What is the best year 355?

A well sorted 95 is the fastest and best sounding. The most refined and probably most reliable would be a 99.

 

99 f1 spider

 

I've had my 355f for about a year and just love it . the only prob I ever had was the battery needed a jump from not driving it in like 2 months . But like most Ferrari owner's i think would say is thier meant to be driven . Oh and i found out that there's A big secret the manual doesn't tell yo0u when your going to jump the battery , that is you have to remove the right panel located in the engine compartment ( thiers elen screws like 3 ) then you will see the little red positive cable box where you can jump it !

 

hello newbie here!

i am also in the hunt of a 355, may i please ask why the early produced (96)...or even the later produced 355 is better? (pros vs cons wise) thx

and also was the 355 challenge limited produced? only the 355 challenge had the flappy paddle gearbox right?

what is the difference between 355 f1 or the others..thx...

 

Ferrari makes very few cars and when a new model is designed it takes a while to get all the bugs worked out. With few exceptions the cars get lots and lots of improvements over their production life, some trivial, some not.
For that reason in terms of quality and reliabilty the best is almost always the last.

The 355 Challenge was built for racing and none had the paddle shift

F1 denotes the fact that IT has the paddle shift.

 

If you can find a 355 with the valve guide issues fixed, with late electronics, and late emissions, that would be the best Ferrari. Finding that car will be very, very difficult, but I'd see what you can find. You'd have the most reliable 355, and one of the fastest.

Art

 

May i ask why the 95 is faster then then 99?

 

OB1 vs OB2

 

That shouldn't effect performance, it's just a PCM upgrade to better keep track and diagnose problems. I looked into some times, Road & Track for example got a quicker time with a '98 then a '95.

 

To achieve OBD 2 they had to change from a pair of mass meters to a large single and the two small ones had more total flow capacity. Power difference is small.

 

2 are better than 1 - reckon on about 5 to 10 bhp more. It also makes the Tubi sound a lot better too. My recommendation would be to buy as late a version of 2.7 Motronic (OBD1) as possible - I think this would be around mid to late 96.

 

Only 1995 F355 were OBD1/2.7 Motronic 380hp rated.1996 F355 are OBD2 with single MAF rated at 375hp.

 

That's it.
The 1995 engine with 2.7 motronic has only two lamda-sensors, one at each cat.
The motronic 5.2 has four sensors - to fail and flash the idiot light: "slow down", "check engine" ...
Ergo: advantage for the 2.7 modell.

Air intake is more restricted by the 5.2 central tube. Not convincing.
Sound: In Europe the 2.7 Version is rated 8 db louder then the 5.2.
Stock muffler 2.7: 20 kg
Stock muffler 5.2: 25 kg
Any questions?

Maintaining and trusting the early 355 F1 shiftbox in not my cup of tea.
Take a 6-speed!

Spider top:
Because of a well sorted out roof construction the late fiorano edition should be the best, but hard to find. (only 104 build)
The Spider roof is an important part, so the poor 375 hp rating for late 355s seems to be acceptable for a otherwise well mounted top.
Anyway, I would go for a 1995 Spider in argento nürburgring A dream!

forza

cinque

 

This is not correct. I have had both a 1995 and 1998 F355 and both were rated at 375 hp per the owner's manuals. The early magazine road tests of the 1995 F355s also list the power output at 375. I believe that the European version was rated at 380 hp.

 

i would avoid the f1 tranny on the 355, very jerky with potential expensive repair issues inthe future.....

 

Mine's an 96 and is a 2.7 Motronic version - albeit a European one.

 

Ferrari rated all of the cars at 375bhp but in reality the 2.7 had +5bhp over the 5.2. Probably not noticeable on the road but once you take off the cats and the restrictive exhaust the difference is bigger.

 

If this is true then the 5.2s only had 370 hp since the 375 hp rating was applied to the 2.7s before the 5.2s were even in production? I also have the original F355 product launch brochure which is internally inconsistent. The English section of the specifications table in the brochure lists 375 hp but the text earlier in the brochure lists 380 hp. Maybe a conversion rounding difference from KW or DIN? What is your source for claiming that the 2.7s had more hp?

 

I dont know if Ferrari ever put it in print but they readily admitted it to us when they put the 5.2 into production. IIRC they said about 10 HP.

Dont get to wrapped up in Ferrari's published HP figures, they are often embellished. What really matters is how well that right pedal works and that generally doesn't give us cause for complaint.

 

Better do a search on "valve guides" before buying a 95. Lots of folks here had questions/issues with the 95's.

 

That issue seems to continue on to mid 98 production. No reason to discount a 95 for it.

 

I am just wondering what the source is for the claimed additional hp in the 1995s. An addtional 5-10 hp in a 380 hp car would not be noticeable by a driver, so has anybody run a comparative dyno test?. The air intake issue may be more complex than it appears; for instance is the intake air even the limiting factor in the F355's power production? Maybe the power difference is there but I have heard enough unsubstantiated claims on this site that I am cautious. However, I do agree with your last sentence, the right pedal works quite nicely on all of them!!! Cheers.

 

Steve what year is your 355?

 

The best year 355's would have to be 98 and 99....unconfirmed, but it has been speculated that the switch from bronze to sintered steel guides took place around mid 98...but not sure at what chassis number.

From 96 to 98 I don't think there were many other changes other than a minor change in the air injection tubes on the exhaust manifolds.