F355: The best Ferrari ever?

A message popped up on my computer the other day. The author was a guy owning a pristine Ferrari F355 Berlinetta. Lacking decent pictures of the car, he was hoping I could sort him out. What he didn´t know at the time was that the 355 is on my "will kill and/or commit serious acts of crime in order to get a shoot of"-list. So in many ways, we both win. And, society wins as well.

There are so many things to be said about the 355, but I´ll try to keep it short. Basically, it is the best Ferrari ever made. Many spotty teenagers with a fetish for 0-100-times and outright power will of course disagree. But they are stupid, and therefore I don´t care.

The basis of my thesis is simple. It´s arguably more beautiful than more modern Ferraris. The 360 looks like something drawn by Hyundai. The 430 is better, but it still has too many strange proportions which make my eyes want to look at something else. The new 458 Italia is almost up there with the 355, but due to its rawness and brutal appearance it can never be as pure and simple in its beauty as the one launched sixteen years earlier.

Does this mean that all old Ferraris are a joy to the eye? By no means. Its predecessor, the 348, looks cheap and dull in comparison. The 328 and 308 are pretty nice, but then there´s the Mondial. A fast, old car, but christ what a nasty piece of design. No, the 355 is in all respects a unique car. But appearance alone is not enough to make it stand out from models like the F40, the Enzo, the 550 Maranello and California. These have got an amazing powerplant with heaps of adrenaline attacking you every time you open the throttle. So, in order for it to be the best Ferrari, it has to move. And, it does. 385 horsepower behind the seats in a car that weighs 1350 kg is more than enough to make your insides want to rearrange themselves. Luckily, the seats keep you right where you´re supposed to be. And, while we´re at it, what a marvellous place it is. This car has the rare but oh-so-right tan leather interior and three-spoke wheel known to the earlier models.

The owner has had a few upgrades done to the car, including fitting the mesh rear grille from the Challenge-version and a Capristo level II exhaust system. Now, let´s talk about the exhaust for a moment. I am quite surprised that no-one has ever married a Capristo exhaust system. There are parts of my body that were affected of the noise made as the valves opened that I didn´t know had nerves attached. There are so many clichés written and said about this sound, including "heavenly trumpets" and "a thousand elephants on speed" and so on and so forth. Attempting to explain the sound in writing is simply impossible, and I won´t embarass myself by trying. So I urge you to do a quick Youtube-search with the words "Ferrari 355 Capristo Exhaust" and hear for yourself. Just keep in mind that the sound going through tunnels is so loud that it borders on making your ears bleed. Even so, you will want to do it again and again and again... You feel the vibrations through your body, and all of your hair immediately stands up as a salute to the music. Luckily, I took a picture of the sound:

So, why is this the best Ferrari ever? Well, because it´s the best looking, it´s got plenty of power to go with the looks, and it can make your head explode just listening to it. And, you can find a decent one for about the same as a new BMW 5-series. Need more reasons..?