Thinking about a 355

For me, the “F355” is “the one” and worth investing into to make a good car great.

 

Mmm, not sure if I can be helpful but I'll try to break it down in a timeline.

Had a 99 F355 GTS -sold

Had a 95 carrera 2-sold

Realized I needed an F355 again but had to be a berlinetta. So... bought a 95 Berlinetta -

Missed the Porsche. Hard to find a good 993 so bought a 997.2. Nope, not helping.

Sold 997.2 and bought 993 C4s.

Back to happy. End of the day, love the Porsche but still more into/passionate about my F355

 

As a Porsche guy from long hood '73 up to 04 GT3 and Macans, owning a 355 ticked all the right boxes. Owned it for 6 years and every time I started my Rosso Corsa toy, it was always special. The sound is unlike any Porsche - higher pitch when past 6k sounding more like a Yamaha race bike or dare I say F1 car from the 90s. I got a spyder ($50k less than hard tops) which is fine as I never had plans to track this vehicle.
In 6 years, only replaced tires and paid $18k for engine out at renowned Ferrari service shop in Central NJ which included replacing cats and repairing axle boot tears. I added this cost to my sale price and walked away getting all my money back. Would do it again or recommend to a good friend.

 

355 is very, very different than a 991. I had a 991S for a couple of years. Very fast and capable, but boring and not special. I sold it and pulled my 993 back out of storage. If you like the 80s-90s feel, you will probably like the 355. But the only way to know is to drive one.

 

Remember, it's a classic Ferrari experience not a modern one, some folks buy them expecting to see angles outside along side the side view mirrors when driving it. Very 80s/90's feel overall. Which is GREAT thing btw.

 

A picture says a thousand words.
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I don't have much experience with the P-cars, but I personally find the F355 to be the exact right size and power/weight to be endlessly entertaining on Front Range roads...

It's also pretty useable. My previous "semi-exotic" was an Alfa 4C, and the 355 is much easier to live with. I still have the 4C but it's just really hyper and never settles down. The 355 is always fun to thrash but equally fun to just cruise around.

 

I've owned a 95 355 GTS since 2010- Phenomenal car to drive and own- Also a Porsche lover- currently have a 2018 GT3 Touring and have had three 911s prior- The 355 makes you realize you are driving something special and essentially hand- made- Maintenance is expensive but if you proactively budget and plan for it then it is manageable - I would go for it- But as others have said it's a completely different ownership and driving experience- But fantastic one BTW mines Giallo and the 355 wears it well
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Contact Derek Fening at Ferrari of Denver- I've bought and traded 7 cars with him/them- He/they are fantastic and fair to deal with - they recently had three 355s - One GTS- One Spider- One GTB - all Rosso Corsa- Not sure of specs but know the GTS was manual- No affiliations other than being a long time customer and reference

 

I’ve owned a 964 T, 2-993 TT, 993 C, etc


They were fun for 3-6 months & I sold them. The F355 is the first car that I don’t get tired off & want to change. I just ask myself “what is going to make me smile bigger than this”?

Nothing under $500k min.




Tim

 

A fine New Year's resolution. Bravo!

 

911s are great cars, but to me their appeal is more for daily drivers or for “track” cars. Nothing like starting a Ferrari for that special drive, a lot more sense of occasion. Daily drive a 992 C4S and really like it (have done 52k miles!), but every time I drive my straight piped Capristo”d 355 GTS, it is memorable. If you love the 90s era cars, a 355 is a fantastic choice. The car is comfortable, small, fits like an old shoe, easy to drive, forgiving, and more importantly you can wring all the performance of the amazing V8 to 8500k rpm. If feels fast without being illegal fast, the best for a usable sports car. As to which one to buy… I have owned both, a coupe and GTS. More squeaks etc on GTS for sure, but worth it because I leave the top off of it for 9 months of the year Plus maybe future collectibility of GTS vs coupe (who knows) would make me lean towards 355 GTS, 6 speed, 2.7 Motronic w/ Capristo stage 3 . Good luck with your search, can’t go wrong with a 355.

 

After fulfilling what always seemed to be a wild dream with the purchase a 550 which has exceeded my expectations and that I intend to keep forever I decided to carry on with another Ferrari and bought a F355 berlinetta (2.7), just to see what the fuss was all about. Financially I could justify it, I had never owned a mid engined car before or a V8 engine and thought it could be hard to find a car ticking all the boxes for the sake of experiencing something new - with several decades as a Porsche owner old habits die hard and I might be one of very few who bought an emotional car such as the F355 with the head rather than with the heart, as for me the heart says that a Ferrari has to have a V12.

I have only had the F355 for a few months and have been spending most time fixing it, which I enjoy as much as the driving experience and I am impressed by how simple and straightforward it is to work on, at least for someone with several decades of wrenching on often unnecessarily complex German cars. Compared with the 550 the F355 drives like a bicycle and has proven faster than I expected. It is fun fast rather than stressful fast but can get overwhelming in the happy sense if I really push it. When it will be fully fixed and with a proper exhaust I am pretty sure that like its bigger brother it will again exceed my expectations. I still have an old Porsche which I could not live without and owning all of these cars at the same time makes it all a worthwhile experience as their respective vices and virtues balance each other perfectly.

With my experience so far with both brands and considering that you also come from the Porsche world I would suggest you to stick to the 911, sell the 308 and find ways to fund a F355 which you might still not fall in love with as despite the serious hike in power over your 308 it is basically the same engine at heart and you might not experience "satisfaction" dealing with the idiosyncracies of 2 Ferraris of the same V8 family tree without running a Porsche besides. You also sound like your modern 911 is too modern for you, so selling it to fund an older 911 3.0/3.2 and use the money to fund a F355 could be an option, assuming this works financially as I have no interest in modern Porsches and don't know anything about their values.

 

If I were a mechanic like Helms, I'd definitely recommend you buy a 355. If I were your friend I'd hit you with a 2x4 until you saw reason. The cost of entry has risen to unreasonable levels and the maintenance and reliability will challenge your sanity. If you had to buy one several years back at a reasonable price, I'd still question your sanity but far less so. In the current market, compared to any decent Porsche model priced reasonably, nah.

 

Nice trio. Missing an 888 Corsa on this one…
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The other trio would include a Ferrari 328, a Porsche 997S, and a Ducati 851. Would you like that better?

 

That has not been my experience.

Dave Helms is only 5 minutes away from me, and he's only seen my car once in the last 3 years, for a very minor issue. Otherwise it has just been regular fluid changes, upgrades (which I did myself), and tires. And a LOT of driving.

 

IMHO, owning any older car is a potentially very frustrating experience if you can't do some of your own mechanical work. I have three older cars (including the 355) and if I was completely at the mercy of a shop for every little thing, I would find ownership very stressful (and expensive). I'm always surprised at the guys who own old cars and don't know the difference between a flathead and a phillips screwdriver. I am not comfortable with that level of dependence on others.

 

. Prefer your 355/6GT3/907 trio.

I’ve been more into race cars than sports cars the last 15 years, but I did own a couple of 328s and 851s/750/900 in the 90s and 00s.

 

I have had at least 10 air-cooled and watercooled 911/930s/997 since the mid 90s.

I purchased a 355B in 2017 and sold in 2019. Yes, don't remind me right before the spike. I recently got a very sorted 348 with aftermarket headers and muffler. I agree with other posters these cars are really special. They are very tactile and analog. It's a joy to drive them, just the engine sound alone is worth the price of admission. Don't get be wrong a proper 930 is also a blast. Good luck.

 

Purchase the Ferrari, you only live once brother.