Hey... My friend has a Lotus Elise R and anywhere he goes people take pics...people chatting to him about the car..even girls hitting on him.....it is usually positive..there have been a few exceptions but not worth mentioning...the positive outweighs the negatives.. What is life like with the F355 given that it is even more exotic that a Lotus.
2 yellow cars for comparison... to the untrained eye, the Elise looks more exotic, no? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
on a side note.. are you familiar with this speed trap here? http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=216532
The F355, well, nearly everyone knows it's a Ferrari. I drove around a 360 for a week and with the C6 having very similar headlight design it did get quite a bit of attention but many friends/family just assumed it was a Corvette. When they got closer they'd go "Oh crap this is a Ferrari", rarely have that with the F355. In short, it's not a Diablo or Murcielago but it gets quite a bit of attention. I hope that's not why you'd buy one though.
A huge part of the allure is the sound, major difference with the Lotus Toyota power. It is still a great car, I like the looks and they're fun to drive being so tiny.
I've always had a soft spot for the 355, never thought to compare it to an Elise, .... I find the Elise a bit more garish in it's styling. The 355 is a very clean good looking design.
LOL, I said "untrained"... haha... as in people who don't know anything about cars, let alone Ferraris... Let's get all our grandmas and grade school teachers get a consensus here.... +1, I'll give you that.. I've always loved the 355 since I learned about this car in the Sega arcade/Dreamcast video game "Ferrari F355 Challenge"...
Even to the untrained eye, the name "Ferrari" stands out and it's blatantly displayed all over the car. The Elise, while it is an eye grabber to the untrained eye isn't going to be much different then a Miata, an S2000, or any other type of roadster you see on a daily basis. But an F355 has very unique lines, the only none exotic car that even comes close is a C5 Vette and it's much more rounded off and doesn't grab your attention like the 355
like the engine...? Word has it that Toyota had something to do with it... Image Unavailable, Please Login
I have actually owned both, so I can tell you that the Lotus absolutely gets as much attention as a 355, and I would say more. If the ladies are really your target, they seem to uniformly love the Elise/Exige line. It stands out much more than a 355. I have compared the cars ad naseum here, but the gist is that there is no more involving car that I have ever been in, at any price. It is truly like a go-kart. For any Ferrari fan to say a Lotus is cheap or has a crappy engine would be pretty hypocritical. The Lotus driveline is bullet-proof and will run all day at the track. It is over 100 hp/liter in NA form, and an Exige S will hand a 355 its assend at a street light... to a point. Once you are over 100 mph, the power to drag becomes an issue. But keep in mind that an Exige makes 150 pounds of downforce at only 100 mph, were the 355 does not make that much at any speed. With 3k in carbon parts (splitter, wing, sills), an Exige will make as much downforce at 100 mph as a 360 at 150 mph.
Tru dat. To the untrained eye, the Lotus stands out more. Even to the untrained ear, the Ferrari is unmistakeable. There is simply no disguising a 4-banger. Lord knows I tried, and the sound was one of the reasons I was pulled back to the 355.
