One of the most spectacular looking Ferrari 355 you will ever find. If you saw this car in person you’d think it was maybe a year old. This is a car that has spent its life here in Southern California. In has just 15,3xx original miles.

The Daytona / 599GTO seating interior is new and best accentuates this classic Ferrari. I had the seats finished by a shop here in LA that does (literally) Pebble Beach Concours work and they made these 355 better than any other 355 seating interior out there. Period. The Ferrari F355 Spider is finished in an equally classic Argento Silver paint. The original carpet and leather is exceptional. (The original seat materials were in good condition and they also come with the car.)

This F355 Spider has a new clutch, new valve guides and new brake master cylinder. The valve guides were replaced at the engine out service with a documented history of receipts from prior owners and photographs of that major service and valve guide replacement. The work was done by the well-known shop FastCars / Tillack here in Southern California.

Also included is the folder of receipts going back many years documenting this car’s history.

With the car comes the Ferrari tool kit and owners manual, as shown in the photograph, along with upgraded Pirelli tires with just 1k miles on the front tires and upgraded 295mm rear tires (same size as used on the 550 Maranello) to be fitted to the rear.

The paint on this Ferrari is nothing short of stunning. People think it is a new car because the paint literally looks like a new car.

The top is black and it took looks new. The top itself works as it should.

You are buying not only a Ferrari but also piece of mind with this F355 as new valve guides were installed less than 4k miles ago. One of the top Ferrari service centers in the U.S. (Tillack /FastCars) did a major service at 11,561 miles, but they also photographed and documented their work. If you are familiar with the 355 then you know the only real issue to have surfaced with the engine in these cars is the premature wear of the valve guides. The bills for this peace of mind and the clutch and the brake master cylinder was over $12,000 so the next owner of this car doesn’t have that worry these details.

Tillack also fixed the notorious so called “sticky parts” as well.

The Master cylinder replaced with new one at 10,988 miles due to minor fluid contamination.

Tillack then installed a new clutch about 3.5k miles ago.

This Ferrari has been upgraded with a special Alpine alarm which locks and unlocks the doors as well as a high performance Alpine stereo. Two remotes are included.

The 1995 year model was the best and fastest F355 as it featured the F40 style dual intake system. After 95 Ferrari went to single system for the F355 intake. But note, they went back to dual systems for all Ferraris after that (360, 430, 458) which proves the dual intake is superior! The dual intake system is what Ferrari chose to use on their race car, the 355 Challenge cars, which gives you an indication as to which system is preferred. The '95 dual intake system makes more power than later 355s and it is a simpler system and thus cheaper to maintain as it is OBD1 versus 96-99 cars that have the more problematic OBD2.

The only downside to the 1995 was the aforementioned notorious valve guides that potentially plagued all 355s. However, that issue is no longer an issue with this car as they have all been replaced and upgraded.

The 355 is the last of the traditional Ferraris. It traces its roots to the Enzo era Ferraris. Unlike the newer Ferrari spiders the 355 is a pure sports car. It is the last mid-engine Ferrari to feature mechanical linkage controlling its throttles. So when you press the gas pedal you are actually mechanically moving the throttle bodies whereas the new cars are all drive by wire, which is less direct feeling because in the new cars you are no longer connected to the drivetrain. It also has something the new Ferraris do not—five valves per cylinder and the sound of an Formula 1 race car! That intimate sports car feeling is gone on the newer Ferrari but there on the 355. Likewise, you can't buy a manual shifting 458 Ferrari. Ferrari only makes the automatic flappy paddle now. If you want to experience the snick-snick of manual shifting and heel and toe driving while actually being at one with the sports car and an 8500 RPM redline then the F355 Spider is the last traditional Ferrari. It also sounds better than any V8 Ferrari ever made. The 355 is more compact and manageable than later generation Ferraris, sharper looking and drives like a Ferrari race car with the direct feel of a go kart.

The F355 is a classic and its values are climbing as the market realizes the value of a sexy high performance Ferrari (even today she's faster than most sports cars with a mid 4 second zero to sixty). The miles and condition of this Ferrari make her a worthy addition to any collection.

Over a five year period Ferrari produced just 2,664 F355 manual gearbox spiders. By comparison, Ferrari produced about 6,000 cars year now! This low mileage pristine example is a most desirable Ferrari for the true enthusiast.

The auto magazine Classic & Sports Car devoted an issue (September 2007) to the 60^th Anniversary of Ferrari and in one article they reviewed all the V8 cars, from the first 308 to the 430. It was clear from the article the best all around car was the 355. The said the 355 was a “signal of a sea of change for Ferrari. After all the criticism of the 348, Ferrari was back—and what a return to form it was. A decade and a half on it still feels modern, the steering accurate yet well-damped, light but communicative. The pedals are smooth and well-weighted, the gearbox slick and the balance and body control breathtaking. Remember the speculation over the point at which Ferrari’s ‘baby’ bade the step up to bona fide supercar? The 380bhp F355 is it: keep the revs below 4000rpm and its tractable and quit, but take advantage of the incredible throttle response, head towards that sky-high limiter and the resultant howl is addictive. From a standing start it left big brother 512TR and Lamborghini’s Diablo in its wake yet, unlike those dinosaurs, it was equally at home in stop start traffic or pottering to the village for the Sunday papers.”

The author concluded the article about once again focusing in on the 355: “So, the 430 is the fastest baby Ferrari so far but is it the best? In truth, choosing a winner is more like picking a favorite era….the 355 astounds for the way it moved the game forwards, with performance that still inspires awe today and a new usability which meant that a Ferrari could be more than just a play thing.”

England’s Top Gear TV host Richard Hammond also concluded the 355 is a “future classic.”

Hammond drives the icons: Ferrari 355

The car that saved Ferrari is all set to be a future classic, says Richard

All the legend, the myth, the history and mystery in the world cannot distract from one single fact when it comes to Ferraris: they have to be pretty. Stat sheets can go on about power-to-weight ratios, structural stiffness, torsional rigidity and exotic materials all day long, but if the car looks like a moose, then it's a moose - an offence made all the worse if it's supposed to be a prancing horse.

The 348 that preceded the 355 was not an especially ugly car, but it also wasn't especially pretty. The slats down the side echoed the Testarossa - not a good thing - so it looked dated even when it was brand new. And it certainly wasn't a hit, performance-wise. In fact, much was made of the news that Honda launched the NSX at the same time, and it appeared to be, in every single way, better than the Ferrari.

The 355 was Ferrari's answer. Beauty and power came together and are still very much in evidence today. I'm not one for getting all gooey about Ferraris in general, but there is undeniably something that happens deep inside when you see that yellow badge on a V8 or a steering-wheel boss.

Ferrari: the name carries so much weight, even to those who, like me, have never had - nor wanted - a hat with the brand on it. And, my God, the 355 is pretty. It shared almost every dimension with the 348, but the body was all-new and its sculpting had involved a rumoured 1,800 hours of wind-tunnel testing. But there's little sense of form following function here; it's too pretty for that. If anything, the 355 has somehow got more attractive in the 19 years since it arrived.

Inside, I get a reminder that all Ferraris go through a phase when they are not classic - they're just old Fezzers. I'd say that the 355 is coming through that and entering the classic stage of its life. In true Ferrari form, the interior has dated well, but perhaps not aged so well. Scruffy leather and the patina of age works well in a classic luxury car - an old Bentley, say, or a Jag - but less so in a Ferrari. But the layout, the design and the feel of it all scream of their own time and, while not fooling anyone that they were drawn yesterday, still have something to say about their period in car design... almost the definition of a classic, in fact.

The mid-mounted 380bhp V8 revs to 8,250rpm and sounds satisfyingly guttural and raucous when it does so. It's a Ferrari, so while it has to be pretty, it can't afford to be slow either. And it's quick, it really is. The headlines, 0-62mph in 4.7 seconds and a top speed of 183mph, are both perfectly acceptable, thank you. The way it delivers those is what it's all about. The bark and fizz of the V8, the click-clack through that iconic, shiny H-gate - it's all there. It's a Ferrari and feels it.

The engine and suspension all received major updates to produce the 355, and the gearbox too, with a six-speed manual operated, of course, through that sculptural gear selector. It feels all those things a Ferrari needs to feel; it's a taut thoroughbred, and you get the sense too that, once you've overcome the inevitable nerves that can flutter at any encounter with any Ferrari, the thing is biddable and usable, with perhaps just a touch of fragility to keep things special.

There's a huge amount of love for the F355, with some claiming it pretty much saved the company from the doldrums in the early Nineties, others that it was the car that finally shifted the old-fashioned and faintly stuffy conviction amongst the Ferraristi that the only ‘proper' Ferraris were the V12s.

Some, including F1 champion Phil Hill, named it as one of the 10 best Ferraris ever. A landmark car, then, in the story of a legendary carmaker. Not bad for around ?55k / $91,000 now.