Looks like it’s all down hill from here…..
I'm sorry to come in and upset anyone. I'm not very empathetic so I can see how my first hello wasn't terribly friendly. I've got $93k into it. I don't think I'll loose that much?
I share an AP1 S2000 with a buddy we primarily setup for track and occasionally drive on the street. We drive it pretty hard. Kinda like a fun beater car. Suspension, brake upgrades, basic engine mods and a tune. Lightened as well. I’m familiar with how it drives and I can see why you feel the way you feel. The S2000 is a pretty damn good car on track and on street. It’s very agile, raw, very visceral, and super responsive. Only thing the car lacks is power. Here’s my honest take. You already messed up starting with a Spider . That’s a cruiser. The S2000 does what it does because it’s light and rigid. You need the lightest 355, which is the Berlinetta. You need to compare a race bred chassis to a race bred chassis. It starts off 100 lbs less than the Spider and much more rigid. If you want to somewhat match the raw and visceral feel of the AP1 S2000, get a 2.7 355 and get a good exhaust setup. Drop at least 200 lbs and improve suspension and braking. The S2000 will still feel about 20%-30% more visceral most of the time until you can utilize all 375 hp of the 355 in the 6000-8500 range (F355 was built to handle 9000 rpm as a margin of safety.) That’s when hell breaks loose and the extra 100 hp will bring out another layer of visceral you never had in the S2000. It will still be difficult for the F355 to outhandle the S2000, but you can come within 20% with key suspension upgrades imo. Further and more extreme weight reduction will close the gap, but I doubt it will be better. Where the F355 will shine is the 100+ NA HP and F1 howl, which the S2000 engine does not have. Then you have abstract benefits such as a more exotic look, the different feeling of having the engine in the rear, the old school luxury connolly leather, and iconic gated shifter. S2000 shifter is faster, shorter, and smoother, but the 355 gated is precise and fun in its own way. More focus on mechanical feeling than speed. The S2000 is a superb true minimalist sports car. Because of it’s extreme minimalism, I’m not sure if it exudes exotic. If you want something a bit more exclusive with a handcrafted italian feel while still embodying a similar minimalist concept, the F355 is it.
I have owned 3 F355 variants and 3x S2000's and you are absolutely bang on. My first Ferrari was a gated 360 spider, I always felt outside of the engine sound and the exotic looks the s2000 did everything else better. But it was a track prepped car not stock. The s2000 is kind of like the F355 with some carefully selected modifications and mechanical refreshing (as its 30 years old almost for the MY95) it unlocks so much. The F355 made up for the differential in performance with its stunning looks, size and f1 howl. Plus it was my childhood dream car.
I’ve had my S2000 for 20 years this month and have loved every minute of it but I think owning a 355 is a whole different experience. I’ve always been a Ferrari nut it is just something that is in my blood. Some people feel that way and others don’t. I would love to own a 355 and maybe someday I will but like Mr. Eastwood has said ‘a man has to know his limitations’ I could afford to buy one but not sure about maintaining one. I always say if I found out I had 6 months to live I would buy a 355!
Um, no. 355 was designed to have a 10,000 rpm redline but in durability testing timing belt life was unacceptably short. Ferrari lowered it to 8500. Michael Schumachers 355 was the only production car built with the 10,000 rpm redline intact.
Not difficult at all for a 355 to outhandle an s2000. I have run autox against them a few times: In the wet, I was 9(!) seconds faster than the quickest s2000. https://www.vmsc.org/2014-03-30_AX.html Here's my best lap. So I don't know that, at least at stock or close to stock, they handle better. Here's dry, I was .6 slower than the fastest s2000 and faster than the other two. https://www.vmsc.org/2014-06-08_AX.html And my fastest lap: I can't remember which tires I was running in the dry, I was running Continental Extreme DW's in the wet.
To quote a recent comment on BaT regarding the 355 and worth repeating: These drive EXACTLY how you dream they will. The engine revs effortlessly with a symphony of sound for the driver. This experience IS what we buy sports cars for and it hits you while at the helm. You will use all of the RPMs available to you with a massive smile and be consumed with the mechanics of moving through the gated shifts. 1st – 2nd – 3rd – and when you move down into 4th that feeling will come over you – you know the one. Next your eyes will dart down to the speedo thinking you have to be breaking the law by a long shot – and you aren’t. Smile grows. Drive continues. These cars offer an experience very hard to achieve in todays newer European sports cars. The car will let you USE all of what it has to offer without doing 200mph and thats fine. In fact that is what I love about it. There isn’t a car currently in production that can match the real world driving satisfaction of a 355.
There is truth to that, the 348 and 355 when driven around town are really great, you can toss and fling them just tooling around without having to do 75 in a 35 zone, the new super cars are so amazing that at normal speeds they get reported as quite boring unless your going very fast which does not happen on public roads. Its why the Miata and BRZ etc are such great drivers cars. Does not take 600 hp to be engaging, in fact that can actually distract, well unless your full gas full stop in straight lines all the time which some people love. But.. buy a charger if that's what your after.
oh boy.... Regarding your driving. get your alignment checked... find someone who will do it right. I think it's like the 348 where it's all controlled with shims. a 1mm shim shifted from left to right on my 348 made all the difference in making it feel more balanced... (moved .17 degrees from left to right and evened out the rear toe) Get your tires checked. Remember 355's are 25-30 years old now. Remember they are 100000000000000000% NOT A MODERN DRIVING EXPERIENCE. Give it a chance to grow on you. When you get it you'll get it. sjd
I've been thinking a lot about this car. I think I'm afraid to like it actually. Our airplane is a wonderful money pit. The wife loves it's utility. I enjoy flying it. The kids look forward to flying in it with me. What we spend on it at this point, doesn't matter since we all love it. I worry about falling for another money pit, this 355, especially if my wife finds no joy in owning or investing in it and it can only take 1/3 of my favorite people on this planet with me.
Sounds like you have many interests and not enough room or time in your life to do them all. I suffer from that a bit and I have to limit myself to what interests I choose to throw myself into. Ferrari has a been a constant most of my life, since I used to make kitset models when I was a kid, they always had to be Ferrari's.... I have many interests and struggled for a few years until I just made a conscious choice about the ones I was going to commit to, I used to do motorsport, but I couldn't do that and have a Ferrari, so I made the choice, and I do miss it a bit to be honest but I do rather enjoy the Ferrari, so it balances out... Like they say, you can't do everything!!
There is no investing in it. Not an investment. Some cars have no issues some have many issues, often due to previous owners and "friends mechanic shops". Tough one, can be problem free or a money pit. Total gamble. Sent from my SM-G990U using FerrariChat.com mobile app
What kind of plane? I looked into airplane ownership, still want a pressurized Baron but determined I wouldn’t fly it enough to make it worth it and I would probably have to get rid of my Ferraris. People think old Ferraris are maintenance intensive they’re nothing compared to a plane.
I think 50 miles is a relatively short period of time to decide whether or not you like the car. But I'm a slow burn kinda girl. At first I was a little worried... the trip home from Milwaukee was kind of boring on the interstate, and then the previous owner's mechanic's sloppiness cost me a month of driving shortly after I got home (wiring loom not protected, rubbed through the coating on the wire and grounded out a fuel injector so it was open all the time). But I love it because: a) I love the way it looks b) The sound at WOT nearing redline is addictive, and I must have more. I also love the sound it makes right after you shift at redline. c) It's actually reliable. It has never failed to start. When I think about it, reliability is actually pretty high on my must-have list for my cars. d) The handling is superb. It feels like a go-kart to me. e) I love that it's a manual, I love shifting it. I love the clinky sound the gear lever makes when going gate to gate. f) I love that it's gated, so I can glance down and be certain what gear I'm in, lol. Things I wish were better: a) My AC has a leak. I'm not sure if it will cool adequately (I'm in Houston) if I get it fixed. b) I wish the top was as easy to put up and down as my 2019 Miata with an aftermarket Smartop window controller (like, 10 seconds or less, up or down). c) I wish I didn't always feel like I was the center of attention when I'm driving it. I'm probably not, but I feel that way. I just want to enjoy the car and not have everyone think I'm a spoiled brat (well, I am kinda spoiled, come to think of it). d) The high-performance rear brake pads get glazed over from my sissy driving, and squeak like I need new brakes when I'm coming to a stop, so that's kind of embarrassing. The squeak went away after a track day, but I can't always be running to the track. The first two items, and to a lesser extent, the third, really affect how much I use the car. It's not completely a point-A to point-A car for me, but there's a lot of times when it's just easier and more comfortable to grab the Miata key.
Get in a pista, speciale or an F8 for that matter and let me know …. Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
LOL. Mine doesn't have bad breath. Yet. You miss what makes the F355 great by not winding it out. But I get it, it hurts your ears to hear it.
