

Regards,
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haha thanks! I think the GTS is the best for my needs as well. The rule growing up in Chicago was that if it was above freezing, the top stayed down. As much as I like the idea of the full convertible 355, I worry about the top mechanism and do prefer the lines of the GTS and GTB.

I was incredibly impressed on my first drive tonight with the targa off at how well the air flowed over the car even with the top off and windows down. I could still talk to my passenger and my ears weren't ringing when we got home.

 

Thanks!

The interior is OK. I think I can really bring it back to life by having a professional just soak the leather in conditioner. From being a CA car and then a FL car, and a GTS, the leather has seen the sun. The driver's seat needs to be re-dyed, I think. The rest is really quite good. No stickies and just a small crack in the ashtray surround that I think I can just epoxy and move on with life. The targa headliner is a bit depressed - which I think is mostly because the top wasn't on this car very often.

The weatherstripping on the targa is less than ideal though. Can I replace this relatively easily? Some owner did a decent job painting this red. I'm thinking about taking it back to black or finding a spare one in good shape.

More photos:

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Thanks! A local classics shop I trust said they can do a pretty good job cleaning up the seat. The issue there is it has been dyed previously they said. So the plan is to get it presentable and when it goes again just recover the seat.

They quoted me 1k to completely condition the leather and clean the carpets etc.

They also quoted me 2k to do a full paint correction (including touching up the small rock chips on the nose) and doing a full ceramic coating.

And now for my first driving questions:
1. How high should the clutch engage? Mine also has a little play in the pedal at the top - maybe an inch?
2. The A/C blower - even on high it's sort of akin to my 11month old blowing on me. Normal? I did have the targa off.

Thank you!

 

haha meaning you get some relief or it's just sort of a slight breeze in the desert?

 

Another, probably dumb, question for the group - any issue with leaving the targa top stowed all the time? Does it warp or anything if left off for too long?

 

Thanks! The rest of the dash is pretty strong - it's pulled just SLIGHTLY by the defroster vent. The sun visors are horrendous.

I think for the ashtray I can probably just use a touch of epoxy and be good. Is there something I'm missing?

The car has 36k miles on it - and counting as I can't stop driving it

 

Great news! I passed emissions on my first try! The car has some sort of race cats on it and I had the shop in Florida put mini cats on to keep the CEL off - and it worked!

Now if only the DMV would re-open so I can get plates...

 

Another newb question for everyone - I was just going through all the books that came with my car and noticed the manual for the Alpine stereo has a note on the back with the install date - 3/97. Since my car is a '97 model, and I don't see an option for a radio on the original sticker, could that mean this IS the original radio to this particular car? Was the radio an option or just standard in '97?

 

No CD changer in the front or signs it existed. Wouldn't the original window sticker show the radio? Mine doesn't. Sort of interesting and I wonder if the original owner had the dealer swap it so he could have a CD player instead of the stock tape deck.