The Ferrari F355 was the car that Luca di Montezemolo launched to fight off the challenge of the Honda NSX, and as we wrote about in our F355 buyers’ guide a couple of months ago, it was a pretty good effort. It was a leap on from the 348, both in terms of looks and performance, and Ferrari sold more than 11,000 of them, a third more than its predecessor.
Although the F355’s Nürburgring Nordschleife lap time of 8 minutes and 18 seconds set in 1997 now looks relatively pedestrian, the years have been kind to the model. As the rise in demand for 1990s cars has risen to a clamour over the past few years, the F355 has started to rise, fast, especially when compared with both its predecessor and successor models.
So, what makes the F355 so attractive? Hagerty looks at a huge range of factors when we’re assessing collectability of a model. Some are obvious: a top manufacturer, a relatively small production run, a notable designer, and outright performance. Hagerty also looks at the engine’s cubic capacity compared to that of its peers, the number of seats, and whether the car is a "bookend" model – the first or last of its kind.
But some factors are more subtle and can even change over time. Hagerty examines the average ages of people asking us for quotes, and whether that demand is increasing. History shows that owners aged between 40 and 60 are the powerhouses of the classic/collectable car market, the people who combine financial and time wealth with the motivation to buy. Then there’s the "X factor" of how in demand the car is, often influenced by how the model is perceived in the media. This used to be impacted by a car's use in movies, pop videos, and computer games, as we discovered in the Hagerty Power List, but more recently it has spread to another area: restomods. Once a car has been identified as a target for a reinvention, it seems to be a very good indicator that the star of that model is about to shine brightly.
The F355 ticks pretty much every box. It has the prancing horse on the bonnet, and the design is acknowledged as one of Pininfarina’s best from the 1990s, complete with pop-up headlamps. It’s a great driver’s car, offers a Berlinetta, targa, and spider options, and there are ultra-rare Fiorano handling packs and gated manual gearboxes for people who want something very special. Plus, it has appeared in hundreds of movies and TV shows, including The Fast and the Furious, Free Guy, and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Its ownership demographic is also absolutely spot-on, with the average age of F355 owners asking Hagerty for a quote being 53.6 years old.
This summer, the model finally achieved the last collectability endorsement when DRVN released the reimagined F355 Evoluto, first at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and then at Monterey. With a carbon-fused chassis and body by Callum, a totally revitalised interior, and engine and mechanical upgrades overseen by technical director Amjad Ali, who used to work in the same role for Gunther Werks, this car that DRVN describe as "peak analogue" was almost universally acclaimed.
So, the F355 has a lot going for it. Watch this space.
