FERRARI

F355

The Ferrari F355 was launched in May 1994 as the replacement for the 348, its name combining the 3.5-litre displacement with the five valves per cylinder that defined its engine. Styled by Pininfarina, the Ferrari F355 traded the angular, straked look of its predecessors for smooth, flowing surfaces that have aged into one of the definitive Ferrari silhouettes. Under the rear glass sat a 3.5-litre flat-plane V8 with a five-valve head, producing 375 hp and revving to 8,500 rpm, giving the F355 a genuine 183 mph top speed and one of the finest engine notes ever fitted to a road car. Beneath the skin it introduced a flat undertray for real aerodynamic downforce and electronically adjustable dampers, making the Ferrari F355 far more usable and stable at speed than the cars before it. The range opened with the Berlinetta coupe, joined in 1995 by the targa-topped GTS and the open Spider. In 1997 the F355 F1 became the first-ever road car offered with a Formula 1-derived paddle-shift gearbox, a technology that would soon spread across the entire industry. Across the full run to 1999, Ferrari built 11,273 F355s, split between 4,871 Berlinettas, roughly 3,700 Spiders and around 2,577 GTS models. Fast, sonorous and exquisitely proportioned, the Ferrari F355 marked the moment Ferrari's V8 line grew up, and values have climbed sharply as collectors recognise it as an analogue-era high point.