F355 felt a little anaemic...

[Mario149]

I was just reading another topic on here about 360 vs. F355 and many were saying that an F355 is by no means slow. On paper, I would agree, but I went for a test drive last weekend and in all honesty, with regards to straight line performance, I was slightly underwhelmed. With the sports exhaust on it it felt like mostly mouth and not enough trousers. I wound it up a few times to 8k rpm and it did feel pretty quick, but certainly not 375bhp worth (it felt about as fast as my old S2000). My 996 feels like it has a hell of a lot more shove with only 320bhp and nearly 1500kg to lug around. Now I know it has a torquier engine, but then again the gearing on the F355 is substantially shorter which should make up for a lot of it.

All in all this has me slightly worried. Maybe I was expecting too much, or maybe the car has lost a lot of ponies over the last 14 years***, or maybe I was imagining it which is eminently possible. All I know is, if they all feel like that, I may have to reconsider buying one even if they are a beautiful car I was hoping it'd feel at least a quick as my current car, otherwise I might as well go for a 348 and save myself some cash if I'm not gonna get the extra 75 horses. My housemate put it best - he said he was expecting me to come back with a massive smile on my face but I didn't

• *= has anyone here had their F355 dyno'd recently to check power loss? Or can a compression test shed any light on any of this?

[Jonty355]

Thats a shame. Maybe it was one that had lost some of its ponies!

I drove an Audi R8 recently, and that felt no quicker than my 355. I had mine decatted, so whether that makes any difference?

[ferrari spider]

Although i have the Hamann refueling chips in my 1995 spider. I had it on the dyno again in oct last year. 331bhp at the wheels, (the factory always gives the BHP at the crank by the way). The standard F355 has between 310-330ish bhp at the wheels, with 375ish at the crank. So i suppose with the transmission loss, some one can do the maths.
As far as the real world performance of the car, i have regularly seen over 170 mph from it when on my European trips. And as a comparison the 360 spider i drive about, it does not seem that much quicker even though it is slightly.
I regularly go out with my mate and his Porsche 993 and even though the poc has 25bhp more, real world it does not leave me in the 355. And im a heavy tt at 19 stone, so with some dweeb of a driver it should preform better.
Look at these comparison videos of my mates Porsche 993 and my 355 spider (second video at 55 seconds in). Also the first video shows my car doing hot starts of the line at Vmax against a few Porsche's and a TVR Sagras. So even though there not as fast as modern day performance cars, they hold there own for a 15 year old car

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5nCdyyhkMYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrAyCgOQhjM

Edited by ferrari spider on Thursday 4th February 22:23

[Mario149]

That makes me feel a bit better. Maybe the one I drove was just a little tired, combined with the fact that I was kind of expecting the engine to be like the one in my old Maser 4200 (which is still the best engine I've ever encountered). Anyway, the one I drove is not one of the ones I have an interest in buying (still need to drive those ones). I guess I'll be able to do a decent comparison then. But if anyone near South West London would be willing to take me out in their's to show me what it can do, that'd be very much appreciated!

[BrendonJ]

Mario, theres a lot you can do to it. Mine has been chipped, dyno pintout reads 408hp, revs to 9k, and I have seen 180mph on the speedo from it in spain.

Do a search on PH on '355' and have a look at previous threads for tips, ferrarispider and catussed on here generally know what their talking about

[SpeedYellow]

Sure I'm going to get flamed for this, but there is a huge performance loss for having the timing even slightly out when the belts are changed and I know from mine the factory marks on the cam where not what might be called spot on... Hence the engine should be taken out when belts are done and timed up properly with correct tools.

Now there are a few garages out there that can change the belts by shifting the engine around a bit and then slipping on a new belt using existing marks to time everything back up. If the timing is perfect then no worries, but how so you know it's perfect? More likely to be a problem over compression which would normally show with oil usage etc as well as less power.

[ferrari spider]

Not sure why you even think you would get flamed for that coment Speedyellow.

[SpeedYellow]

Because I got flamed by a well known London specialist on another site telling me I don't know what I'm talking about and of course the marks are always perfect and he took it as a slam on the low cost option for belt servicing he offers...

[pistolp]

if that is who i think you are talking about he is a highly unpleasant individual - a real shame

the people at Bob Houghtons are so nice, especially Russell

[Lagerlout]

BrendonJ said:

Mario, theres a lot you can do to it. Mine has been chipped, dyno pintout reads 408hp, revs to 9k, and I have seen 180mph on the speedo from it in spain.

Do a search on PH on '355' and have a look at previous threads for tips, ferrarispider and catussed on here generally know what their talking about

Brendon, what have you had done to your car to get that sort of performance from it? Who did the work?